How Long Does Alcohol Stay In Your System: Urine and Blood

Besides the obvious effects immediately after the drink such as a headache, vomiting, fatigue, confusion, alcohol also affects many organs in the body, leaving many dangerous and health complications. However, every year, the alcohol consumption is still high.

Alcohol leaves many negative effects to human body and spirits. Particularly, the lacking knowledge about alcohol is a serious problem in many countries in the world. People may not know exactly what is alcohol, the effects of alcohol to body, how long does alcohol stay in your system, how long does alcohol stay in your urine, how long does alcohol stay in your blood, or how long does it take for alcohol to get out of your system, etc. Read this following information to fill up your mind in understanding about alcohol.

Where does alcohol come from?

Alcohol is fermented from some fruits and cereals (grapes and rice are two common ingredients to make alcohol). The natural chemical balance of fruits and rice allow fermented fruits and rice to be free of added sugars, acids, enzymes, water or other nutrients. Yeast consumes sugar in rice or fruits and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Different fruits or rice varieties and different yeast strain forms different forms of wine. Well-known wines are the result of a very complex interaction between the biochemical development of fruits, reactions related to fermentation, and human intervention in the overall process.

Wine is a neurological drug, as well as all kinds of alcoholic beverages [1], commonly used because of its intoxicating effects throughout history to this day. The neurological effects of wine are evident in normal oral rations [2], [3].

How long does alcohol stay in your system?

The half – life of alcohol is depended on how much alcohol you drink and the kind of alcohol you take. It is estimated that the half-life of alcohol is about from 2 to 6 hours.

So how long does alcohol stay in your body? When taking alcohol into the body, alcohol is rapidly absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract. About 30 minutes after drinking, the alcohol reaches the maximum concentration in the blood. After absorption, it will be distributed quickly into the body’s body fluids. Over 90% alcohol is oxidized in the liver; the rest is excreted intact through the lungs and kidneys [1].

Alcohol is capable of causing the body to dehydrate it by inhibiting the formation of vasopressin,  an anti-urological hormone that helps the body prevent urination more than once. That is why when drinking alcohol, we tend to urinate more than normal.

In other words, the urine is produced more and the consequence is that the body will be dehydrated. This results in some body reactions such as headaches, dry mouth and puts people into fatigue, dizziness, coma, sleepy after drunkenness.

After entering the body, alcohol will be converted to an enzyme called Dehydrogenase into acetaldehyde. It is a human carcinogen and has been shown to be capable of damaging DNA. When it binds to the proteins, the resulting syndrome causes the muscles to develop abnormally and create many bad effects on the body. The consequences can lead to a tendency to Alzheimer’s disease, liver problems, liver cancer or gastrointestinal cancers.

Alcohol has the effect of inhibiting the central nervous system. The effect on the central nervous system depends on the blood alcohol concentration. At low concentrations alcohol has a sedative effect, reducing anxiety. With higher concentrations can cause mental disorder, loss of coordination, uncontrolled action and may be coma, respiratory depression, life-threatening when blood alcohol concentration is too high.

To know about the concentration of alcohol in the body, they do some alcohol testing. Alcohol urine test is the common test for alcohol. The urine test for alcohol is the most convenient and accurate test nowadays. A clear blood test or a clear alcohol test is the goal standard in alcohol urine test.

The effects of alcohol on the body

The end of the year is also the occasion of the summit and alcohol in the season … Before accepting the advantages of alcohol, let consider some effects of alcohol on the body and functions in the body:

Alcohol, infertility, and miscarriage

Alcohol can adversely affect male reproductive function, which causes temporary erectile dysfunction.

In the long term using of alcohol, it lowers testosterone levels, leading to impaired sexual function, which is toxic to the testicles, thereby damaging the sperm or causing them to not infertility to the egg.

Alcohol also lowers the fertility of women, even when drinking small amounts of alcohol, although scientists do not know why.

Long-term drinking also affects menstruation or stops ovulation. Women who drink more during pregnancy are more prone to sprains.

Increased the risk of cancer

According to Linda Bauld of the British Center for Tobacco and Wine Research, there is the good evidence that alcohol increases the risk of certain types of cancers such as nasal-pharynx, esophagus, liver, small and large colon, and breast cancer.

Perhaps more people are surprised by the relationship between alcohol and breast cancer. There is a clear evidence of this relationship. Just drinking one bottle a week increases your chances of breast cancer by 10%.

Alcoholic beverages, such as alcohol and beer, can be broken down in the liver and produce a toxic substance, acetaldehyde, which damages cellular DNA, thereby increasing the risk of cancer.

Alcohol is also associated with other carcinogens, such as toxins in cigarettes, which can increase the risk of cancer several times.

Toxins to the liver

The liver is the very important organ of human organs. First, drinking more alcohol can make the liver fatty. Regular drinkers often have fatty liver, which in turn affects liver function.

There are a high proportion of drinkers who develop fibrosis in the liver, which leads to cirrhosis, a progressive, irreversible liver lesion that eventually results in complete loss of liver function. Patients with cirrhosis also suffer from other life-threatening complications such as vomiting blood, ascites.

1/3 of people have genetic factors that lead to cirrhosis. The exact mechanism of the disease is not well understood.

Promote skin aging

Alcoholic drinks can also affect your appearance. When you stop drinking you will definitely look better.

Alcohol causes diuretic, thus making the body, as well as dehydrated skin. This has immediate and lasting effects on skin and hair.

Dehydration causes dry skin and fine hair fiber break, while drinking too much alcohol depletes the iron in the body, causing your skin blue, lack of vitality, hair break more easily.

By alcohol depleting vitamin C and vitamin A of the body, the skin is less likely to recover from aging agents such as sunlight and pollutants.

Drinking lots of alcoholic beverages also make the skin thinner, so it is easy to see the blood vessels under the skin.

Influence the brain and nerves

When the mood is bored, many people often find alcohol to relieve, may temporarily alcohol to help you sorrow, but in the end, it makes you more afflicted. People drink alcohol because of melancholy, but the more they drink, the more they cannot get out of the whirlpool, sinking deep into the wine yeast without getting out.

Drinking alcohol regularly is associated with depression, anxiety, and other mental problems. Nearly one-third of suicides are related to alcohol.

Alcohol affects every organ in the body, of course, it also changes the brain, and the change is not as drunk and then returned as normal, it is irreversible.

Alcohol affects the neurotransmitters, in a way that makes them more anxious, depressed, stressed, and, in particular, worse.

Cardiovascular problems

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death today.

Alcohol is toxic and has a direct effect on the heart muscle. When a person drinks alcohol, the heart muscle cells die and replace by the fibrous tissue which is incapable of contracting. Gradually, the heart muscle cells are replaced by fibrous tissue that does not squeeze, making the heart weak and unable to pump blood to the body [2].

Worse, you may have heart failure, shortness of breath, fatigue, arrhythmia, and edema.

However, your heart is capable of self – repairing and good compensation, but if you drink often, you are breaking your heart.

It depends on each person, but in general, more than 1.2 liters of alcohol per week for women and 1.8 liters per week for men will cause damage to heart muscle.

Drunken drinking also increases the likelihood of high blood pressure. Hypertension is a major risk factor for stroke and heart attack.

Drinking alcohol also affects sleep, thus increasing blood pressure. People who drink a lot of alcohol often have unhealthy lifestyles, so the more likely they are to have heart disease.

Increased risk of kidney disease

Frequent drinking of alcohol increases the risk of kidney disease by twice, according to the Kidney Foundation.

The kidneys filter and release toxins from the blood stream, which depletes the kidneys’ ability to perform this function.

At the same time drink plenty of alcohol to raise blood pressure, a common cause of kidney disease.

Just once you drink too much, you may have a risk of acute kidney failure, a condition in which kidney function suddenly disappears, due to the increased blood alcohol level too fast. Kidney function can recover these can also leave the injury forever.

Pancreatitis

The pancreas has two functions: hormonal and endocrine. It secretes the digestive enzymes and sends it to the small intestine which helps the body to metabolize food, which is the function of the body. Once the enzymes enter the gut, they are activated to perform their functions. But when alcohol is consumed, the alcohol disturbs the process. Enzymes are activated and function as they are in the pancreas, causing pancreatitis.

Symptoms of pancreatitis include abdominal pain, severe pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever.

A person may develop acute pancreatitis (after a meal and have the above symptoms), or chronic inflammation, that is, the pancreas is slowly destroyed, leading to diabetes and eventually death.

Osteoporosis

Drinking alcohol often causes osteoporosis, thinning of the bones, weakening and brittle fracture and even longer if have broken.

In the body is always the process of bone destruction and bone regeneration, there is a certain balance between these two processes. Alcohol in beer directly affects the process of bone regeneration, inhibits the renewal, thus balancing on the side of bone destruction.

Drinking alcohol is also one of the factors used to assess the risk of fractures.

In addition, people who consume alcohol are often misdiagnosed in their diets (they can drink a lot, eat less, or eat a lot of snack foods), contributing to weak and fragile bones.

Alcohol, beer, alcohol, the chemical name ethanol (C2H5OH) is an addictive substance that suppresses the activity of the brain and central nervous system. Alcohol and beer are widely used in Vietnam. For the majority, drinking a small amount of alcohol or beer does not cause any significant harm, but if you drink a lot of alcohol, frequent beers will cause personal health and social problems [3].

How are the impacts of alcohol?

The impact of alcohol  on the user depends on:

• The amount of alcohol we use
• How fast to drink
• High weight
• Sex
• General health status
• Liver function
• Drink alcohol alone or with many people
• Have alcohol  with other drugs

Immediate impact

Alcohol slows the process of transferring information from the brain to the whole body. This makes the user:

• Feeling relaxed, refreshing
• There are extraordinary words and actions
• Frenzy, hard to balance
• Difficulty in controlling and coordinating body movements
• Slow response
• Easily irritated
• Vomiting
• Look unclear
• Tongue (speak unknown)

Drink a lot of alcohol for a short time caused:

• Dullness
• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Tremble
• unconsciousness (fainting)
• Stop breathing (rare)

Alcohol affects the vision and function of the body’s motion so that when the users drunk, they easily cause traffic accidents or drowning.

Long term consequences

Drinking a lot of alcohol over a long period of time causes health problems, mental problems, and other social problems. Long-term drinking also causes permanent damage to parts of the body. These issues include:

• Picky eaters
• Stomach pain
• Regular inflammation
• Skin diseases
• Injury to the liver and brain
• Reproductive organs damage
• Mixed memory loss
• Cardiovascular Disorders
• Depression
• Great influence on relationships
• Encounters with problems at work
• Money matters and law
• Use alcohol along with other drugs
• Thinking is not clear

Using alcohol at the same time as narcotics, or other physicians can be dangerous. This combination includes taking medication (prescribed by a doctor) while drinking alcohol. A substance can increase the harmfulness of another substance. Alcohol can also reduce or impair the effect of medications.

The use of alcohol in combination with substances that inhibit the activities of the body such as sleeping pills, heroin, marijuana… can cause:

• More difficult to control the activities of the body.
• Causes breathing and even death
• Tolerate and addictive

Tolerance of alcohol happens to everyone. Tolerance means having to constantly increase the amount of alcohol to achieve the desired (satisfying) effect that could have been achieved with only a small amount of use as before.

Alcoholism is when alcohol is always present in the mind, emotions and all activities of the user. Not everyone who drinks alcohol is dependent. But once you depend on alcohol, the user can hardly give up, or can hardly reduce alcohol. This is due to the appearance of withdrawal symptoms below:

• Worry
• Sweat
• Shaking hands
• Nausea, vomiting
• Drunk
• Illusion (seeing or hearing things that are not real)
• These signs appear when the alcohol is reduced or stopped abruptly.

How alcohol gets out of your system

Before drinking

To reduce the harmful effects of alcohol, it is best to limit drinking. In the case of you cannot avoid, before you take note these following advice:

• Do not drink alcohol on an empty stomach.
• Drink a glass of milk.
• Eat some fruit.
• Drink one tablespoon of olive oil.

Before drinking alcohol, take 2 tablets 50 mg vitamin B6, accompanied by one vitamin B1 to lessen half the drunk. Note that vitamin B6 should not be taken regularly as it may cause side effects.

When drinking:

• Drink slowly.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Do not drink alcoholic liquors such as beer, champagne, spirits mixed with soda or other carbonated soft drinks.
• Do not drink alcoholic beverages like soda.

How to remove alcohol

How long does it take for alcohol to leave your system? It depends on the ways you use to get alcohol out and how much you drink?

Grab a handful of vegetables, rinse, crush and then squeeze the juice, mix a little sugar slowly. Vegetable juice should not only make alcohol but also help drunk people do not have a headache after the province.

• 5 g tea buds, 16 g dried kumara (can use jams or fresh lime also). Two brakes with boiling water to drink.
• Make a cup of tapioca powder with squeezed lemon juice to drink, after a while to wake up again. Cassava also helps the liver to eliminate toxins.
• Pound a little white radish, squeeze juice, add a little sugar and drink several times.
• Eat green bean products (about 10-30 g), or pound 5-10 g pea pods, orally.
• Vinegar 60 g, sugar 15 g, ginger 3 slices, pounded, mixed together and then drinks this mixture.
• Fresh lemon, you squeeze into the water to drink or sliced, eat the fruit as possible.

The measures are on the part of the alcohol, which alleviates the harmful effects of alcohol. You can choose which method is convenient or available in the family. The most important thing you should know yourself that you should not drink too much.

Women and alcohol (wine, beer)

Doctors recommend that women drink less alcohol than men do. This is because the alcohol content in body parts of women is higher than that of men. When drinking, for women:

• Blood levels rise faster than men
• Drunk faster than men
• Breakdown (drunk) is slower than men

Alcohol and pregnant women

Drinking alcohol regularly during pregnancy will cause harm to both mother and child. Drinking a lot of alcohol during pregnancy can cause premature labor or births with the alcoholic fetal syndrome (slow growth before and after birth, and mental health problems).

Doctors advise that pregnant women, or women who plan to become pregnant, should not drink any alcohol.

Questions and Answers

1. Is beer not good for our health?

Not yet. It depends on the alcohol degree on the beer you take. There are several studies which so that drinking a small amount of beer with the low alcohol degree is good for human life because beer contains some good enzymes for our body.

2. How long does alcohol stay in your breath?

Alcohol may stay in our breath which depending on the alcohol degree, the duration of alcohol leaving in your breath varies. Normally, it takes from 30 minutes to 5 hours to leave alcohol in breath.

3. How long does beer stay in your system?

The time beer stays in your system depends on the degree of alcohol in a beer you get. With a can of beer (350ml), it takes about 30 minutes to leave beer.

4. If I pregnant, should I drink beer?

No, you should not. Drinking alcohol during pregnant or lactation may be not only harmful to yourself but it also effects on your baby.

5. How to get alcohol out of your system fast?

Lemon and water is the best choice for getting alcohol out of your body. It is easy and not time-consuming. You can add some sugar or salt to easier to drink.

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