How Long Does Alcohol Stay In Your System

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So you want to know how long alcohol stays in your system? Well here is the answers that may shock you. As most people think a big man would have alcohol leave his system a lot quicker than a little woman but that isn't the case. That is actually completely incorrect. There is no such thing as sobering up quickly. But you think that doesn't make sense because some people can have one drink and seem smashed all night and another person can have 5 drinks and seem completely fine. The difference between the two is that some people take a lot longer to raise their BAC. They don't lower it any faster but certain people can raise it more quickly.

How Alcohol Leaves Your System

There is two ways that alcohol leaves your system. The first way is through breath, perspiration, and urine. This one amounts to 10% of the alcohol leaving your bloodstream. The other 90% leaves your body through a process called metabolism. Metabolism is virtually the same for everyone no matter how tall you are, how much you weight, your sex, and your race. Alcohol generally speaking leaves your body at a rate of 0.015 of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) every hour. Therefore someone who has say 0.15 BAC will take ten hours to get completely sober. If you think about it the law for drinking with alcohol is your system is 0.08 (US and parts of Canada) or 0.05 in British Columbia. So if you were over that limit like 0.15 BAC it would take a considerable amount of time to get back into the legal range to drive. So here are a couple examples to give you some reference.

BAC Level	Metabolism Time in Hours
0.10	6.66
0.08 (Legal Limit)	5.33
0.05	3.33
0.02	1.33

You also need to remember that your BAC can continue to increase after your last drink has been consumed. Below are some times to how you can easily control the rate of your BAC level rising.

How To Control Your BAC Rising

Don't be tricked. All standard drinks (such as beer, wine, liquor) all have virtually identical amounts of pure alcohol and are all the same to a breathalyzer
Eat food with your drinks such as meat, cheese, and peanuts since they help slow the absorption of alcohol into your system
Sip your drink instead of slamming it back
Don't mix your drinks with pharmaceuticals.
Beware of unfamiliar drinks. Some drinks such as fruity drinks mask the taste of alcohol but do contain the same or more alcohol than you realize.
Only accept drinks when you really want them. Don't be forced or tricked into drinking something you don't want.

The Truth Behind Alcohol In Your System

Your body actually produced alcohol throughout your life 24/7. It is called endogenous ethanol production. The volume can depend on the types of food you have eaten. On average a person produces one ounce of absolute or pure alcohol each day. And a breathalyzer cannot distinguish between the two. So sometime those machines will give you a higher reading then what is actually in your system. So some innocent drivers are falsely convicted of DWI/DUI. Which seems very unfair. However if you avoid drinking a lot of alcohol and driving you will not have this issue.

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