Drinking alcohol in moderation has been an important part of cultural and social interactions in Europe for centuries, while the idea of binge drinking was viewed as a rather foreign concept. In fact, it was only in the past decade that the French culture ministry officially coined a word to describe binge drinking: beuverie express, which translates to “fast drinking.”
In the U.S., however, binge drinking seems entrenched in American culture. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in six adults binge drink, with 25% doing so on a weekly basis. Healthline.com and many other medical sites define binge drinking as four or more drinks within about two hours for women and five or more drinks in about the same time frame for men.
A standard drink in the United States is a beverage that contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The amount of alcohol in a “drink” will vary according to the type of beverage.
In general, 12 fluid ounces of regular beer (5% alcohol), five ounces of table wine (12% alcohol), two to three ounces of liqueur (24% alcohol), or a 1.5 fluid ounce shot of distilled spirits (40% alcohol) constitutes a standard drink, according to the NIAAA.
How long does alcohol remain in your body after a drink? The human body can metabolize alcohol at a constant rate of one standard drink per hour, according to the Alcohol Rehab Guide, but that doesn’t mean that all traces of alcohol leave the body in an hour.
It takes about 60 to 90 minutes for alcohol to pass through the stomach and reach peak levels in the bloodstream before it begins to break down, the Cleveland Clinic states. The half-life of alcohol — the amount of time it takes for your body to get rid of half of it — is four to five hours.
“But you need about five half-lives to get rid of alcohol completely. So, it takes about 25 hours for your body to clear all the alcohol,” the Cleveland Clinic says on its website.
Other factors such as age, weight, gender, health conditions, medications, and diet can also influence the speed at which the body metabolizes alcohol.
However, after the alcohol has been metabolized, evidence of alcohol consumption can still be detected in the body.
“Alcohol detection tests can measure alcohol in the blood for up to 6 hours, on the breath for 12 to 24 hours, urine for 12 to 24 hours (72 or more hours with more advanced detection methods), saliva for 12 to 24 hours, and hair for up to 90 days,” American Addiction Centers states on its website.
Even after alcohol is no longer perceptible through any type of detection test, the after-effects of over-consumption of alcohol can linger for months and years in the body, especially for those who binge drink regularly.
Long-term risk factors associated with the over-consumption of alcohol are high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, digestive problems, dementia, anemia, cancer, osteoporosis, depression, malnutrition, and obesity, to name just a few.
A study by the National Library of Medicine in 2015 postulated that heavy drinkers were 70% more likely to be obese than lighter drinkers.
The NIAAA reported that “an estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually (including drunk driving), making alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of death in the United States.”
An estimated six people die a day due to alcohol poisoning in the United States, according to the CDC.
All of the above facts are not intended to throw cold water on the idea of drinking alcohol. In fact, Medical Daily reports that drinking in moderation can provide some health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of dementia, decreasing the risk of gallstones, improving libido, helping to fight off the common cold, and more.
So, raise a glass and drink — in moderation — to good health.