Abstract
One of the significant consequences of alcohol consumption is cancer formation via
several contributing factors such as action of alcohol metabolites, vitamin deficiencies,
and oxidative stress. All these factors have been shown to cause epigenetic modifications
via DNA hypomethylation, thus forming a basis for cancer development. Several published
reviews and studies were systematically reviewed. Omnivores and vegetarians differ
in terms of nutritional intake and deficiencies. As folate deficiency was found to
be common among the omnivores, chronic alcoholism could possibly cause damage and
eventually cancer in an omnivorous individual via DNA hypomethylation due to folate
deficiency. Furthermore, as niacin was found to be deficient among vegetarians, damage
in vegetarian chronic alcoholics could be due to increased NADH/NAD+ ratio, thus slowing alcohol metabolism in liver leading to increased alcohol and
acetaldehyde which inhibit methyltransferase enzymes, eventually leading to DNA hypomethylation.
Hence correcting the concerned deficiency and supplementation with S-adenosyl methionine
could prove to be protective in chronic alcohol use.
Keywords
chronic alcohol use - cancer epigenetic mechanisms - dietary deficiencies - epigenetic
modifications - omnivores and vegetarians
