How Long Can Alcohol Stay in Your System?
There is no black-and-white answer to the question “How Long Can Alcohol Stay in Your System” because many factors affect the process of alcohol in the body. It could be weight, age, sex, the amount of food you have eaten, amount of water you’ve drank, and of course the most considerable factor, the concentration of the alcohol you are drinking and how much.
Alcohol can stay in your system for upwards of 48 hours after drinking. If you are having a heavy drinking night and there is more alcohol in your system, it will take longer for your body to process it.
There are many factors and ways to test if there is alcohol in your system. Below we will get into all of the details of how alcohol is tested in the body and how long it stays in.
Can you pass an alcohol test in 24 hours?
Different alcohol tests can detect alcohol up to 48 hours after consuming your last drink. Most tests will not detect alcohol after the 24 hour mark, but if you are worried about needing to pass an alcohol test, it is best not to consume alcohol 2-3 days before a test.
Blood test – a blood test will show alcohol present in your bloodstream for up to 6 hours after your last alcoholic drink
Urine test – alcohol can be detected in your urine for approximately 12-48 hours after your last alcoholic drink
Breath test - a breathalyzer can detect alcohol on the breath for approximately 12-36 hours after your last alcoholic drink
Saliva test - alcohol can be detected in saliva for approximately 12-14 hours after your last alcoholic drink
Hair test – trace amounts of alcohol can remain in your hair and hair follicles for up to 90 days after your last alcoholic drink
How the body processes alcohol
As soon as you have your first drink, alcohol takes a ride and is immediately absorbed through the tongue and lining of your mouth. It then will travel to your stomach and small intestine and get absorbed into the bloodstream before breaking down and metabolizing.
The body is a strong and complex system that uses multiple factors to work. This is no different when needing to break down and metabolize alcohol. A complex system uses two primary enzymes: aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). If you want to know more about these two check out the National Library of Medicine.
For the sake of this blog, we will save everyone the chemistry lesson and break it down to the fact that alcohol needs to be processed primarily through the liver. ADH in the liver breaks alcohol into many different forms before it is finally broken down into water and carbon dioxide.
Alcohol can also be excreted through sweat, breath, and urine. According to BGSU, you can excrete about 10% of alcohol through these other processes.
Factors that affect the process rate
Alcohol can be processed at different rates. Usually, it is processed through the body at about one drink per hour, this is considered to be 12 oz of beer, 5 oz of wine, or 1.5 oz of hard liquor. This time may vary based on the factors listed below.
Weight
Weight will affect the way alcohol is processed because it will take longer to travel through the circulatory system. The alcohol gets distributed by water through the bloodstream so the heavier you usually means there is more water and blood to dilute the alcohol.
Age
As someone ages, the enzymes in the body start breaking the alcohol down slower. According to Stanford Medicine, as we age, the fat-to-muscle ratio becomes an issue. With a lower ratio of muscle to fat, alcohol will be left in the bloodstream for longer, which is why hangovers tend to feel like they last for days rather than hours as we get older.
Food
When your stomach has food in it, the alcohol gets absorbed into the meal and takes longer to get to the small intestine where most alcohol would get absorbed. Without the alcohol getting absorbed into the small intestine so rapidly, the blood alcohol concentration stays lower.
Gender
Males can usually drink more alcohol than women before they start feeling any of its effects. Not only are men usually larger than women, so it takes alcohol longer to circulate, but also consider that men have more water in them. According to this article, men drink on average 117 ounces of water daily, whereas women only drink 93 ounces. This helps men dilute the alcohol in their bodies, which also decreases the concentration in the blood.
Alcohol strength
Alcohol has different alcohol percentages and strengths. The higher percentage of alcohol, the more a person will feel the effects and the longer your body will take to process it.
Medication taken
There are many over the counter (otc) medications that people can get and use that will affect the way alcohol behaves in the body. Medications that affect metabolism will speed up the absorption of alcohol.
Are there ways to sober up faster?
Contrary to popular belief drinking coffee, taking cold showers, and drinking more water will not sober you up faster, but will help you with the terrible hangover you get the next day. Once you have started drinking for the night or day, the alcohol will process at the same rate, but there may be one thing to do beforehand. According to NDSCS, eating a well-balanced meal (not grease-filled) will help slow down the absorption rate.
Final thoughts
Alcohol can be detected in your system for up to 90 days after consumption, but is usually tested with a breathalyzer or urine test and can show up to 48 hours after a drink. There are also many factors like gender, age, and alcohol strength that will affect the length that alcohol will stay in your system.
There is no magical way to sober up when getting drunk, but be responsible with the number of drinks you are consuming, as your body will usually process 1 drink per hour.