Alcohol PhysiologyThe process by which alcohol moves into the blood from the digestive system is called absorption. Onve very important fact is that alcohol does not have to be digested to move into the blood from the stomach. Alcohol is water soluble and the bloodstream rapidly transports the ethanol throughout the body where it is absorbed into the body tissues in proportion to their water content. Alcohol can pass directly from the stomach walls into the blood stream, and thus, alcohol absorption can happen very, very fast. The usual time can be from 15 minutes to 55 minutes. Sometimes it takes longer if the person has been eating or had a full stomach when drinking. When alcohol enters the empty stomach, about 20 percent will go directly into the blood through the stomach walls. The rest will enter the blood through the small intestine. Metabolism is the body's process of converting ingested substances to other compounds. Metabolism involves a number of processes, one of which is referred to as oxidation. Through oxidation in the liver, alcohol is detoxified and removed from the blood, preventing the alcohol from accumulating and destroying cells and organs. The liver can metabolize only a certain amount of alcohol per hour, regardless of the amount that has been consumed. The rate of alcohol metabolism depends, in part, on the amount of metabolizing enzymes in the liver, which varies among individuals and. In general, after the consumption of one standard drink, the amount of alcohol in the drinker's blood peaks within 30 to 45 minutes. (A standard drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 6 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits, all of which contain the same amount of alcohol.) Alcohol is metabolized more slowly than it is absorbed. In organs having a rich blood supply, such as the kidneys, brain, and liver, the tissues very quickly attain alcohol equilibrium with the arterial blood. Voluntary muscle tissue, however, has a much smaller blood flow per unit of weight, and as a result requires longer to reach alcohol equilibrium after ingestion. Since the muscles make up about 40 percent of body weight, this delay in alcohol absorption by the muscles results in high concentrations of alcohol in arterial blood and in the brain during active absorption of alcohol. The result is the common phenomenon that an individual may appear greatly affected only a few minutes after taking two or three drinks, and then rapidly sober up within 15 to 30 minutes, in apparent contradiction to normal expectations. Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently from men. They have higher Blood Alcohol Concentration's (BAC) after consuming the same amount of alcohol as men and are more susceptible to alcoholic liver disease, heart muscle damage, and brain damage. The difference in BAC's between women and men has been attributed to women's smaller amount of body water, likened to dropping the same amount of alcohol into a smaller pail of water. An additional factor contributing to the difference in BAC's may be that women have lower activity of the alcohol metabolizing enzyme ADH in the stomach, causing a larger proportion of the ingested alcohol to reach the blood. The combination of these factors may render women more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced liver and heart damage. |
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