Understanding How Alcohol Interacts with Your Body

Knowing just how alcohol can affect your body can help you either avoid getting arresting for DWI or preparing you on how to act when pulled over. How much alcohol is in your bloodstream at a given time is affected by how fast alcohol is eliminated. Alcohol is eliminated when it is burned up in your body while the rest escapes through your breath, urine, and perspiration.

Alcohol makes its way into your blood by way of your gastrointestinal tract, namely, your mouth, esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. You will become intoxicated faster with an empty stomach because the alcohol has nothing to compete with it as it becomes absorbed by your stomach lining.

Where does the alcohol go?

Most people will absorb just over half of the alcohol consumed within a half-hour after drinking. Roughly 90% will be absorbed within that first hour, with the rest being absorbed after 90 minutes. The rate of absorption does depend on the quantity of alcohol consumed, concentration of the alcohol, rate of drinking, and the nature and amount of diluting material present in the stomach.

Almost all alcohol is oxidized in the liver, becoming water and carbon dioxide. The more you are accustomed to drinking, the faster it will probably be oxidized.

It may prove very helpful to be able to estimate your blood alcohol content at any time based only on the number of drinks you have, the time within which you had them, and your body weight. This can be accomplished by dividing 3.8 by your weight which will yield roughly how much your blood alcohol will increase with each drink within an hour. Bearing in mind that .08% is the legal limit, you should be able to give an educated guess to your current blood alcohol level.

This is not an exact measure, however, and you can still be arrested for suspicion of DWI no matter what your BAC. Contact an attorney right away from The Martinez Law Firm to right your DWI arrest.