Can’t taste bitter? You could be an alcoholic
Blame your genes. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that if you have trouble tasting things that are bitter, you could be more Alcohol dependent. The gene responsible is a taste receptor on chromosome 7 called TAS2R16. The team, led by Allison M. Goate, studied DNA from 262 families participating in the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA)
They found a single base variation in the TAS2R16 receptor gene that seemed to put people at an increased risk for alcoholism. In cell culture experiments, Goate found that the variant receptor produced by this gene was less responsive to bitter compounds.”The more common variant is more sensitive to bitter tastes, and people with that variant had a lower risk of being alcohol dependent,” Goate says.
But don’t jump to conclusions, this is only “one of several genetic and environmental factors involved in risk for alcoholism,” according to Goate.
It’s amazing to see the progress of science in diagnosing the causes of many of the problems that plague us, the next step is addressing them properly. How will the information from this study be used and with what results?
Read [Eurekalert.com]
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Granted, trouble tasting bitter foods is far from an accurate predictor or barometer for a person’s susceptibility for becoming an alcoholic. Still, I have to believe that quality research like this will somehow help alcoholism professionals down the road in the treatment methodologies they eventually use.