Alcohol Process

Alcohol, or ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH), refers to the intoxicating ingredient found in wine, beer and hard liquor. It is a chemical and like many other chemicals it initially sedates your central nervous system then, if you drink too much, it begins to irritate it.

Every person experiences alcohol and its physical effects differently. Perhaps this is why a "regular drinker" may not even notice the effects of a beer, while someone who never drinks will feel drunk after after just one beer even though the physical changes in their bodies are the same.

As you most likely already know alcohol affects each person differently, depending upon gender, age, genetics, size, weight and other factors. Some of these factors explain why (assuming the same amount of alcohol is consumed) there is a difference in alcohol levels of a man and woman.

A a general rule women have a smaller amount of "body water" and because alcohol is dispersed throughout the body via water, women reach higher peak alcohol level than men after consuming the same amount of alcohol (Frezza et al. 1990). Remember as a general rule body fat is usually higher in women and also that skeletal mass (bones) and fat absorb very little alcohol.

Once the alcohol reaches your stomach a percentage is also absorbed directly across the walls (on an empty stomach alcohol can potentially reach the brain within one minute). Then the alcohol passses to the upper portion of the small intestine where it is rapidly absorbed and then your alcohol-laden blood travels to the liver and to the rest of your body.

Most ethanol metabolism is done in your liver which is the only organ in your body that can produce enough of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase to oxidize alcohol at an appreciable rate. The liver converts the alcohol (by virtue of those enzymes) to other things like acetaldehyde.

The liver, however, can only metabolize a given amount of alcohol per hour, regardless of the amount you consume. This explains why you get drunk - because you drink faster than your liver can work. Anyway, the multiple enzymes begin the breakdown process to reduce the amount of alcohol entering the blood which could otherwise be toxic.

As you can see the process is complicated and this is a very, very basic explaination. It is possible for an experienced DUI lawyer to use this known process to your advantage - given the specific facts of your case.

Because of several physiological reasons, a woman will feel the effects of alcohol more than a man, even if they are the same size. There is also increasing evidence that women are more susceptible to alcohol's damaging effects than are men. Below are explanations of why men and women process alcohol differently.

Women have less body water (52% for the average woman v. 61% for the average man). This means that a man's body will automatically dilute the alcohol more than a woman's body, even if the two people weigh the same amount.

Women have less dehydrogenase, a liver enzyme that breaks down alcohol, than men. Alcohol dehydrogenase breaks down spirits in the stomach, reducing the amount of pure alcohol that enters the bloodstream about 20%.

Premenstrual hormonal changes cause intoxication to set in faster during the days right before a woman gets her period. Birth control pills or other medication with estrogen will slow down the rate at which alcohol is eliminated from the body.

Women who are heavy drinkers are at greater risk of liver disease, damage to the pancreas and high blood pressure than male heavy drinkers. Proportionately more alcoholic women die from cirrhosis than do alcoholic men.