Is it true that American Indians are genetically predisposed to problems associated with alcohol consumption?
One “alleged scientific fact” I recall was that natives do not metabolize sugar as well as some other races. This was said of Indians from northern regions like Canada, where the diet was predominantly meat (protein) from hunting and fishing, and only a lesser amount of gathered fruits and berries were part of the diet.
Of course, this logic breaks down even for the Iroquois who planted corn, nt to mention the tribes from the southern and central USA who were extensive agriculturalists - but for how long?
A factoid in support of the theory is that Type II Diabetes rrates are extremely high in Canadian natives, not just from poor diet but also because they do not metabolize sugar well, so retain elevated levels of blood sugar for much longer.
Since sugar is chemically similar to alcohol, the folklore goes on to say a a result natives on a bender will wake up still drunk since they have not metabolized enough alcohol to proceed to the hangover stage. They get drunk easier, stay drunk longer, and so are mor predisposed to alcoholism… again, according to common wisdom.
I have no idea how true any of this is, other than the Diabetes fact.
What with “factoids” and “folklore” to contend with…cite?
In other words, no. Native Americans (like other “native” people) metabolize alcohol just like other human beings. For really real.
Counter-cite?
I freely admit what I have heard over the years is “common knowledge” with a lack of real cites to back it up. Any cites would as likely as not be simply repeating “common knowledge”. The logic is that for 14,000 years (and who knows how long in Siberia) their diet has been protein-rich and carb-poor and so they metabolize carbs poorly. The single substantive factoid is their much higher susceptibility to adult diabetes now that they have fallen into our poor man’s carb-rich diet habits.
I too like the OP would like to know from an authoritative source if native Americans are really physiologically impaired in their ability to digest alcohol. Alcoholism, however, is likely a sociological issue not a biological one.
Old study, but still informative.
Seems like you’ve answered your own question. It’s not “biology.” Nor is it “common knowledge.” Perhaps its sociological…maybe historical…maybe psychological…There are hundreds (in the US) distinct Native American tribes. Their diets are just as varied.
So, cite? If what you are talking about is common knowledge, it shouldn’t be too hard.
The metabolic reason seems to have not proved out, and the rest of it seems based on anecdotal evidence. There might well be a genetic reason why populations are affected differently by alcohol consumption, but there doesn’t seem to be anything identified in terms of cause and effect on a genetic basis. Not surprising because the few cause and effect relationships of that type that have been identified are based on the identification of very simple genetic structures.
This dubiously written wikipedia page disagrees with you.
Also, at least some of the abstracts on articles related to native alcoholism seem to agree with the common knowledge. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find one that doesn’t require registration or purchase.
I live in New Mexico. We have an extremely high percentage of native people here, and it is assumed by the navajo and pueblo people I’ve known in my life that the ‘indians are prone to alcoholism’ truism is, well, true.
If anyone has access to a definitively written article on this subject, I would love to read it. But as it is, I’m on the ‘prone to alcoholism’ side of the argument, anecdotally.
At least one First Nations physician (the term “First Nations” is what we use in Canada instead of “American Indian”) says there is no genetic predisposition to problems with alcohol. From a story I found in the Regina (Saskatchewan) Leader-Post:
Link to the full story here.
The Native American diet was not so carb poor that they would evolve a different metabolism. Staples in the Northeast included corn, beans and squash (the Three Sisters), and in California, acorns were the staple food of three quartersof the indiginous population.
Thanks for the link. Though, not knowing what tribes were represented in the study makes me wonder at the other factors (genetic or otherwise) that may have been involved.
ETA: thanks to the posters supplying cites. It gets difficult dealing with “anecdotes.”
But they can have a higher incidence of alcoholism without having a metabolic reason. As a group, Native Americans are among the poorest ethinic groups in the country, with less access to education, health care and nutrition. Alcoholism in groups with those problems often runs higher than normal.
I’m not sure what you mean by “problems associated with alcohol consumption”. I read in James Milam’s book “Under the Influence” that Native Americans seem to become addicted to alcohol more readily than other people, but I read it so long ago, I don’t remember if he had anything to back that up.
I did say that the logic applied more to the hunters; that the Iroquois, central USA tribes like the mound builders, and so on all raised crops to some extent and had a more balanced diet. Indeed, the Aztecs IIRC or their predecessors )Olmec?) developed corn into a usable crop. Is alcoholism more prevalent in, say, Mexico where the same natives have had a very carb-rich diet for several millenia?
How do you prove whether or not a people are “genetically predisposed” to alcoholism or drug abuse or whatever? The only valid tool - statistics - is tainted by socio-economic factors. Besides, an inability to digest sugar (if true) does not mean tendency to alcoholism - just an ability to continue enjoying(?) its effects longer, which may encourage overindulgence.
Certainly the tendency to suffer diabetes is more than just social issues - it is also physiological.
A lot of the questions relating to genetic predisposition to alcoholism might be solved by googling the following phrase, “alcohol dehydrogenase deficiency native american”. The numerous PubMed links with—in an astounding bit of charity—full text .pdfs w/out paying some outrageous Elsevier or SpringerLink tariff, will definitely inform the conversation. I found the Discussion section interesting and informative as far as what the genetic studies proved and did not prove. The references cited within the three or so papers I read from PubMed will probably shed even more light on the subject. I had no idea that so many alleles were involved in ADH/ALDH expression. That mitochondria had their own dehydrogenases was illuminating too.
As far as the OP, I don’t think it’s genetic—and this article from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (a subset of the NIH) seems to agree—so much as cultural and environmental. (Many of the articles listed within the link can be found within the google search I mentioned above. Not sure why they didn’t just hyperlink the articles.)
The Reservations where many Natives live can be astoundingly bleak places, with high levels of poverty. Driving through many of them in the American Southwest, I half-jokingly commented that if I had to live there and try to scrape out a living, I’d be shit-faced a lot too.
You do still realize that there are hundreds of native peoples in the US alone and that you “If you recall correctly” are still just talking out of your ass?
Believe it or not, especially with the cites that others have provided, NA are like real live human beings…and metabolize alcohol the same way that other human beings do.
For really real. Sorry to confound you, but it’s true.
idk how much this applies but i am half Cherokee, and part Catawba. and i have no problem digesting alcohol just like any other race. but the native American peoples are very suppressed. So as suggested that has alot to do with the alcoholism
How?
I tried, but get only this thread, no PubMed. Spelling mistake?
Is this the genetic defect that Asians also have, where the processing of alcohol is impaired (leading to flushed faces)? I always heard that because the Native Americans - at least partly* - are related to Asians, via the Bering Strait way, also have this genetic enzyme manufacture problem, which was not a problem as long as they were drinking mild corn beer, but got a problem with the high-alcohol gin and whiskey from the whites.
*I think it was a BBC documentary where they showed, with DNA tests and stone tools, that at least some Native Americans came across from some area in France - same stone tool technique, which has its own name - following along the ice floes in the sea, using kayaks like the Eskimos, hunting and eating seals and fish. It turned out to be a political problem for several of the tribes, however, who didn’t want to be related in any way with whites, even if it was 5 000 years ago, and DNA proved it.
I do think there are genetic componants, sure, although the entire world has the same problems with alcohol abuse, excess body fat and skyrocketing rates of the ‘diseases of civilization’ due to the shittiness that is the modern diet (most calories coming from sweeteners, wheat flour, and poor-quality vegetable oils).
But certain racial/ethnic groups (Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Australian Aborigines) seem to suffer disproportionately when eating the same crappy diets. They have much higher levels of obesity, often coupled with malnutrition. They have epidemic levels of heart disease and diabetes as well. Quite a bit higher than other racial groups or general populations.
There’s a tribe of Native Americans called the Pima where 50% of the people develop diabetes at some time in their life (rate for the USA is 11%). To me there is no other explanation for such a dramatic difference than a genetic predisposition. FWIW, before their introduction to a Western diet the Pima were agriculturalists who got most of their calories from corn, beans, and squash. ‘Carbohydrates’ isn’t the whole catalyst obviously.
The equally high rates of alcoholism and liver disease caused by alcoholism is surely complicated, but IMO it’s been established that alcoholism has a genetic component (with twin and adoption studies where socioeconomic factors and family dynamics don’t come into play).