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I have been taking pepcid ac for 3 years now. it is somewhat useful. but i will never be able to drink like my mates taking this. i have accepted this fact and often do not drink when going out. a process that has taken 7 years for me to do. its kinda sad to think that having this problem has affected who i am in some way. if i think about it i used to be the life of the party, always up for doing anything, pre drinking years. then started drinking and felt i had to shy away from situations. Dont no if im alone here, but i developed social anxiety from this. To me, i can see this being quite a common effect of this disorder. Due to the feelings of being different and not being able to join in.
Really just putting it out there that there may be other effects of having this disorder that may not seem so apparent. My adult life has definately been different to what i wouldve imagined.
Also, i dont no how pepcid works but, not sure if anyone does, but they should because it doesnt just block the redness. when taking pepcid. i can actually get drunk. the alcohol is being processed in a different manner. anyone agree?
pepcid is not a cure for this. nevermind taking huge amounts over the daily prescribed dose. It only works somewhat. I still feel uncomfortable drinking. like its not meant to be.
More research needs to be done on countering acetaldehyde build up in the body, i think that is the main problem. So any students out there, there you go. And finding out how pepcid ac works.

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i agree with you, and i admit that i have gone through the same thing, and i think there are tons of people who do the same- i dont think pepcid works 100% and until there is something that does, im not drinking very much at all.  i think being in denial about it is the worst, because it causes excess anxiety and also poor health.  i basically came to terms with the fact that i wont be drinking a lot in my life, which is disappointing, but not a reason to self-terminate or get depressed, because other people use alcohol as a lubricant or as a way to mask unhappiness also.  drinking definitely does not entail happiness, and i think having to go trhough this asian glow bs is a major process in maturity and learning what it is to be truly sociable, not just drunk sociable.  my grandpa was/is an alcoholic and is still a silent recluse.  if that is considered "being a man" then not drinking is no big deal.  still, it would be awesome to have a cure, and there was a post in the free-for-all section with a link to a possible cure that is being researched, but not widely publicized-

http://www.research.va.gov/programs/tec … 99-071.htm

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Anyone tried B12?
I had my doctor test me for B12? He said it was low so I started taking sublingual B12 drops. 1000mcg per day. I had always taken vitamins before but the change since I have started taking the B12 is amazing. It would seem that I lack the ability to absorb B12 in the gut and B12 is necessary for the muscles in the gut to work properly and it helps control the up take of water from the gut. I think the lack of B12 caused all my problems. Anyway long story short I don't blush anymore. I have even tried liquor straight up, like rum, that would always light me up like a xmas tree. But not anymore. :)

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I was wondering what kind of drinks us asians should be drinking?  I find if i drink beer i get real tired and tend to pass out.  Rum and cokes are good but i get drunk pretty easy.  What do you suggest?

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Has anyone heard of Sobrietol? It is taken orally and is supposed to give us the missing enzyme that we are missing to break down alcohol.

http://www.sobrietol.com/Content/Default.aspx

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Never heard of it! I just opened a new topic to discuss Sobrietol:
http://echeng.com/asianblush/viewtopic.php?pid=1330

57 (edited by earthsuit 2008-08-18 15:42:23)

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I notice alot of eurasians/mixed race people are reporting the flush and mutant enzyme commonly.  Perhaps even a higher proportion given there are not as many of us as compared to traditional race castes.  edit:  Actually it would be great if you could create a thread with demographics: age, sex, race, location, and to throw a subjective spanner in the works: attitude to drinking.  We do not have the financial and organizational power to conduct efficient suverys - but it would be good to get some sort of data to start

BTW I posted my accumulated research here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=258303 a while ago now under the username earthsuit.ga (second last post)

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Hello echeng,

My name is Kenneth Chui and I'm 18 years old college student. Recently, I've made strenous research on the conditions of the asian flush activity. Finally, I think we can hope and pray for the light. There is the answer, and it happened only recently... so this product hasn't been on the market quite yet.

For those who are familiar with medical sciences, they would know there is a molecule in the human body called Alda-1. Recently, california's stanford (university) study has tested isolating this Alda-1 molecule in rats and found that this molecule COMPLETELY restores activity of the mutant ALDH2 whether it is heterozygous (harsh symptons) to full activity and in homozygous (mild) up to 10-folds the activity. This is a new breakthrough that I would like to share with this community. I have been on this site for quite a while and made little contributions. I hope this finding will help us all and finally get rid of the uncomfortable asian flush reactions. Some korean guy insisted doing this experiment, thank g-d for him ! they're doing further testing now. and hopefully soon it will attract the pharmacy markets into human trials, where thereafter it could be introduced to the public ...

Here are the links to the articles :
http://www.theheart.org/article/print.d … Key=903551
http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmed … ail/550013
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/ … 090802.asp

THIS IS BIG . ECHENG, please make a topic on this, and also if possible, give me credit =)

Thank you .

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i checked the number of hits on this website and it is currently past 18,000,000.  That's a giant number of people, and (no offense echeng) i think theyre mostly checking the asian flush website.  So that means you, eric cheng, and this forum, has quite a bit of influence now, and everyone has the exact same problem!  there has to be something this forum could do, considering there are not a lot of forums with followings this large or loyal.  what do you think about starting a money drive to donate to research, like of products like convivia and alda-1, which specifically say they are trying to treat the asian flush?  plus, with the current financial crisis, these smaller research programs could run out of funding.  If 1% of the people who have visited this website donated $1, we would have raised $180,000 already...

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Hey everyone ..   New here.  Awesome to find something like this out there as I suffer the worst of the conditions, a homozygote.
Found this website while researching.

http://www.noredfaceformula.com/

Like the title of the website it claims to have a formula that eliminates the red face flush. 
Just thought I'd throw it out there to see if anyone has heard about it or tried it!

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i just found out some information relating to the effects of kudzu (pueraria) on acetaldehyde metabolism.  kudzu root (pueraria radix) is commonly used to make people less likely to drink alcohol, because it slows down acetaldehyde metabolism.  on the other hand, pueraria flos, or the extract of the flower of the same plant, is supposed to increase acetaldehyde metabolism.  here is the study:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&a … t=14511203

and here is a link to a new product that contains this pueraria flower extract (called gen hua in chinese):

http://www.toyobiopharma.com/pdf/Puer-1-2-3-4.pdf

i dont know if this would work, seeing as it is currently marketed as a diet product, but i would like to give it a try.

62 (edited by obama_mccain 2008-11-02 11:42:44)

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are you being serious?

I know that you've been a member and have been posting for years, and that makes me think you wouldn't be lying about this.

How red do you usually get after a few drinks?

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absucks wrote:

tastes like shit,

groan

two pint-size glasses

groooooan!

only joking.  Congratulations on finding this solution.  How much redness did you get if any?  Bit busy atm, so I cant try it, but ill definitely keep it in mind and an eye on this thread

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I have a question,
I'm Korean-American and, like everyone else here, I get REALLY red in the face and neck when i drink even half a beer. But I have also found that I have the tendency to get really red in the face/raised temperatures in other situations, like playing casual sports with friends. My face always gets really really red even if I'm just playing laid-back volleyball for an hour. It looks like I ran a marathon, and no one else looks like I do and even though I don't get tired or anything I get really red and sweaty! Is this somehow related to the redness connected with drinking? Is this a result of the asian "glow," or "curse" or is this something else? Does anyone else experience this?

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I get somewhat red when I play sports or jog at the gym. I don't get as red from sports as I do drinking though. I highly doubt its related. When playing sports and running around, I get red for a couple minutes but it goes away, when i drink, the redness stays for an hour or so. But yea, like i said... this is just my experience... some people may react differently

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absucks wrote:

Here is my current method:
1.)order a bag of pueraria flower extract  (IMPORTANT: do not order pueraria radix, or Kudzu root, which is a more commonly sold herb that slows down the metabolism of acetaldehyde).

wowww
so excited to hear u found a new solution! i, myself, have suffered the same problem and have been taking 2 zantac tablets everytime before i go out. but im always worry that i will build up my tolerance for that and i am worry that there might be side effects for my body after taking zantac for a long time! and I tried taking N-Acetyl-cysteine but it didnt work at all!
so here is some questions i have after i read ur post:

1) so what exactly is this pueraria flower extract? is it all natural stuff? not medicine as such?
2) and where can u order a bag of those?
3) how red do u ususally get? (i get very very red having less than half a beer!)


and is there anybody else tried that method?? and did it work??


THANKS GUYS!!

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Long post, sorry.

I ordered the Ge Hua (Pueraria flower). I mixed it the first time with just two teaspoons to make sure I wasn't allergic. That same night I tried 4 tablespoons with cold water. Tasted bad but drinkable. I waited exactly 30 minutes then took a few shots. It seemed to work but I still felt like I had increased blood pressure, and an uncomfortable feeling, but better than usual.

The next night though I tried 4 tablespoons in hot water, near boiling (I know absucks advised not to use boiling water). I feel that this night there was no real effect. I had two beers in a two hour period, was not red, but was not exactly comfortable either.

After these two trials I've determined that this works about as well as pepcid -not very good.  Given that I think it worked better with cold water rather than hot I will try cold water once more before I write this method off.

As far as absucks having said he had 10 beers, I won't say he was lying. Judging by his past posts, he is committed to this subject and problem, so I see no reason for him to be deceptive.

If this herb is the route that Convivia is taking it could be promising. Somehow it seems like the chemicals need tweeking (like absucks, I'm no chemist, just someone typing stuff). However, the packaging of this herb has a CA STATE warning of carcinogenic properties within the product, making me nervous about taking this 4 tablespoons at a time. I hope this post stems more discussion, especially from absucks who i'd like to hear from again.

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Thanks for posting your results.  I also wonder how effective 4-MP (Convivia afaik) is in supressing acetaldehyde.  I always thought raptor was reforumating the drug to be administered in an oral solution but I sometimes wonder if they are encountering problems with levels acculumating faster then the drug can neutralize them. 4-MP has been known as an effective treatment since the 80s but has not been exactly accessible.

It will be curious to see what (if anything) they do with it!

As far as the flower though maybe it still has some promise.  I find the drinking to be non agreeable due to the physical effects but I seem to get that buzz ; with pepacid it is the exact opposite!  Some of the physical effects go away but then I can't get any sort of psychoactive effects.  What a bad deal eh?

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Something also tells me that the solution, whatever it may be, likely won't be a natural flower or herb. Just thinking about it, this problem is concentrated in the area of and around China, and the Chinese were world leaders in finding herbal solutions to even the most obscure disorders. Likely, if there is a magic solution for us, then it isn't going to be anything obvious.

What is 4-mp? Does anyone know the status of Convivia? I know there's another thread for that, but still, it seems rather silent from that research lab. I thought they were supposed to announce something by now.

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This board seems broken, it takes countless attempts to even make a post.

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yep i cant write anything

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I sent you an email, absucks.

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After reading a lot of these posts, everyone seems to be mainly concerned about blushing, redness, splotchiness etc. I rarely get any blushing, if anything, I'll get slightly rosy cheeks which I don't mind so much. I'm pissed about not being able to get pissed! I can get buzzed, tipsy sometimes.. but if I try to drink more and even try to get drunk, I'll feel sick in the guts and throw up.

I have SO many embarassing/amusing puke stories without even reaching drunk :\ Before I thought I had to build a tolerance, but soon barf after barf I found out it is due to my bloody asian genes. Grrr. I've learnt to drink in a way to stop seeing dinner twice.. here are some of the things I've tried:
- line my stomach with milk half hour before drinking (meh didn't do much, placebo effect)
- make sure not to drink on an empty stomach but leave time for digesting before drinking (helps I think)
- don't mix different types of alcohol, stick to one drink (usually works)
- don't drink too fast, have water in between drinks (good idea, make sure bathrooms are readily available)
- smoke some weed before drinking (it seemed to work)

When I drink these days, I stick to cider or sparkling wine, but overdoing these still will make me puke eventually. For some reason these don't make me as nauseous but I still can't get a normal drunk like most people which sucks. I would really love to just drink without worrying about overdoing it a little and ruining my night and just have fun. Unfortunately not being able to get drunk has turned me onto other substances which worries me a little. Does anyone else have the same problem? Does Pepcid help with nausea or is it just for the redness? Please reply if you're in the same boat! Is it wrong to wanna know what it's like to get wasted once in a while...

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redgone.com

Who will be the first to try?

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I am trying Gasviscon chews...I have redness if I drink too much the night before and then try to have one beer the next day. Is this an H2 problem or just straight up dehydrated from the night before problem? anyone know?