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Emotional factors that will affect your blood alcohol content

On Behalf of | Jul 22, 2019 | Firm News

As a species with a lot going on in their lives, people are emotional roller coasters. We have highs and lows, sometimes we’re sick, sometimes we’re fed up and other times we’re lonely. Sometimes, we’re just tired.

From illness to mood swings, hormones and sleep schedules; different emotions lead to different reactions when ingesting alcohol.

The following emotions can impact your alcohol tolerance.

Illness

During times of sickness or just getting over a sickness, your body will be more dehydrated than usual, will be producing fewer enzymes to metabolize the alcohol and will be putting more efforts toward healing you than working to detoxify your body. All these influences will lead you to becoming drunk faster.

Mood

Mood playing a part in how alcohol affects someone is uncommon knowledge, but the emotions we gather during our daily lives do transmit to how alcohol will impair us. Anger, fear and loneliness often quicken impairment.

Hormones

Studies have shown that women on birth control pills and/or are in the premenstrual stage of their cycle could get drunk faster than their counter-parts.

Sleep

Sleep can significantly affect your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) levels. According to Bowling Green University, if you get five or less hours pf sleep per night for four or more consecutive nights, four drinks will feel like six. This finding can also be skewed once weighing in other BAC determining elements like age, weight, muscle-to-fat ratio, gender and ethnicity to name a few.

These emotional elements aid in how well your body can tolerate alcohol before showing noticeable signs of impairment.

Someone with a higher tolerance will display:

  • Better short-term memory
  • A better ability to hold a conversation and eye contact
  • A more easy-going mood
  • Better speech and less slurring of words

Someone with a low alcohol tolerance will display:

  • Worsened hand-eye coordination
  • Impaired balance and motor function
  • Decreased peripheral vision
  • Poor short-term memory
  • A lack of focus during conversation and poor eye contact
  • Intensified mood
  • More slurring or words

So many things must be considered when figuring out to the science of alcohol tolerance. In fact, there are just too many factors to focus on each time you decide to that it’s time for a cold one, or a cold few. The best thing you can do is to drink responsibly and don’t drink and drive. Be there for the next event.