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Alcoholism kills over 3 million people per year, making it a severe health problem; whether it’s from drunk driving incidents or overdose, uncontrollable alcohol use is a disease that affects the lives of millions of people worldwide. It doesn’t help that alcohol is a commonly accepted drug, making it even more difficult to identify and contain this disease.

So, when do we discern when our drinking habits have crossed a line into a real issue? An important way to help yourself is education; knowing the signs of alcoholism, the long-term effects of alcohol, and resources available to help you get back on track.

Additionally, when reflecting on your drinking habits, it’s also important to know how long alcohol stays in your system. Of course, there are alcohol tests like breathalyzers that measure alcohol content; however, knowing this information can help you prevent being over the limit, drunk driving, and avoid dangerous interactions between drinking and any prescription medication.

Since 2016, Master Center has helped over 10,000 Virginians start their road to addiction recovery, with a dozen medical providers specialized in keeping patients medically safe. Their expertise in alcohol health effects can help you better understand your drinking habits and keep you and others safe.

Here we’ll be looking in more detail at how the body processes alcohol and the factors that affect this, how long alcohol stays in your system, and how alcohol in your blood is measured, so that you can best monitor your drinking habits.

The Body Processes Alcohol in the Liver

First, let’s explore how your body processes alcohol. Alcohol is broken down mainly by the liver, which metabolizes approximately 1 ounce per hour; however, this can differ depending on factors such as gender, weight, and age. Regardless, it’s important to note that the amount you drink can seriously affect how quickly and how effectively your body can process it.

4 Steps to Processing Alcohol

Additionally, although alcohol passes through the digestive system, it isn’t processed in the same manner as food in the digestive tract. This is how your body processes alcohol:

1. Alcohol is first absorbed straight into the bloodstream.

2. It then goes through the stomach and the small intestine tissue lining.

3. Alcohol then enters the upper gastrointestinal tract.

4. Lastly, once alcohol enters the bloodstream via the small intestine, it travels around the body, including the heart and the brain.

This is why so many bodily systems and functions are affected by it: it reaches all parts of the body.

The Liver Can’t Keep Up During Binge Drinking

The majority of what you drink ends up in the liver, which is where it is metabolized. Generally, the liver is able to process 1 standard drink (an ounce of liquor) in 1 hour.

However, if you drink more than this and your blood alcohol levels are high, the liver cannot keep up with the rate of consumption, and you may oversaturate the system. This means that alcohol will begin to accumulate in other tissues and the bloodstream until the liver can metabolize it. If this happens too many times or too fast, damage to the brain and tissues of the body can develop.

Binge drinking can often result in alcohol levels that are too high for your liver to cope with, resulting in alcohol poisoning. If there is a high enough volume of alcohol in your system, vital life-supporting functions begin to slow – or in extreme cases – shut down.

It’s also important to know that continual episodes of excessive drinking can impede your liver’s ability to metabolize alcohol. During the process of breaking down any drinks you’ve had, the liver encounters toxins. Bouts of heavy drinking can cause scarring and fat build-up that eventually restricts blood flow, causing damage to liver functions.

How Long Alcohol Stays in Your System: About 1 Hour

Your body needs time as it processes alcohol and gets it out of your system. As a rough guide, it takes approximately 1 hour for the body to metabolize 1 standard drink. How long alcohol stays in your system is also impacted by things like body mass, age, sex, and general health.

However, it’s important to also know that the type of test used will detect alcohol for different lengths of time, but this doesn’t mean that there isn’t any present in your system. Let’s examine Blood Alcohol Concentration and alcohol testing.

What is Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)?

Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is a measurement of how much alcohol is present in an individual’s system at any one time. BAC is expressed as the percentage of ethanol in the blood in terms of mass per volume—that’s where we see numbers like 0.03% BAC, and so forth.

As we’ve already outlined, alcohol can build up in the body as the liver becomes overwhelmed when a person consumes it to an excessive degree. This means that blood alcohol levels increase dramatically during periods of binge drinking.

Here’s a general guideline of what different BACs do:

• Around 0.05%: You’ll start feeling more negative alcohol effects, like irritability, disorientation, and depression.

• At 0.08%: Motor skills and balance become impaired (this is also the legal limit for drinking and driving). The body may not be able to process it quickly enough at this stage, so you may begin vomiting due to the excess alcohol present.

• Between 0.16% and 0.30%: You may have poor balance, memory, reaction time, and attention. You’ll also have impaired judgment and be at risk of blackouts and loss of consciousness.

• Between 0.31% and 0.45%: Life-threatening overdose becomes a serious risk. Heart rate, breathing, and body temperature suppression put the individual at risk of death.

Many people mistakenly think that if they have no measurable blood alcohol concentration, then it is not detectable in their system. But the truth is that BAC only measures the alcohol concentration in the blood, which is continually and rapidly filtered, meaning that it’s present for a few hours after your last drink.

3 Ways to Test Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)

There are a few ways to test how long alcohol stays in your system.

1. In Your Breath

Breathalyzers measure BAC by calculating the amount of alcohol that’s in the air when you blow on it. When you’re trying to find out how long after the last drink a breathalyzer test can detect it, the most common answer you’ll encounter is 24 hours.

However, it’s important to note that whether the liquor will be detected by a breathalyzer depends on the speed at which your body metabolizes the drink. If you drink a large amount and your body is slow at processing it, it may show up on a breathalyzer test for longer than 24 hours after your last drink.

2. In Your Bloodstream

Alcohol is eliminated from the bloodstream at a rate of approximately 0.015 per hour. This means that it will show up in a blood test for up to 12 hours after consumption, particularly if you have a high BAC.

3. In Your Urine

Traditional urine tests work by looking for traces of alcohol metabolites and can detect any amount in the urine between 14 and 48 hours later. Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) tests are more advanced and can detect traces for 3 to 5 days after drinking alcohol.

Other Alcohol Tests

Besides those three tests, BAC can be detected in other ways. Alcohol use can be observed from hair samples for up to 90 days, and in your saliva for between 12 and 24 hours. Different testing methods will have the capability to detect liquor in your system over different time periods. We encourage you to read our article “Alcohol Testing Explained” for a more detailed explanation of alcohol tests.

Conclusion

Overall, being aware of how long alcohol stays in your system can help prevent the dangerous results of drinking too much. By monitoring your drinking intake, you can save the lives of yourself and others around you from drunk driving episodes or dangerous incidents caused by intoxication.

We offer alcohol testing to help patients with addiction evaluations, as well as specialty therapies, outpatient alcohol detox, and other programs for alcoholism to get you back on track. If you think you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol addiction, schedule an appointment with us today to meet with a specialist on the best recovery plan for you.

About Master Center

Master Center is a groundbreaking addiction treatment program headquartered in Glen Allen, Va. Based on a vision of comprehensive outpatient care, Master Center was launched in 2016 and now includes locations throughout the Commonwealth.

Master Center offers a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach rarely seen in the outpatient setting, staffed by experienced addiction physicians, psychiatrists, counselors, therapists, and peer recovery coaches.