Mythbusters: Does Turning Red While Drinking Mean Your Liver is Healthy?

Ah, the classic Asian conundrum: You drink and all of a sudden you're as red as a tomato. You talk to one friend, David Kim, and he says to you, "Ah, you're red! That means you have a healthy liver since it is working to process all that soju you just drank!"

But then another friend, John Park, approaches you and says, "That David Kim you just talked to is crazy! Chili-face, you're red because your liver can't handle all that alcohol and this is a nasty side effect!"

So which one of our generic Korean friends is right?

As it turns out John Park is correct.
The so-called "Asian Blush" is medically known as Alcohol Flush Reaction.

"[It] is a condition where the body cannot break down ingested alcohol completely, due to a missense polymorphism that encodes the enzyme, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, normally responsible for breaking down acetaldehyde, a product of the metabolism of alcohol."

Basically, you (kool-aid-man-face) have an inactive enzyme that isn't doing it's job of breaking a certain toxin down. That toxim builds up and makes you red.

Other side effects of Alcohol Flush Reaction can include dizziness, nausea, headaches, and an increased pulse.

But don't fret too much about it, tomato-face. About 50% of all Asians have this condition. And on the up side, since it's kind of embarrassing to turn red every time you have a sip of beer, you're probably not going to fall into alcoholism! So your lazy enzyme is trying to tell you to not be such an alcoholic.