2016]. In Asian alcoholic individuals, both ADH1B and ALDH2 protective alleles showed association with high serum triglyceride levels and low serum cholesterol levels, leukocyte, granulocyte, and monocyte counts [Yokoyama and others 2016; Yokoyama and others 2015]. Our GWAS of BMI in subjects with AD identified ALDH1A1 as a risk locus, supporting the role of alcohol risk genes in the predisposition to metabolic traits [Polimanti and others 2015b]; this should be considered in light of our comments in the Introduction, namely that in alcohol-dependent individuals, alcohol can not only account for a substantial part of the individual’s caloric intake, but can displace other nutrients. A transcriptomic analysis also identified ADH1B as involved in the differentiation of brown adipose tissue [Tews and others 2014] and its transcriptional changes in adipose tissue are associated with waist circumference, BMI, and fasting plasma insulin [Winnier and others 2015].
