How Long does Alcohol Stay in your Urine

Alcohol is a depression that has a short term effect on your body. Once it entered into the body it can bring various damages. Drinking alcohol and forgetting everything is much easy. You can take more and more drinks and enjoy. But, at the end of the day, you are paying your health at the cost of alcohol. The alcohol poisoning symptoms may occur which are indeed deadly. Those who want to get rid of alcohol consumption usually ask questions like how long does alcohol stay in your urine,  How long does alcohol stay in your blood? And how long does alcohol stay in your system?

The short answer to all these questions is right here. Oftentimes, a person with alcohol poisoning passes out before they realize what’s happened. If you want to be sober get detailed knowledge about everything.

How long does alcohol stay in your Urine

How long does alcohol stay in your urine and system can be determined using simple calculations? The amount of alcohol you consume in a specific amount of time tells about the time it takes to get out. In general, a reasonable person is capable of metabolizing an average drink of wine, beer, etc. in an hour.

An average human body metabolizes alcohol at a specific rate of .012% – .015% of the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) per hour. When you start drinking alcohol the body is directed to metabolize it as soon as possible.

Calculation of BAC

Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is the ratio of alcohol in the human body. Mathematically, it is the total amount of grams of ethanol or alcohol in 100 milliliters of their blood. Hence, BAC matters when you are going for treatment. Several crucial factors are affecting a person’s BAC.

If you know your BAC, you can calculate how long does alcohol stay in your urine easily. It is a matter of dividing BAC by the rate of metabolizing alcohol. The answer is almost the length of time it might take to become alcohol-free and become 0.00 BAC.  It will also calculate the amount of time for it to drop to zero besides when you should stop drinking more.

Factors that affect how long does alcohol stay in your urine

The rate of alcohol processing in a human body depends upon various factors individually. Every person is very different from the other one and hence the time one person take to process alcohol is different from the other one. These factors include:

 Gender and body fat

Female owns less enzyme dehydrogenate which is essential for breaking the alcohol in your stomach. Women also have low water percentage and high-fat content in the body. All these factors affect the BAC of ladies.  Combining all these factors, we get that female get more intoxicated drinking the same amount of alcohol as male do. The level of intoxication of women is high enough. So, how long does alcohol stay in your urine is related to gender.

What’s your Age

It’s a fact that older people are intoxicating faster. This change is due to various changes in the human body like loss of muscle tissues, low water content and slow metabolism. All these facts make intoxicating super fast in old people.

Personal Health

Alcohol consumption is closely related to depression and anxiety. People going through mental health problems face serious problems while drinking. The body enzymes didn’t respond to the processing of alcohol. Hence, how long does alcohol stay in your urine is all about your health. So, having a mental and physical health problem causes a health risk and body immune system cannot correctly process alcohol.

Alcohol tolerance

Genetics matters a lot when we talk about the processing of alcohol. A person having liver problems are not able to process alcohol efficiently. The person tolerance level of alcohol decides the way your body reacts to alcohol. Though liver problem cause reddening of the skin in the face or neck especially, dizziness, hot sensations, nausea or vomiting, and heart palpitations.

Type of Alcohol

As each body system is different from the other one, the type of alcohol, we consume also differs. You are drinking strong alcohol causes really fast intoxicating. The beverages having high alcohol content like spirit and wines create a massive change in the intoxication level.

Situation of stomach

Protein and alcohol are rivals cutting the effect of one another. If you drink after eating a high protein meal the impact of alcohol is reduced. The body absorption level of alcohol also slows down when you drink having a full stomach. Drinking empty stomach immediately increases your body BAC level and you get intoxicated faster.

If you are looking for the solution to how long does alcohol stay in your urine, have a look at these factors and calculate.

What happens to alcohol in Body?

Alcohol leaves the body in multiple ways after consumption. A portion of alcohol is absorbed by the bloodstream from the stomach. The rest of the alcohol is consumed by the small bowel.

About 90-95% of the total alcohol a person consumes makes its way to reach the liver. The liver processes the alcohol and metabolizes it. Liver cells transform the alcohol into acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a toxic chemical that creates hangover marks and then to acetate. Acetate changes to carbon dioxide and water and hence finally leaves the body.

The extraction of alcohol via urine

When a person takes a high amount of alcohol, the liver usually takes an hour to process it. While the blood holds the substance and is called a person’s blood alcohol concentration or BAC, you can detect BAC with the help of breathalyzer.

But 10-5 % of the alcohol does not pass on to the liver; instead, it gets out of the body. This small amount of alcohol leaves the body through urine, sweat, and lung.

Alcohol Detection in Urine

All the alcohol addicts assume that it will get out of their body through urine. It’s a myth, only 1-2% of the total urine you intake take out through urine. Alcohol contains ethanol and with an hour of drinking alcohol, it can be detected through urine. A urine test can help work for almost 12 hours after drinking alcohol. Hence, the number of hours is somehow related to individual factors.

 The accuracy of Urine Testing

Urine testing is the most widely used detection method for alcohol. It can tell about alcohol consumption within two days. But the amount of alcohol present in urine is 1.33 times greater than the blood alcohol level. This test sometimes determines more alcohol than the person consume. The accuracy of this test is in doubt and hence it test must be taken 2-3 times. 

Byproducts remain in urine for longer

As we see, the alcohol detection window is much smaller and can be detected via some hours. But there are certain products in alcohol that stays in urine for longer. We have a byproduct ethyl glucuronide (EtG) that can be detected in urine after three days of drinking alcohol.

A similar urine test of ethyl sulfate (EtS) also determines the presence of alcohol. These EtG and EtS tests are used by courts and rehab centers for checking the person condition.

 Disadvantages of EtG and EtS

These tests are rarely used because the results are not accurate and cannot be used traditionally. Some problems with using EtG and EtS are:

• High detection cost
• The amount of alcohol consumed taken out by this test is not trustworthy.
• This test is also not able to differentiate between ethanol from alcoholic drinks. It mixes alcohol with other products, such as over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, some mouthwashes and body sprays.

Hence, avoid this test if you want accurate results. How long does alcohol stay in your urine cannot be determined via this test?

False Positives and EtG/EtS Urine Testing

This test also creates a mess sometimes by giving false positives. Wrong results can severely affect a person personal and professional life — this test is not suitable at all and can provide 26% wrong results in a study.

 Speeding up the Alcohol consumption process

Most people want to take out the alcohol out of their body. The time of how long does alcohol stay in your urine cannot be accelerated. There is not a way that can help you in detoxing faster. Also, there are no products in the market that can are useful for cleansing the body from alcohol. But, here some common remedies that can accelerate the process of alcohol detoxification.

• Drinking more pure water, juice and other fluids to get out of the spell of alcohol.
• Have a vitamin B complex supplement
• Eat healthy food
• Go for Light exercise to activate yourself

 A Final Word

Everything that can answer how long does alcohol stay in your urine is available here for you. The way to sobriety is smooth enough that you can apply in your life. All the above knowledge helps you in making better treatment decisions. So, don’t lead a miserable life and break all the hurdles of addiction.

Contact us at (844) 207-7757 and get immediate help from our specialized counselors. We are available 24 hours for your service.  Do not wait any further to save your and/or your loved ones life!