et al. 1999), and there are almost no documented cases of such people being diagnosed as alcoholic (Chen et al. 1999b; Luczak et al. 2006). The severe effects of the ALDH2*2 variant on acetaldehyde levels and alcoholism risk demonstrate that the mitochondrial ALDH2 enzyme normally is the most important enzyme for eliminating acetaldehyde from the body and keeping acetaldehyde levels extremely low.
