According to Dr. Nguyen Huy Hoang, in charge of the Vietnam - Russia Hyperbaric Oxygen Center, Ministry of National Defense, with the widespread reality of people drinking alcohol in most countries around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the concept of alcohol unit.
One unit of alcohol is equivalent to 10g of pure ethanol, equal to 200ml of beer; 75ml of wine (1 glass); 25ml of spirits (1 cup). Depending on the amount of alcohol consumed, it will be converted to approximately how many units of alcohol.
For a healthy adult, the liver will eliminate 1 unit of alcohol every hour. This is an average number. Depending on the individual, such as people with weak livers or people who weigh more than average, this time period can increase or decrease.
Regarding the body's alcohol excretion mechanism, about 10 - 15% will be excreted through the respiratory tract, skin, and sweat. About 85 - 90% will be processed through the liver.
Drinking 2 glasses of strong alcohol (about 40 degrees) is equivalent to 2 units of alcohol, the liver will take about 2 hours to eliminate. In addition, after eliminating, the liver needs another 3 hours for the alcohol concentration in the blood to return to 0. Therefore, if drinking 2 glasses of alcohol, it will take about 5 hours for the alcohol concentration to not increase.
“Studies show that when the alcohol concentration in the body is high, meaning when we drink a lot of alcohol, the liver's alcohol elimination rate is faster. On the contrary, when the alcohol concentration in the body is low, this rate is slower. We need to note that even after the liver eliminates all the alcohol concentration, the body still needs 2-3 hours to completely eliminate it,” Dr. Nguyen Huy Hoang emphasized.
According to Dr. Hoang, there is no completely correct answer to the question "I drink a certain amount of alcohol, after how long will the alcohol concentration be reduced to 0?" The reason is that depending on each person, the exact time to completely eliminate alcohol from the body will be different.
We can estimate the time. However, these are average, estimated numbers. Each individual will have a different time and many factors affect the speed at which the body eliminates alcohol.
For example, people who eat a lot and then drink alcohol. Alcohol is absorbed 20% in the stomach and 80% in the small intestine. When the stomach contains a lot of food, the rate of alcohol absorption by the stomach will be slow and the rate of alcohol excretion will also be slow.
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