Alcohol Metabolism in American Indians and Whites

To investigate alleged racial differences in alcohol tolerance, we measured the rate of ethanol metabolism in 30 American Indians and 30 whites. The mean rates of alcohol metabolism were virtually identical in the two groups: 92 +/- 3 mg of ethanol metabolized per kilogram of body weight per hour for the Indians versus 93 +/- 3 for the whites (mean +/- S.E.M.). Similarly, a comparison of liver alcohol dehydrogenase specific activity and isoenzyme pattern in biopsy specimens from seven American Indians and six whites revealed no racial differences. Biopsy specimens from the Indians demonstrated a mean specific enzymatic activity of 0.073 +/- 0.004 mumoles of ethanol oxidized per minute per milligram of soluble protein and from the whites, 0.082 +/- 0.009. These findings make it unlikely that alleged racial differences in response to alcohol can be explained on the basis of racial differences in the rate of alcohol metabolism.