How Long Does Alcohol Stay In Your System?

Now and then, it can be easy to get carried away when out with friends or celebrating and have too much to drink. How long does alcohol stay in your system, and how long will you feel the effects of alcohol?

The answer depends on a few factors.

The liver is the primary organ responsible for breaking down alcohol, and men can typically metabolize 1 standard drink per hour. The body’s capacity to digest alcohol depends on several variables, including age, weight, gender, and the food consumed. It is impossible to increase the rate of alcohol absorption when you sleep or hydrate.

Alcohol Use Disorder In The USA

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a medical illness marked by a decreased capacity to reduce or control alcohol consumption in the face of negative social, professional, or health effects.

Excessive drinking, such as binge drinking frequently, may classify a person as having an alcohol use disorder. In women, binge drinking means having four or more drinks during an occasion. For men, binge drinking includes five or more drinks during an occasion [1].

Between 2015 and 2019, excessive alcohol use resulted in more than 140,000 fatalities and 3.6 million years of potential life lost annually in the United States, cutting people’s lives short by an average of 26 years [2].

How Your Body Metabolizes Alcohol

When you drink alcohol, your body metabolizes it through a series of bodily functions. Here is a timeline of what happens when you drink alcohol.

You Drink Alcohol

Alcohol does not break down like food. Instead, some of it is initially taken up by the tongue and mucosal lining of the mouth. Once in the stomach, alcohol is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream by the small intestine and stomach tissue lining.

If you’re not drinking on an empty stomach, the body processes alcohol much slower.

Alcohol Is Moved Through The Body

All of your body’s organs are affected by alcohol once it enters your bloodstream. Blood typically circulates through the body in 90 seconds in healthy individuals. Depending on how quickly a drink is absorbed, alcohol’s full effects can take between 15 and 45 minutes to manifest.

Your Body Neutralizes or Removes Alcohol

Alcohol is a toxin that needs to be removed from the body or neutralized. Alcohol is excreted in urine, sweat, and breath. The liver is the main organ in the body’s alcohol detoxification process. The enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol, is produced by liver cells. When drinking outpaces detoxification, blood alcohol content (BAC) will keep increasing, making you feel more intoxicated.

When you drink in excess, it affects how long alcohol stays in your body. While you wake up the next morning, your body is still working on sobering you up. This is where hangovers impact your ability to focus, eat, drive, or work.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the amount of time and methods it takes to sober up quickly to make it to work or other important obligations. Coffee, energy drinks, and cold showers won’t sober you up faster. Caffeine and cold showers may help you feel more alert, but they do not remove alcohol from the blood, which means they do not reduce your BAC level.

Symptoms of Alcohol Overdose

Binge drinking often leads to alcohol poisoning, also known as alcohol overdose. When a person drinks too much alcohol, and their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels rise to unsafe levels, it leads to alcohol overdose. This happens when a person drinks so much that the brain areas responsible for basic survival begin to deteriorate or shut down.

The amount of alcohol a person needs to consume before experiencing a potentially harmful or lethal overdose varies depending on age, drinking history, gender, and food intake.

The symptoms of alcohol overdose can vary from person to person, but generally, they include the following:

• Slurred speech
• Slowed heart rate
• Loss of gag reflex
• Mental confusion
• Loss of coordination
• Vomiting
• Seizures
• Unresponsiveness
• Chills or tremors
• Coma

While intoxicated, passing out or losing consciousness is possible and can be a warning sign of a potentially dangerous alcohol overdose. A person who has consumed too much alcohol and cannot be awakened or can only be awakened briefly may suffer from a life-threatening overdose and needs to be attended to by a medical professional immediately.

The Dangers of Mixing Alcohol With Other Substances

Mixing alcohol with other substances is dangerous. Alcohol can alter how drugs function, sometimes amplifying their negative effects ten times more while reducing their usefulness.

Alcohol and medications should never be mixed. Alcohol might cause you to feel tired, drowsy, or lightheaded. While taking medications, drinking alcohol can amplify these effects. You might have problems focusing. Driving under the influence of alcohol is always risky, and the risk increases when you combine alcohol with several medications [3].

Mixing alcohol with illegal drugs may also prove to be a dangerous or deadly combination.

Amanda is a prolific medical content writer specializing in eating disorders and addiction treatment. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Purdue University with a B.S. in Social Work. Read more