Regina Barber

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

If you've tried alcohol, you might remember the first time as some rebellious choice or as part of some holiday ritual like champagne at New Year's.

Or it could have been by accident.

I had mine in the middle of winter, somewhere around this time of year.

I was only about eight or nine and a snowstorm had hit the tiny town I lived in along Washington state's border with Canada.

The power had been knocked out and the house was freezing.

So my mom gathered me and my brother and my sister and gave us a tiny sip of cognac to keep us warm.

Telling it now, it kind of feels like something out of a novel.

But if you're Katie Wu, that first sip can also be pretty mundane.

Like clockwork, when Katie started to sip that drink in college, her face bloomed red.

Yeah.

For me, it gets splotchy.

I notice I have this splotch on my arm or on my legs or something.

Yeah.

This happens because she, and I, get what's commonly called Asian flush, or Asian glow, when we drink.

Katie is just one of what researchers estimate to be about half a billion people with the condition.

Now, not everyone who has it will experience it in the same way.

As a staff writer for The Atlantic, Katie wrote an article on the topic.

She mentions that mostly East Asian people have this reaction, hence the name.

And aldehydes in the body don't just come from alcohol.