Alcohol drinking and health

Abstract

The present article briefly overviews the principal pathway of ethanol metabolism in the liver cell and hormonal regulations of ethanol metabolism, and a relationship between alcohol drinking volume (=alcohol consumption) and the degree of alcohol intoxication. This article also focuses on a possible mechanism of sex difference in rat liver cytosolic alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity, and the effects of bile, bile acids, vegetable oils and unsaturated fatty acids on plasma ethanol levels and gastric emptying in ethanol-administered rats. Finally, the recent findings concernig a relationship between alcohol drinking and human health are described.