How Long Does Alcohol Stay in Your System? Blood & Urine

The severity of the short-term effects of alcohol depends on how much you’ve had to drink. Once alcohol is in your system, the natural question is how to expedite its removal. While time and liver metabolism are the primary factors, there are steps you can take to support how to get alcohol out of your system this process. It’s important to note that there is no guaranteed way to flush alcohol from your urine completely. The best way to avoid detection is to abstain from alcohol altogether or to wait until it has completely left your system before taking a drug test.

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Alcohol metabolizes rather quickly; thus, a saliva test or breathalyzer test is used to confirm intoxication or recent drinking. These tests are used by emergency departments, police officers, and sometimes in rehab centers to ensure outpatient treatment participants are practicing abstinence. Traditional or older methods of testing can detect alcohol traces in urine for up to 24 hours. However, more recent methods that test for ethanol metabolites can detect alcohol even 72 hours after the last drink. Before we go into the details, let’s talk about what’s considered a drink.

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• And because everyone metabolizes alcohol at their own rate, some people will take longer to clear it than others.
• A study from Australia concluded that impairment of motor skills is one of the side effects of consuming alcohol that also affects athletic performance.
• Hydration plays a crucial role in facilitating the elimination of alcohol from the body.
• On average, it takes about one hour for the body to eliminate one standard drink.

To avoid overstressing your body, stick with gentle activities like walking or yoga. Chronic alcohol consumption can lead to liver damage, impairing the organ’s ability to process alcohol effectively. This can result in a slower breakdown of alcohol, leading to prolonged intoxication and increased risk of alcohol-related health issues.

How Long Does Alcohol Stay in Your System

You may be underestimating how much you drink because you (or your generous friend)  aren’t using standard measurements. At Healthfully, we strive to deliver objective content that is accurate and up-to-date. Our team periodically reviews articles in order to ensure content quality. The sources cited below consist of evidence from peer-reviewed journals, prominent medical organizations, academic associations, and government data.

Hydration and Water Intake

Alcohol addiction therapy and treatment is the best way to address AUD. Some factors that influence how someone reacts to the effects of alcohol include, but aren’t limited to gender, speed of drinking, medications someone is taking, and the amount of food eaten. Alcohol metabolism involves the conversion of ethanol into acetaldehyde and then acetic acid by enzymes in the liver. When alcohol is consumed, it enters the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine due to bloodstream absorption. The liver, a key organ in the body’s detoxification process, is responsible for liver processing of ethanol.

The best you can do is take steps such as finding a designated driver, not drinking on an empty stomach, and having a friend around if the effects of the detoxing process are more intense. Sunshine Behavioral Health strives to help people who are facing substance abuse, addiction, mental health disorders, or a combination of these conditions. It does this by providing compassionate care and evidence-based content that addresses health, treatment, and recovery. Drinking lots of water helps supply your kidneys with the fluid it needs to flush alcohol and its toxins out of the body.

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Next stop: the liver

• When you consume alcohol, your liver breaks it down into different compounds, including acetaldehyde, which is toxic to the body.
• There’s nothing wrong with celebrating with an alcoholic drink here and there.
• If you find yourself frequently needing to detox from alcohol, it may be a sign to reevaluate your drinking habits.
• Knowing what to expect during the alcohol detox process can help you feel more in control as withdrawal effects run their course.
• If you’re apprehensive about quitting drinking because of what withdrawal may hold, alcohol detox rehab can provide the supports needed to ease the process along.

• Women have less dehydrogenase, which is a liver enzyme that breaks down alcohol, than men.
• Maintaining a regular exercise routine can help speed up the metabolism of alcohol and promote overall health.
• In severe cases, it might result in high blood pressure and a slowed heart rate.
• Take our short alcohol quiz to learn where you fall on the drinking spectrum and if you might benefit from quitting or cutting back on alcohol.