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Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol Metabolism: How Long Does Alcohol Stay In Your System?

Let’s take a look at alcohol metabolism. Or to put it another way: how long does it take the body to process alcohol and how long does it take to leave your system.

So what happens during the alcohol metabolism process?

Alcohol metabolism is the breakdown of alcohol from the time it’s consumed to the time it’s eliminated from your body.

Any alcoholic drink you have goes directly into your stomach, where your first responder enzyme, Alcohol Dehydrogenases (ADH), is waiting to defend your body against it. This first responder enzyme has been found to be lower in women than in men, and also lower in those that drink on a regular basis compared to those who hardly or never drink alcohol.

Eventually, after a constant battle with little firepower, your ADH becomes overpowered in the case of an excessive drinker, allowing about 80% of alcohol to quickly dive into your bloodstream, heading directly to your powerhouse, the brain, lungs, and several other tissues in your body. Which is why you start to feel the effects of the alcohol almost immediately.

The majority of the remaining alcohol is confronted by the second responder, which is a much larger defence, the liver, before the remaining 10% is eliminated through you skin, kidneys and lungs in the form of sweat, urine and breath.

Does that mean I’m overworking my organs when I drink too much?

The short answer is, yes! Have you seen the movie “X-MEN: Wolverine”, where high Jackman’s character Wolverine heals himself by growing and regenerating himself?

The liver is designed in a similar way. However, its ability to regenerate gets lower with excessive alcohol consumption. If you consume alcohol over a lifetime, you end up overworking these organs and never giving them enough time for restoration. And that means, ultimately, they’ll give up and shut down.

So how quickly does the body process alcohol?

It depends on how much alcohol is ingested into the body as well as the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV), as well as other factors. In other words, it depends on the number of soldiers being deployed and the weaponry they’re using.

As a rough guide it takes five half-lives to complete the process. Each half-life lasts for around 4 to 5 hours, although the process usually begins 60 to 80 minutes after consuming alcohol.

So if you add that up, the metabolism of alcohol takes 25 hours to complete. This means your body is having a 25 hour battle every time you drink. Imagine how worn out your liver will be in a couple of years.

What other factors affect alcohol metabolism?

The exact duration depends on multiple variables such as your genetics, body size, sex, age and certain medical conditions.

That’s why people react differently to the same amount of alcohol.

Your genetics

As already mentioned, various enzymes are used to break alcohol down. There are, however, variations in the genes that produce these enzymes. Because of these variations, how alcohol is metabolised can vary from person to person, and there are even variations within different ethnic groups.

Your size

Because alcohol is distributed through the bloodstream, how much blood and water you have in your body, depends on how big or small you are. The lower your body weight, the less blood and water you have, which means a higher percentage will be alcohol. A bigger person will have a lower percentage of alcohol in their system, even if they drink the same amount. It’s why smaller people can often feel the effects of alcohol much quicker.

Your sex

Even if they’re a similar size and weight, men and women metabolise alcohol differently, as women have lower levels of the enzymes needed for alcohol metabolism. As a result, it takes women longer to process alcohol through their system then men, leaving women’s organs exposed to alcohol for longer.

Your age

As you get older, you have less muscle, more fat and less body water. So even if you drink the same amount as a younger person of the same weight, you’ll have a higher concentration of alcohol in your bloodstream and feel the effect of alcohol quicker. 

Your medication

Alcohol can affect the efficacy of any medication you’re taking. While your medication, such as sleeping pills and some antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, can affect how quickly your body reacts to alcohol. It’s important to check with your doctor or pharmacist to understand how your medication affects alcohol metabolism.

How much food is in your stomach

Having food in your stomach, especially fatty food, will affect how quickly you feel the effects of the alcohol, as your blood alcohol level will be lower. But it won’t change the overall length of the metabolism process.

How quickly does the body process alcohol so it can be detected in tests?

As explained above, how long alcohol stays in the body varies from person to person based on various factors. Everyone absorbs alcohol at a different rate.

However, as general rule, alcohol can be detected in a:

  • Blood test after 12 hours
  • Hair test after 90 days
  • Urine test: within the next 5 days
  • Breath test after 24 hours 
  • Saliva test after 48 hours

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