Alcoholism: Common and Oxidative Damage Biomarkers

Abstract

For many years it has been assumed that moderate alcohol intake might provide health benefits to humans, while alcohol abuse generally produces some systemic complications, even when physical and mental dependence on alcohol has not developed. Many studies have focused on distinct molecules that might serve as useful early or late biomarkers in individuals that consume important amounts of alcohol. Indeed, the diversity of molecules postulated as biomarkers is quite wide and this is the direct reflection of the broad range of mechanisms involved in the impact that alcohol has on human health, either as a result of acute or chronic intake, the latter being a cause death. In this review, we have considered most of the molecules that have been followed-up in individuals who drink large amounts of alcohol, as well as some of those that have been less intensely studied, and we present a pair of oxidative biomarkers that could be used to evaluate early stage alcoholism.