Alcohol: Pharmacokinetics, BAC
Pharmacokinetics of Alcohol, BAC, Effects At Specific B.A.C. Levels When alcohol enters your body, it isn’t digested like most substances. It’s absorbed quickly, and is seen as a toxin , so your body therefore will primarily use the liver to metabolize the alcohol. And while I don’t want to give a full biology lesson here, the liver works at about a “drink an hour” pace (which is where that age-old rate of recommended consumption likely comes from). Until it’s all metabolized, it’s all over your body, in your blood, visiting your brain, etc (3) . And, of course, because it’s in your blood, it’s therefore in your lungs. This is the cause of the alcohol breath that most people refer to. In simple terms, it’s “in the process of being processed” alcohol, and it has a distinct, somewhat sweet, odor. You probably know the smell I’m talking about (it’s also why the “alcohol smell” on someone intoxicated will smell remarkably similar, regardless if the alcohol consumed was whiskey, beer...