this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I already replied to your similar comment on my thread, but I'm going to repeat myself here to give this maximum visibility; vomiting does not remove alcohol from your system. You become intoxicated not when you swallow alcohol, but when the alcohol in your stomach is metabolized and enters your blood stream. If you are vomiting from alcohol, it means your body has metabolized so much alcohol that it has recognized that it is being poisoned. It is purging your stomach to prevent you from metabolizing any more poison, but it is not removing any alcohol from your system (AKA your bloodstream). Someone is just as drunk just before they threw as they were after they threw up. That person will only become sober once their liver has had time to filter the alcohol out of their system.

Since OP is not throwing up, but the girl in his story is, it is far, far more likely that she is much drunker than him. Unless he had other symptoms of alcohol poisoning (and it seems like he would have mentioned that), it is safe to assume that her BAC is much higher than his. More broadly, you should never think that someone vomiting up alcohol is a sign that they are sobering up.

[–] bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To provide a source:

On an empty stomach, blood alcohol concentration peaks about one hour after consumption, depending on the amount drunk

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC543875/

[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, and to be clear, a number of factors will affect how quickly alcohol enters your system: stomach contents, body weight (not including body fat), rate of consumption. But once alcohol is in your system, you can't just purge it by vomiting. Time is the only thing that will remove it.

[–] bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

body weight (not including body fat)

On the contrary (same source):

Very little alcohol enters fat because of fat's poor solubility. Blood and tissue concentrations are therefore higher in women, who have more subcutaneous fat and a smaller blood volume, than in men, even when the amount of alcohol consumed is adjusted for body weight.

[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

This actually proves my point. "Very little alcohol enters fat because of fat's poor solubility." Meaning alcohol doesn't enter fat, so body fat doesn't lower the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. It's part of TIPS certification; a lot of bartenders are taught that body weight increases your ability to consume alcohol, so they see a heavy set guy and assume he can handle more alcohol, but fat doesn’t actually affect their tolerance. A 5'8" fat guy that weighs 250 is going to have a lower tolerance than a 6'2" lean guy that weighs 250.