How long does the alcohol content last in the body?

The chemical name of alcohol is ethanol – the main ingredient in wines. When consumed, most ethanol enter the liver and decompose by alcohol dehydrogenase. This is an enzyme that turns ethanol into acetaldehyde – a toxic and cancer compound.

Another type of enzyme is aldehyde dehydrogenase to decompose acetaldehyde into acetate. Other organs such as the pancreas, brain and kidneys, also participate in the decomposition of alcohol. When acetaldehyde exists in the body, even short time, causing damage to cells and tissue.

After 4-5 hours after drinking alcohol, half of the amount of alcohol consumed is excreted from the body. But the remaining alcohol can take 5 times more than this time, or 20-25 hours, to be completely eliminated.

Testing to detect alcohol content

The time for alcohol detection in the body depends on the test used. The alcohol content in the breath can be detected within 12-24 hours after drinking alcohol, but blood tests only detect alcohol for up to 12 hours.

Blood alcohol content is measured according to alcohol level on a blood volume. This test is often applied to check drivers, drinkers who are not old enough, drink alcohol when working or check alcohol poisoning. In some cases, this test may also be a tool to monitor people with alcohol disorders.

The alcohol content of 80-100 mg/100 ml of blood is considered alcohol poisoning. Common symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, impaired skills, behavior and incompetent to drive.

Alcohol concentration of 100-200 mg/100 ml of blood causes behavioral disorders, more serious mental disorders. The drinker can numb the limbs or face, pale skin, unstable emotions, leading to reduced cognitive and decisive ability. If the alcohol content is 200-300 mg/100 ml of blood, the drinker will say his tongue, fall into a state of confusion, remember to forget, may lose memory or cannot walk, react slowly.

For people who are unable to tolerate alcohol, blood alcohol content reaches 400 mg/100 ml causing severe alcohol poisoning, hypotension, loss of movement, can completely lose consciousness, lower body temperature, suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer heat, suffer heat, suffer heat, suffer heat, suffer heat Inhibiting respiration, coma, death.

Blood test checks the alcohol content for about 6-12 hours after drinking alcohol for high accuracy results. In addition to this time, the results may be misleading.

The concentration of alcohol in blood and alcohol content in urine is different. Alcohol can be detected in urine after a much longer time than blood, up to 12-24 hours, even up to 72 hours or longer after drunk. No matter how much alcohol, even a sip, can detect alcohol through urine tests. This is because Ethanol’s by -products (Ethyl Glucuronide) are formed in the body no matter how much alcohol consumed.

The alcohol time exists in the body areas is also different. For example, in hair up to 90 days, in saliva is 12 hours, in sweat from 24 hours to 4 days after drinking a lot of alcohol.

Influencing factors

Many factors can affect the rate of ethanol decomposition in the body, thereby affecting the metabolic speed and eliminating alcohol from the body. Specifically, the age, weight, the amount of food consumed before or while drinking alcohol, the rate of alcohol consumption, the drug in use, the ability to metabolize, gender, type and strength of alcohol.

Different wines have different absorption speeds into the body. Mix alcohol with other drinks such as carbonated drinks, soda or champagne will go into the body faster. Eating a lot of carbohydrates before drinking alcohol can slow down the process of absorbing ethanol in the body.

Although it is possible to dilute the alcohol content in the body by drinking plenty of water, this will not promote the body to metabolize alcohol faster. Water only supports the liver and kidneys to work as usual to remove ethanol that has been decomposed in the body.