About This Project

The holiday season is here, bringing festive cheers and raising glasses of alcohol! For people who flush after drinking alcohol, they may take pills, probiotics, or patches to reduce alcohol flushing. However, do these treatments work?

Surprisingly, no one has scientifically tested whether treatments used for alcohol flushing are effective!

Here will tackle this question by determining if pepcid, a popular alcohol flushing remedy used on social media, stops alcohol flushing.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Imagine you’re out with friends, enjoying a drink, and suddenly your face turns bright red. This is called alcohol flushing, and it happens to about 1 in 10 people in the world [1], [2]. The red flush is caused by a genetic variant in an enzyme called ALDH2, which plays a key role in breaking down alcohol. When this enzyme doesn’t work properly, a toxic substance called acetaldehyde builds up, causing the redness, nausea, and increased heart rate[3], [4].

But here’s where it gets interesting: some people have posted on social media that pepcid, an over-the-counter heartburn medicine, may reduce alcohol-induced flushing. While it’s not intended for this use, pepcid might be altering how the body responds to alcohol in ways we don’t yet fully understand.

What is the significance of this project?

Understanding if pepcid works to reduce alcohol flushing could give us new insights into how our bodies handle alcohol. Additionally, studying this could uncover new treatments or health tips for people with ALDH2 deficiency, which may reduce not only discomfort but also the long-term health risks that are caused by alcohol drinking such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Plus, this research could reveal surprising new uses for a common drug that many people already have in their medicine cabinet!

By exploring how pepcid impacts alcohol metabolism, we could unlock critical information about a genetic condition affecting millions—and maybe even make social situations a little more comfortable for those who flush :)

What are the goals of the project?

The goal of this project is to uncover if pepcid can reduce alcohol flushing. To do so, we are going to conduct a human volunteer clinical trial and using cutting-edge technology to rigorously determine whether pepcid reduces alcohol flushing. We will use a cross-over approach to this clinical trial where a person will be tested in our laboratory twice. One time they will drink an exact amount of alcohol with a placebo and the other time they will drink an exact amount of alcohol with pepcid. Before and after they drink alcohol, we will measure breath acetaldehyde and alcohol in addition to heart rate, blood pressure, and skin temperature. Using this approach, we will determine whether pepcid changes the response to alcohol.