Introduction
With so many jurisdictions cracking down on irresponsible drinking, more people wonder what constitutes irresponsible drinking and how many drinks it takes to be legally drunk. The level of intoxication or alcohol in a person’s blood system is measured by Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) (Oszkinat et al., 2022). Because the body can only handle alcohol at a particular rate, the more a person drinks, the more alcohol remains in their blood (Rossheim et al., 2018). According to Bailey et al. (2021), the legal limit In the United States is.08% BAC. Different alcoholic drinks have other alcoholic properties and contents.
Quantity of Alcohol Intake Needed to Reach 0.8 BAC
The quantity of alcohol a person’s body can handle is determined by the type of drink, the person’s weight, and the drink’s serving size. One drink is defined as one 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5-ounce shot of liquor (Bailey et al., 2021). According to Rinck et al. (2018), the typical rule of thumb is that it takes roughly three drinks for a woman to get a.08% BAC while it would take men four drinks to reach the same BAC. Based on the weight of the individual drinking, it takes roughly three drinks per hour to get a.08% BAC for a person who weighs 100lbs and four drinks per hour for someone who weighs 140lbs. Five drinks per hour for someone who weighs 180lbs and six drinks per hour for 220lbs (Rinck et al., 2018). The more a person drinks, the harder it is for alcohol to leave their system.
Time Taken for Alcohol Leave the Body
Alcohol takes time to exit your body, depending on your level of intoxication. According to (Rossheim et al., 2018), one regular drink takes the body around an hour to remove on average. Individuals with higher alcohol tolerance, such as those suffering from alcoholism, may be able to eliminate alcohol more quickly (Manning et al., 2021). Experiments and studies have been conducted to prove that the BAC in percentage will rise if one consumes more than one standard drink per hour. The greater your BAC, the faster you drink. When you stop drinking, your BAC will rise as the alcohol in your stomach passes into your bloodstream (Manning et al., 2021). Time is the only way to lessen your BAC.
The more drinks you have, the longer you’ll need to wait. Vomiting, a cold shower, or drinking coffee will not remove alcohol from your blood. A 150-pound adult’s blood alcohol concentration will rise to between 0.02 and 0.03 after one standard drink, equal to 12 ounces of ordinary beer (Rinck et al., 2018). However, depending on a complicated set of personal characteristics, the effect of one drink on the proportion of alcohol in your blood can vary substantially. According to Rinck et al. (2018), the size of your liver, weight, and the amount of alcohol you consume all play a role in how long alcohol lingers in your system. Sweat, urine, and respiration all eliminate a tiny amount of alcohol from the body. As long as the liver breaks down alcohol, alcohol can be detected in sweat, urine, and breath.
Effects of Alcohol
Gender, mental and physical health, medical disorders, and other substances and pharmaceuticals can all impact how alcohol impacts your body. Suppose you drink on an empty stomach, have a lower tolerance to alcohol, have a lower percentage of muscle on your body, are a young person, weigh less, or don’t generally drink alcohol. In that case, alcohol can affect you more quickly (Manning et al., 2021). As a person continues to drink, they may start to exhibit specific symptoms as the level of alcohol intoxication continues to rise.
According to Oszkinat et al. (2022), The following are some of the most common symptoms; levels of impairment and hazards associated with varying blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels: At 0.02% BAC, this is the lowest threshold of intoxication with detectable brain and physical effects. You will feel relaxed, your attitude will shift, you will feel a little warmer, and you may make unwise decisions. At level 0.05% BAC, Your behavior may become exaggerated. You can speak louder and use more gestures. You may also lose control of minor muscles, such as the capacity to focus your eyes, causing your vision to blur. Except in Utah, 0.08 percent is the current legal limit in the United States, and driving at this level is considered illegal and dangerous (Bailey et al., 2021). You’ll lose more coordination, which will affect your balance, speaking, reaction speeds, and possibly hearing. At 0.10%, your response speed and control becomes impaired, your speech becomes slurred, your thinking and reasoning slows, and your ability to coordinate your arms and legs becomes impaired.
The BAC at 0.15% is relatively high; walking and talking will be difficult since you will have significantly less control over your balance and voluntary muscles. You could trip and injure yourself. Confusion and disorientation are prevalent in the 0.20%-0.29% range. Because pain perceptions alter, you may not notice if you fall and hurt yourself significantly, making you less likely to see. Nausea and vomiting are common side effects. At this BAC, blackouts begin, allowing you to participate in events you don’t recall. The percentage level of blood alcohol content worsens with the number of drinks.
Conclusion
Alcohol consumption affects everybody, either directly or indirectly. The degree of how it impacts you is determined by the amount of alcohol you consume, your health, and your age (Rinck et al., 2018). Drinking too much alcohol can have both short and long-term negative consequences. Alcohol intake can impact your physical and emotional health and your employment, income, family, and community. People with a drinking problem should consider seeking help, as the condition only worsens with time.
References
Bailey, K. L., Samuelson, D. R., & Wyatt, T. A. (2021). Alcohol use disorder: A pre-existing condition for COVID-19?. Alcohol, 90, 11-17.
Manning, V., Garfield, J. B., Staiger, P. K., Lubman, D. I., Lum, J. A., Reynolds, J.,… & Verdejo-Garcia, A. (2021). A randomized clinical trial is the effect of cognitive bias modification on early relapse among adults undergoing inpatient alcohol withdrawal treatment. JAMA Psychiatry, 78(2), 133-140. Web.
Oszkinat, C., Luczak, S. E., & Rosen, I. G. (2022). Uncertainty in quantifying and estimating blood alcohol concentration from transdermal alcohol level through physics-informed neural networks. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 1-8. Web.
Rinck, M., Wiers, R. W., Becker, E. S., & Lindenmeyer, J. (2018). Relapse prevention in abstinent alcoholics by cognitive bias modification: Clinical effects of combining approach bias modification and attention bias modification.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(12), 1005.
Rossheim, M. E., Thombs, D. L., Krall, J. R., & Jernigan, D. H. (2018). College students’ underestimating blood alcohol concentration from hypothetical consumption of supersized alcopops: Results from a cluster‐randomized classroom study.Alcoholism: Clinical and experimental research, 42(7), 1271-1280.