How Long Does Alcohol Stay in Your System

On average, the human body processes alcohol at a constant rate of about one standard drink per hour. However, as we already know that each human body works in a different way according to their age, gender, body composition, metabolism, and overall health. All these factors also play a role and can influence how long alcohol can stay in a person’s system & show its after-effects.

Only if we pay attention to the route or passage of alcohol in the human body, we will be able to understand how alcohol is metabolized in the human body. When a person drinks alcohol, it enters into the stomach then small intestines; further, alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream through the tissue lining of the stomach and small intestine. Once alcohol reaches the bloodstream, it is carried throughout the body with blood and travels to the brain.

Note: The rate at which alcohol is absorbed in the body gets reduced if the stomach is full.

How Long Does Alcohol Stay in Your System?

As we said that there is a number of factors that can (& do) influence how alcohol is processed in the human body; thus, how long alcohol stays in your system also depends on a number of factors.

And most people are more concerned about the latter one, i.e., how long does alcohol can stay inside our body after they had a long night of drinking. If we talk about estimates, on average it takes about one hour for alcohol to metabolize in our body (we are talking about one standard drink). The body takes its own time to fully process/ metabolize alcohol in the body and also to eliminate it from the body.

In terms of testing or detecting the exact time of how long alcohol stays in your body depends upon several factors, including the kind of drug used to detect the alcohol.

Blood: Alcohol can be tested in the blood for up to 12 hours and is eliminated from the bloodstream at a rate of 0.015 per hour.

Urine: Alcohol can be detected in urine for up to 3-5 days via the ethyl glucuronide (EtG) test, or it can be tested using the traditional methods for up to 10-12 hours after alcohol consumption.

Hair: Similar to other drugs, hair samples, mainly hair follicles, can be used to detect alcohol for up to 90 days using Hair Follicle Drug.

How the Body Processes Alcohol

The process or pathway that alcohol goes through once inside your body is quite simple & straightforward and that is why alcohol concentration in the body and the amount of alcohol a person consumes are correlated.

Once consumed just like any other drink or food, alcohol enters the digestive system, then the stomach, and then into the small intestine. Around 20% of alcohol is absorbed in the stomach, rest enters into the small intestine & gets absorbed there. After its absorption, alcohol enters into the bloodstream and gets transported throughout the body, this explains very much why alcohol impacts so many different body systems. The majority amount of alcohol absorbed in blood ends up in the liver, where it gets metabolized with the help of alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme.

It is important to understand that rate at which alcohol is metabolized in the body is related to its after-effects. On average, our liver can process once ounce of liquor or one standard drink in about an hour. However, if you surpass this limit & try to consume more than what your body can metabolize, you will be left with nothing but an alcohol hangover. This happens because our system becomes saturated & any additional amount of alcohol will gradually accumulate in the blood & different body tissues until the liver can metabolize it.

This the reason why too much alcohol can damage your brain cells and different body parts as well, it can lead to alcohol poisoning as well. In actuality, the human brain & body is very smart, responsive & effective at processing alcohol only if consumed at a standard rate so as not to cause alcohol poisoning.

Approx. 90-98% of alcohol is absorbed & metabolized while the rest is expelled through urine, feces or sweat/vomit, etc.

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)

Concentration i.e., the percentage amount of alcohol present in a person’s bloodstream after its consumption is known as the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). BAC is expressed as a percentage of ethanol present in the blood in units of mass of alcohol per volume. On average, an ounce of alcohol produces a .015% blood-alcohol concentration. This explains that a person with a .015 alcohol level in their blood will have little or no amount of alcohol in their bloodstream 10 hours after consumption.

Thus, it is important to note that the more a person drinks alcohol, the longer (i.e., duration) it will stay in their system. Alcohol shows its negative effects when a person’s blood-alcohol level goes higher than 0.5% to 0.55%. So, all those feelings of calm, happiness, and relaxation start to turn into depression, irritability, and disorientation.

At around 0.8% to 0.9% of alcohol level in the blood, our motor skills start to disorient, become impaired, and our sense balance starts getting off too. At this level, some people may feel nauseous and begin to throw out/ vomit; this generally happens when the alcohol level in the bloodstream is more than the rate at which the body can process & metabolize it fast enough.

In the United States, a person with a blood-alcohol concentration level of 0.8% or more is considered intoxicated and cannot drive a vehicle.

Factors Affect the Rate That Alcohol Is Processed

Alcohol is metabolized at a common rate in the human body, but as we said, there are some factors that may contribute to influencing this rate. Some people may feel the after-effects of alcohol consumption for a little longer than the other or faster than the other people. And this fluctuation in after-effects of alcohol consumption can happen due to various reasons such as:

1. Age

This may surprise that your age plays an important role in this i.e., it is observed & proven that the older a person is, the longer alcohol stays in their liver before the body metabolizes it or moves it into the general bloodstream of the body. This leads to increased length of intoxication and also the risk of liver damage.

Another thing is that amount of water also gets reduced as we grow old, thus, contributing to a higher BAC. Also, an older person tends to or more likely to be taking a number of medications also, and this affects the liver as well. All of these factors mean that alcohol is processed in the body at a slower rate.

2. Biological Sex

We all know that the female body works in a different way than the male body. Due to several physiological reasons, the female body metabolizes alcohol at a different rate than the male; alcohol stays in the female body longer than it does in the male body.

This is mainly due to the fact that the female body has a higher percentage of body fat and less water percentage in their body than males. More percentage of water in the male body means that their body will dilute alcohol at a higher rate than the female body, even if we compare two people of the same height, weight and drinking the same amount of alcohol too.

Another thing is hormone level, as they affect the ability of the human body to process alcohol, and women will experience a higher level of BACs if they drink alcohol right before menstruation.

Studies have also shown that women have less amount of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme in their body; alcohol processing enzyme in the stomach.

3. Food

Alcohol absorption reduces if the stomach is full. Thus, we can say that eating food prior to or along with alcohol has a strong influence on the stomach’s absorption rate. This work like this; food acts as a diluting agent for alcohol and slows down the rate at which alcohol empty into the small intestine.

If compared, then peak BAC could be 3 times higher in someone with an empty stomach than another person who has consumed food before drinking. That is why it is recommended to eat regular meals or snacks prior/ or along with alcohol, as it helps in inducing enzyme activity and slowing down the rate at which alcohol is absorbed in the body.

4. Body Size

The size and composition of one’s body also play a crucial role and thus impact how fast our body can process alcohol. Low-water fatty tissue in the human body can not absorb alcohol as fast as high-water fatty tissue does; thus, a person with more body fat generally has a higher percentage of BAC.

Also, a person who is extremely muscular but has short stature will have a higher percentage of BAC than someone taller than them of the same composition.

5. Medications

There are certain medications that interact with alcohol and can alter the body’s metabolism; thereby affecting how the body absorbs alcohol. While some medications have the power to slow down the emptying of alcohol from the stomach to the small intestine & liver, making the alcohol to be rapidly absorbed. This further leads to higher BAC levels and intoxication that affects the body more quickly. Following are the few medications that are known to interact with alcohol such as:

• Anti-anxiety medications e.g. Xanax
• ADHD medications like Adderall
• Cough and Cold medicines
• Diabetes medications, such as Chlorpropamide.

Some medications may show the opposite effect.

What is Standard Drink?

It is true that many of the people that drink often underestimate how much they have had to drink because they are definitely not using any standard drink measurements. One standard drink usually stands for one 12-oz beer, i.5 ounces of liquor such as whiskey, vodka, or other spirits, or a 5-fl oz of wine glass.

How Long Does It Take to Get a Drink Out of Your System?

If we talk about science, then the process of alcohol absorption is simply defined by the breaking of alcohol molecules in the liver through the actions of an enzyme called Alcohol Dehydrogenase (synthesized in the liver).

On average, the human liver can metabolize or break down 1 standard drink per hour for men or about 0.015g/100mL/hour, i.e., reducing blood alcohol level at a rate of 0.015/hour. Moreover, about 10% of alcohol is eliminated through sweat, breath, and urine.

Note: a standard drink is defined as:

• 12 fl oz of regular beer,
• 8-9 fl oz of malt liquor,
• 5 fl oz of wine,
• 5 fl oz shot of distilled spirits i.e., gin, rum, tequila, vodka whiskey.

As mentioned already.

Does Drinking Water or Coffee Help You Sober Up?

Consuming water or a mug of coffee after alcohol won’t help much with breakdown & elimination of alcohol or sober you up faster but only make a little more alert than you were in your hangover. As long as your body’s rate of alcohol consumption is greater than the rate of its elimination, your BAC will continue to rise.

When Is Alcohol No Longer Detected on a Test?

The amount of time under which alcohol can be estimated in your system majorly depends upon the test used:

• Blood: alcohol can be detected in blood for up to 6 hours after its consumption,
• Breathalyzer: 12-24 hours after alcohol consumption,
• Saliva: 12-24 hours after alcohol consumption,
• Urine: 12-24 hours for traditional methods of testing; 72 hours or longer for modern methods that test for ethanol metabolites such ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate,
• Hair: for up to 90 days.

Most of the clinicians use & rely on observations of alcohol use such as slurred speech, the smell of alcohol, hangover; because alcohol is metabolized fairly quickly. Also, a breathalyzer test is majorly used to confirm intoxication or if the person drank recently.

How Much Alcohol Will Kill You?

Too much alcohol is dangerous for our body i.e., alcohol overdose or its poisoning can be serious as well as life-threatening. By alcohol overdose, we mean the amount of alcohol in your body that can cause slowing or failure of our life-supporting body systems such as breathing, heart-pumping, or pulse rate.

When the alcohol absorption rate is higher than its elimination from the body; the person may start feeling the negative effects of intoxication, and the risk of alcohol overdose increases.

Different BAC levels and their effects:

06%-0.15% BAC: impairment of speech, memory, attention, coordination, while the balance is moderately impaired, driving is significantly impaired.

16%-0.30% BAC: Significant impairment of speech, memory, attention, balance, reaction time & co-ordination; dangerously impaired ability to drive; the ability of judgment & decision making is also impaired.

31%-0.45% BAC: suppression of breathing, heart rate & body temperature increases the risk of life-threatening overdose & risk of death as well.

Following is a list of a few of the symptoms of an alcohol overdose:

• Profound mental confusion,
• Stupor,
• Loss of consciousness,
• Vomiting,
• Clammy skin,
• Pale or bluish skin color,
• Low body temperature,
• Slow heart rate,
• Slowed or irregular breathing.

The risk of alcohol overdose increases with binge drinking i.e., consuming 4 drinks in 2 hours for a woman or 5 drinks in 2 hours for a man. Drinking 20 or more times than the binge drinking threshold is considered extreme binge drinking. Drinking too much or a large amount of alcohol in a short amount of time in a short span of time outpaces the liver’s ability to absorb & eliminate alcohol and leads to a rapid increase in BAC percentage.

This risk of overdose may become even higher when alcohol is consumed with other things such as opioid or sedative-hypnotic medications, such as painkillers, sleep medications, or anti-anxiety drugs. These drugs primarily work on the respiratory system, suppress breathing, and combined with alcohol, these effects are intensified and can lead to an overdose with even moderate level consumption of alcohol.

Conclusion

So far, we have discussed how long alcohol stays in our system? its process in the body, Blood Alcohol concentration, its limits, levels as well as effects, standard volume of alcohol, and how much alcohol can kill or pose life-threatening negative effects.

From all these, we conclude that by understanding BAC and the rate at which the liver metabolizes alcohol, we can pay attention or even prevent ourselves from the dangerous consequences of alcohol overdose.

But if you are still struggling with the after-effects of alcohol consumption, even on safe or moderate drinking, then I would suggest you seek professional help.