Awhile back, I was in attendance of a workplace “Alcohol Awareness” training session, because believe it or not, some in the service tend to imbibe a little too much. I know, it sounds crazy. Anyway, the instructor was a Chief Health Services Tech who obviously had much knowledge on the subject, and he explained the effects of alcohol as it relates to nationality. He did this in a way that I could understand, which makes him a genius in that regard. I have since forgotten much of the lesson, but here’s what I remember of his lecture:
Alcohol affects people of different nationalities (for the most part) because of (basically) when alcohol was introduced into their cultures. This is based on scientific reasons, something having to do with some type of chemical (?) levels in the body and tolerance. I wish I could remember more of the whys involved here, but this is why I’m posting this.
Some conclusions of the lecture that I remember are:
East Asians have very low tolerance of alcohol, but also have very low chances of alcoholism. They’ve had alcohol for a very long time in their history.
Native Americans have a very low tolerance, but very high chance of alcoholism, as alcohol was introduced to them fairly recently.
The Irish, due to their geographic location, were introduced to alcohol after the rest of Europe, and have a high probability of alcoholism (as compared to the rest of Europe), but also have a high tolerance.
This is about what I remember, and I know I’m missing a lot here. Anyway, he explained these observations away, with something having to do with some kind of chemical level in the body, and how tolerance, history and alcoholism are related in some way.
I realize this borders on ramblings, and for that I apologize. I wish I could remember more, but I do know that I found his lecture fascinating, if true.
So, does anyone know what the deal is with this?