Managing Your BAC

Don't Drink and Drive!
How many drinks does it take you to reach the legal limit of .08? How does two drinks affect your body? Do you eat before you go out for the night? Do you and your friends talk about if you are going to drink and how much you are going to drink before you leave?
These are all important to consider before you head out for a night. We hope you find good resources here to help you learn about your blood alcohol content (BAC) and staying safe.
What is BAC?
Everything you really wanted to know about BAC, but were afraid to ask... Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is a measure of how much alcohol is in a person's bloodstream. It measures the ratio of alcohol to blood, so for example, a BAC of .10 means one part alcohol for every 1000 parts alcohol. It is literally a measure of how drunk a person is.
BAC can be determined by gender, weight and height, and how many drinks a person has had. One drink is generally defined as:
one 12 ounce glass of beer
one 5 ounce glass of wine
one 10 ounce wine cooler
1.5 ounces of 80 proof liquor (one shot)
What Happens When I Drink?
A lot more is going on inside your body than you might think when you're at the bar or at a party having a few drinks with friends.
As the alcohol reaches your stomach, some of it is absorbed and immediately enters your bloodstream. Alcohol is not digested like food is. Most of it passes into the small intestine where it is absorbed and then goes into the bloodstream. Then most of it leaves the body after being processed by the liver. The liver is able to process alcohol one drink per hour. A few things can affect absorption rates.
These are:
  • the concentration of alcohol; the greater the concentration, the faster it is absorbed
  • carbonation; carbonated drinks tend to speed up the absorption of alcohol
  • food; food will slow down alcohol absorption.
Gender, weight and height and drinking rate also play into absorption and BAC level. Males can absorb alcohol quicker because they have more of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Additionally, the greater one is, the slower the BAC rises. If you have only one drink per hour, the liver can generally keep the body’s blood alcohol concentration at a relatively safe level. If you have more than one drink per hour, the liver cannot keep up its job of processing the alcohol and the concentration of alcohol in the blood begins to rise.
It is important to remember that alcohol is a depressant. As alcohol builds up in the body, the activity of the brain, heart and lungs may slow down. Early effects of alcohol consumption include impaired judgment, loss of self-control and lessening of inhibitions. As more alcohol reaches the brain, the person’s physical abilities become significantly impaired and coordination is lost.
The National Institution on Alcohol and Abuse and Alcoholism has an online demonstration of how alcohol moves through your body. You can view it by clicking here.
Sources:
Texas A & M Department of Student Life
Virginia Tech Alcohol Abuse Prevention