Article: Traffic signal: Red light, green light and booze.

Byline: Ronald Kotulak

People are not born to become alcoholics or abstainers. Alcohol, after all, is a relative newcomer in the history of human evolution, even though it has been with us since before the ancient Egyptians.

What people are born with are a variety of genes and their protein products that alcohol can affect to produce a broad spectrum of responses, ranging from a lack of inhibition, pleasure, euphoria and addiction, to physical revulsion.

The most common effect of alcohol is the first one that most people experience: Its ability to calm the brain, dilute worries, dissolve inhibitions and make people more sociable.

It ...

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