Drinking a lot of alcohol is bad for your health in the short and long term. So it’s important to know how your body reacts to alcohol and what your limit is so you can stay healthy. Of course, there are several factors that affect your body’s ability to process alcohol and how quickly you become drunk. It’s important to take the following factors into account each time you drink so you’re always having a safe and fun time. Here are the most important factors:

Age

In general, the older you are, the less able you are to handle alcohol. Those who are older have less water in their bodies and build up higher concentrations of alcohol faster. Also, as you age, your organs become less able to handle alcohol, and you feel the effects quicker.

  • It may take fewer drinks to get legally drunk as you get older.

Gender

Women tend to have a higher percentage of body fat, which doesn’t absorb alcohol well. That means the alcohol will build to a higher concentration in the blood. Men tend to have larger bodies with lower percentages of body fat, leading to a more diluted alcohol concentration in their system.

  • It may take fewer drinks to get legally drunk if you are female.

Weight

Those who are heavier tend to handle alcohol better, because they have more blood in their body and the alcohol becomes more diluted. Also, those who weigh more might have a larger liver which will be able to process the same alcohol amount as someone who is smaller with more efficiency.

  • It may take more drinks to get legally drunk if you are heavier in weight.

Food

We all know that a full stomach delays the onset of the effects of alcohol. But a belly full of carbs and fats is the most effective for slowing down the process of absorbing alcohol. The important thing to remember is that a full stomach does not stop the absorption of alcohol, it only delays it. You will eventually feel the effects.

  • It may take longer to get legally drunk if you have a full stomach.

Time

Are you a lightweight when it comes to alcohol? It might just be your first time having a drink. Of course, due to all the previous factors, you might always have a low tolerance. But the more times you have a drink, the higher your overall tolerance tends to get. Science doesn’t fully understand the body’s memory for alcohol tolerance, but we do know that your body can process alcohol better over time.

  • It may take more drinks to get legally drunk if you are a regular social drinker.

Finally, the type of drink you’re having at a party will play a big role because not all drinks are made equal when it comes to alcoholic concentration. For general purposes you can think of one drink as the equivalent of one 12-ounce beer, one 6-ounce glass of wine, or one shot of liquor. So if you’re enjoying the eggnog with an extra shot of spiced rum, remember to count it as two drinks instead of one. Since all bodies are different, you can try out this Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) calculator here to get a rough estimate of how many drinks it would take you to get legally drunk.

Not every body metabolizes alcohol the same way.  You may  feel you are “okay” to drive, but your blood alcohol content will reflect whether or not you are under or over the legal alcohol limit.  The rule of thumb is that for each alcoholic beverage you consume, the alcohol from that drink is in your system for two hours.  Multiple drinks means you are compounding the amount of alcohol in your blood stream.  Unfortunately, not everyone can handle the effects of alcohol while others can become dependent on it. In the United States, there are around 10 to 15 million alcoholics, and approximately 100,000 alcohol related deaths per year.

Stay safe – don’t drink and drive.  If you suspect someone is abusing alcohol or you’re helping a loved one with a zero-tolerance program, testing for alcohol can be an appropriate step, and Any Lab Test Now is here to help. We offer blood, urine and breath alcohol testing that offers fast and affordable results. Our testing services can be processed to ensure legal admissibility or discreetly for your own personal knowledge. We are here to assist you in any way!