There, healthcare providers will help you slowly and safely stop drinking alcohol while closely monitoring your physical and mental health. You can also help your body metabolize alcohol by avoiding highly processed foods and drinks like chips, white bread, and soda. This added stress can make it difficult for your liver to metabolize alcohol in a timely manner. Alcohol does some ugly things to the body that tend to linger long after you stop drinking. If your goal is to get alcohol out of your system for a month or you want to get and stay sober, know that you’re in for some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal has a way of keeping you drinking even when you want to stop. Breath tests for alcohol can detect alcohol within a shorter time frame, at about 4-6 hours. Any number above 0.02% is unsafe since you experience some loss of judgment and a decline in visual functioning. It’s also important to know how much alcohol is in your drink because that will determine how long it takes to metabolize your drink.
I think alcohol should have a label that explains how long that drink will take to get out of your system so you know when you can drive
— Ashleigh Jedan (@Jedan93) August 10, 2012
However, many employers include alcohol in drug-free workplace policies and can test for blood alcohol content on saliva or breath tests. Often, this is conducted as a random drug screening in the workplace or if an accident occurs. May detect alcohol consumption from 12 to 24 hours on conventional drug testing. The timeline might vary based on consumption, frequency, age, sex, and weight. Food – Consuming food before or after drinking might lead to slow absorption of alcohol. A person who has not consumed alcohol might hit the peak alcohol level within 30 minutes to 2 hours of consumption. Once you consume alcohol, your body will start the metabolization process. The drink will get into your blood, and the blood will carry the drug metabolites to all the body parts. Almost 90% of the alcohol you consume passes through the liver, and only 10% of the alcohol leaves through urine and sweat.
What is the best way to sober up?
If you are a social drinker, you can probably stop drinking without much concern. However, heavy drinkers should always withdraw from alcohol in a rehab facility or program. Even if you know how to get alcohol out of your system, it is not safe to do so without medical supervision. Joining a specialized program is ideal if you want to remove alcohol from your body.
Many people believe that alcohol is removed from your system by your sweat. This is somewhat true, but consider this – it is very minute amounts, and the bulk of what you’re sweating is simply the byproduct of alcohol, not the alcohol itself. Only 10 percent of the alcohol consumed is eliminated in urine, breath, and sweat. This means that even if you sweat a lot, you won’t be getting rid of the alcohol in your system. The only real way to rid your body of alcohol is to wait as your liver goes to work breaking the alcohol down.
Factors that Affect BAC
Individuals who have higher tolerances to alcohol, such as people with alcohol addiction, may eliminate alcohol more quickly. Alcohol stays in your system for between one and three hours, but urine tests and breathalyzers detect alcohol use for up to 24 hours. Hair how can you get alcohol out your system tests can determine if you drank alcohol in the past 90 days. In order to get alcohol out of your system, you have to understand how long it can stay in your body. I mentioned earlier some of the factors that determine how quickly your body processes alcohol.
It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider. If someone’s blood alcohol content is 0.08, it would take about five hours and 20 minutes for the body to metabolize the alcohol. It typically takes a person with a BAC of 0.20 anywhere from 12 to 14 hours to reach sobriety. Women have less dehydrogenase, an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the stomach. This contributes to women reaching higher blood alcohol levels than men despite drinking the same amount of alcohol. Factors that determine how long alcohol stays in your body include liver size, body mass and the amount of alcohol consumed. A small amount of alcohol is removed from the body through sweat, urine and respiration. Alcohol can be detected in sweat, urine and the breath for at least as long as the liver is breaking down alcohol. On average, it takes about one hour for the body to eliminate one standard drink.
Urine tests can detect alcohol long after you’ve had your last drink by testing for traces of alcohol metabolites. The average urine test can detect alcohol up to 12 hours after drinking. However, more advanced testing can measure alcohol in the urine 24 hours after drinking. The best way to sober up from excess alcohol drinking is to allow plenty of time, rest, and sleep. The methods we suggest above may help a person feel and appear more alert, but they will not decrease blood alcohol levels in their body. When a person hydrates by drinking plenty of water, it can give their liver time to metabolize the alcohol in their body, as well as spacing out the alcoholic drinks they consume. Healthline.com says how long alcohol stays in your system is dependent upon age, weight, whether you’ve eaten food recently, medications, liver disease and the time between drinks. One cup of beer may stay in one person’s system longer than it will for someone else with a different weight.
How long does it take alcohol to get out of your system before you can legally drive?
— Becca (@BeccaMedlin) March 30, 2014
Other factors affect the intoxication level that will cause BAC to rise more quickly and fall more slowly. If you get positive results, you will have to send the sample to the lab for further analysis. The lab-based tests might identify the drug metabolites from 1 to 3 weeks before consumption. Instant drug testing kits in bulk to conduct pre-employment, random, and post-accident drug testing kits. In an adult male, alcohol can penetrate approximately 68% of body tissues. First, it physically obstructs the alcohol from coming in contact with the stomach lining. Food can either absorb alcohol, or simply “take up space” so the alcohol does not enter the bloodstream through contact with the wall of the stomach. As always, if you are going to drink, drink responsibly and know your limit. Avoiding that “one too many” can help you from feeling like you want to try to sweat it out. Exercise may make you feel more aware, but your BAC may still be high if you drank a lot of alcohol in a short time.
Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. As such, people may want to sober up to lessen these effects and try to prevent a hangover. Those who smoke cannabis daily can have it detected for up to 30 days. How long alcohol stays in your system depends on factors such as age, weight and medications. Like many other drugs, alcohol can be detected with a hair follicle drug test for up to 90 days. Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by board-certified physicians and mental healthcare professionals. Medical Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates.
When misused, alcohol can do as much overall harm as many illegal drugs. People who misuse alcohol also risk developing physical and psychological dependence and alcohol use disorder. While alcohol itself has a relatively short detection window of only a few hours, certain alcohol byproducts stay in the body longer. One of these byproducts,ethyl glucuronide, can be detected in urine for up to three days after a person’s last drink. Some labs also test urine for ethyl sulfate , another metabolite that signals recent alcohol intake. Urine alcohol content is sometimes used to estimate a person’sblood alcohol content. The amount of alcohol in a person’s urine is approximately 1.33 times greater than the amount of alcohol in their bloodstream. For accuracy, at least two urine samples are usually collected 30 minutes to an hour apart. Alcohol can bedetected in a urine samplewithin an hour of drinking, and it usually remains detectable for up to 12 hours. Unless specifically requested, standard drug tests usually do not test for alcohol.
Tips to Flush Alcohol from Your Urine
Drinking plenty of water can help you feel better and stave off a hangover in the morning. Alcohol dehydrates the body, perhaps leaving you with that hangover headache in the morning. If you hydrate well, you may how can you get alcohol out your system decrease or eliminate that hangover headache. Oxidation is a chemical process in the liver in which molecules of ethanol are broken down and converted into acetic acid, and later, carbon monoxide and water.
- The toxins in alcohol can cause low blood sugar and even crashes, so it’s important to balance it out and get some food in your body.
- The best way to sober up from excess alcohol drinking is to allow plenty of time, rest, and sleep.
- However, the organ can only metabolize a little at a time, leaving the excess to circulate throughout your body.
- However, the information provided by Addiction Group is not a substitute for professional treatment advice.
- Urine alcohol content is sometimes used to estimate a person’sblood alcohol content.
However, there is currently no strong evidence to suggest that exercise can help metabolize alcohol quicker. It also helps to restore the body’s ability to get alcohol out of the system. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism , an abundance of factors contributes to how long alcohol stays in your system. Misunderstanding these factors makes it difficult to tell whether you’re legally safe to be behind the wheel and can lead to tragic consequences. As you get older, your liver works more slowly, so it takes longer to excrete alcohol. Many aging adults also take medication that can affect liver function, slowing the process further. Between 12–24 hours after your last drink, symptoms can progress to hallucinations or seizures.
It is advisable to eat before drinking, especially foods that are high in protein. Having food in the stomach can help to slow the processing of alcohol. Additionally, a person may find it useful to snack while drinking, as not only will this line their stomach with food, but may help them to drink at a slower rate. Taking slow sips and keeping busy, such as chatting with friends, can help reduce the number of alcoholic beverages that are drunk. It takes the body at Sober Home least 1 hour to process each drink consumed. By the time a person has had their second drink, if it is within the same hour, they are likely to be impaired, although they may not realize it. Apps can not only help a person track how many drinks they have consumed, but they can also estimate BAC levels and send alerts if the individual is drinking too much or too quickly. When people are drinking, it is easy to lose track of the amount of alcohol they have consumed.