In determining how long alcohol stays in your urine or system, it’s important to note that several factors come into play. However, some tests can detect traces of alcohol up to 80 hours after your last drink. You can feel the intoxicating effects of a drink in meager minutes-but you may struggle with a hangover for several hours.Īs a general guide, alcohol can stay in your system anywhere from 12 to 36 hours. Whereas alcohol is absorbed into the body rapidly, getting it out of your system takes longer. How Long Does Alcohol Stay in Your System? Generally, the liver eliminates more than 90% of alcohol in your bloodstream-while the rest is expelled through vomit, feces, sweat, and urine. When this is the case, the additional alcohol accumulates in body tissues and the blood-waiting for its turn to be metabolized. If someone consumes more than one standard drink per hour, the liver is not in a position to effectively metabolize the alcohol. How so? Well, 1.5 ounces of distilled liquor (40% ABV), 12 ounces of beer (5% ABV), and 5 ounces of wine (12% ABV) all equate to one standard drink. Saying you drank 3 glasses of an alcoholic beverage is a rather vague answer. When it comes to measuring the amount of alcohol consumed, it not about the number of drinks chugged in a sitting-but more of the alcohol content in those drinks. This brings us to a common misunderstanding – what exactly is a “standard drink?” It generally processes the equivalent of one standard alcoholic drink every hour. But just like any other organ, the liver has its limits. Most of the alcohol that enters your bloodstream eventually makes a stop in the liver-which is mandated with the noble responsibility of metabolizing alcohol. 08%, your motor skills and sense of balance are often impaired-and driving at/past this level of blood-alcohol concentration is deemed a crime in the U.S.). The negative effects of alcohol increase the more your drink. Typically, an ounce of alcohol equates to a BAC of. ( PS: BAC is a percentage measurement of the amount of alcohol in the blood. This leads to life-threatening alcohol poisoning. In extreme cases-especially after binge drinking-the amount of alcohol in your system may be high enough to negatively impact crucial body functions such as heart rate and breathing.