How long does alcohol last in human urine: withdrawal time table

How long does alcohol stay in urine?

The period during which alcohol remains in the urine is determined by the following factors:

• age, body weight, gender and structure of a person;
• how much was drunk and eaten, the quality of the intoxicating drink and the degree of its strength;
• date of last drinking and urination (ethyl is retained in urine);
• volume of additional liquid consumed (not alcoholic);
• diseases that make it difficult to urinate.

The mucous membrane in the female body is thinner, so rapid absorption occurs, and alcohol comes out of urine much more slowly than in men by 20-25%. In case of long-term drunkenness, a woman loses up to 0.1 ppm per hour, while in men it is up to 0.15.

Old people and teenagers cope worse with alcohol than young and middle-aged people. The more a person weighs, the less time alcohol remains in the urine and is excreted by the kidneys. Fusel impurities are more difficult to absorb by any organism. A stressful state, due to adrenaline, promotes the rapid elimination of intoxicants.

Determination of the presence of ethanol by various analyzes

There are several options for determining the presence of alcohol:

1. a developed breath test performed using a tube. This test is used by traffic police to determine the degree of intoxication of a suspected driver. There are standards for the presence of alcohol based on the air in the tube. The test result will be positive if less than 10 hours have passed since the alcohol was consumed before the diagnosis;
2. A laboratory test determines how long alcohol remains in the urine. But this type of research is not always accurate, because errors are possible due to incorrect collection and transportation of the analysis;
3. blood testing using special markers. The method is similar to the one described above. To find out how long alcohol stays in the urine, a urine sample or blood sample is collected.

Let's take a closer look at how many hours alcohol stays in urine.

Rate of alcohol excretion from urine

Ethyl alcohol is the basis of alcohol. When drinking alcohol, ethanol enters the stomach, after which it wanders throughout the body, and after a few hours it begins to be processed and leaves the human body. The whole process is divided into three stages:

• absorption (if it enters the stomach);
• saturation (tissues and organs through the vessels of the circulatory system);
• excretion (urination, bowel movements, breathing and sweating).

The duration of alcohol release from urine varies from 8 to 30 hours. Urine is completely cleared in a few days, and sweat, blood, milk - 10-12 hours.

Alcohol elimination table

An alcoholic drink can be present in urine for a certain period, depending on the amount drunk. For example, 400 ml of vodka will completely disappear in almost a day, and a 0.5 liter bottle will disappear in two days. It is curious that traces of beer drunk in small doses will not be found quickly enough, because it has a diuretic effect. But for 500 ml it will take 2.5 hours for complete withdrawal.

The table shows the experimentally determined time during which the breakdown and removal of alcohol of varying strengths occurs. Dosage – 100 ml.

The time period is approximate, since other parameters also affect the release of alcohol from urine.

How to speed up the decay process

To study the table of the presence of alcohol in the body, it is important to understand the fact that for some it goes away almost immediately, for others it lingers for a long time.

This is due to the individual characteristics of the body. Alcohol has a weaker effect on men than on women.

Ethanol breakdown rate parameters:

• weight;
• gender characteristic;
• age;
• frequency of use;
• bad feeling.

So, how long does alcohol circulate in a person’s blood? Below is a table of how the body rids itself of alcohol. You can use it to find out how long it takes for ethanol to come out and how long it lasts.

Please note: it is better to avoid drinking alcohol on the eve of an important event . So that no factors change the outcome of the event.

Ways to speed up the elimination of alcohol from the body:

• walks in the open air;
• drinking large amounts of liquid;
• moderate physical activity;
• cold and hot shower;
• consumption of sorbents and large amounts of ascorbic acid;
• taking diuretics.

Diseases affecting alcohol excretion

Alcohol in the urine lasts longer if a person has cirrhosis, hepatitis and other liver diseases, since it is the liver that produces special enzymes for the decomposition of toxins and ethyl. As well as a number of other diseases:

• transmitted by sexual contact;
• diabetes;
• problems with the thyroid gland;
• heart and kidney failure;
• ICD;
• narrowing of the urethra;
• prostate adenoma, sclerosis and prostatitis of the prostate gland;
• balanoposthitis;
• obesity and hormonal imbalance.

The rate at which alcohol dissipates also depends on genetic predisposition. This occurs due to the hereditary transmission of liver diseases with weak enzyme function.

Chronic alcoholism causes alcohol to remain in the urine constantly.

The norm of alcohol content in urine when determining alcohol intoxication

According to the Code of Administrative Offenses (Article 12.8), driving a car while drunk is prohibited, and Article 12.27 in part 3 regulates liability for this violation (if the presence of alcohol in the blood and urine is proven), as well as the standard for its permissible content.

The law sets the value in ppm - 0.16 in exhaled air and 0.3 in a blood test.

According to the competent opinion of medical experts, there is no such thing as a zero blood alcohol level. When sober, the analysis can demonstrate up to 0.13 ppm.

Everyone knows that many foods and drinks (for example, kvass, kefir, etc.) can increase this figure, although they do not affect the degree of intoxication. Punishment in such cases will be undeserved.

If a controversial case arises: a device or analysis shows the presence of alcohol in the blood, but the driver claims that he did not drink, then an additional urine test is performed. Alcohol is removed from urine much longer, and if a person has not drank, then the alcohol level should be at 0%.

How does alcohol affect the results of a urine test?

If the day before a medical test, a person goes on a holiday where he drinks alcohol, there is no doubt about the meaninglessness of the study. Answering the question whether it is possible to drink alcoholic beverages before a urine test, we can definitely say no.

Regardless of the amount drunk, all alcoholic drinks in the world lead to a serious increase in uric acid. The indicators of many components will be greatly overestimated, so such an analysis will not help make a diagnosis. 2-3 days before the tests, you should completely give up alcohol, this is how long it stays in the body.

Methods that speed up body cleansing

Even a small dose of strong alcohol takes a long time to be eliminated, so you need to get rid of intoxication as quickly as possible. There are several methods to speed up the cleansing of the body:

• cleanse the stomach by vomiting when drinking a large amount of water (it makes sense only after a short time has passed after taking strong drinks, especially in combination with a large heavy snack that absorbs it);
• take sorbents after emptying the stomach (for example, Almagel, Enterosgel, activated carbon);
• cleanse the intestines of fusel oils with an enema;
• combine drinking plenty of fluids and frequent urination (it is better to drink still mineral water, citrus juices and herbal infusion);
• various diuretics are able to expel urine faster with the presence of ethanol (parsley with dill, knotweed, corn silk, rose hips and birch buds);
• brine helps balance salt and electrolytes, and fermented milk products will help the liver function;
• eat fruits rich in glucose and potassium (bananas, dates, etc.);
• a warm shower will open the pores (in this case, toxins are removed through sweating);
• physical activity promotes the active elimination of alcohol (this is equivalent to a regular walk, ventilating the lungs in the fresh air);
• the greatest, but not the fastest, effect is achieved from sleep.

Important! Diuretics should be used carefully, after consulting with your doctor. You should avoid tea and coffee (their effect is immediate, but the consequences are worse). When intoxicated, blood vessels may not be able to withstand the abundant steam of baths and saunas; it is better to limit yourself to a warm shower.

What methods exist to accelerate the elimination of alcohol components?

If you need to minimize the time it takes to cleanse your body of toxins and don’t want to struggle for a long time with the question “how long does it take for alcohol to be eliminated ,” then you can resort to several simple folk remedies.

A warm shower is a good way to stimulate metabolic processes. This method has no clinical evidence, so its effectiveness has not been proven.

Cleansing the gastric tract with activated carbon is a reliable folk and medical method. Coal absorbs all toxins and accelerates their elimination with waste products.

Give your body some simple physical activity: go for a long walk, ride a bike. But don’t overdo it, because combining heavy physical activity and alcohol is absolutely detrimental to the cardiovascular and nervous systems.

Drink more water and diuretics in sufficient quantities to speed up bladder processes. The latter can be either green tea or oolong tea, or specialized products purchased at the pharmacy.

And to improve the general condition of the body and stimulate metabolism, take a dose of vitamin C. Citrus fruits or ascorbic acid are suitable. You should also stick to the right diet to speed up your metabolic processes for as long as you can.

Another effective folk method for accelerating the process of eliminating alcohol is the most banal dream. During sleep, the human brain rests, and vital processes accelerate. That is, metabolism also accelerates, which affects the removal of toxins from the body.

So staying home and sleeping until the intoxication disappears is a good option. However, you can give the alcohol a chance for hours and days to clear itself.

Where is the concentration of alcohol higher - in urine or blood?

Depending on the time period that has passed since drinking alcohol, the level of concentration in urine and blood changes. At the absorption stage, which lasts about three hours, alcohol moves from the gastrointestinal tract to the cardiovascular system. Thus, at the resorption stage, the concentration of ethyl alcohol in the blood is higher.

Next, ethyl alcohol is oxidized and excreted from the body. At this stage (elimination), the concentration of ethanol in the blood decreases, and in urea it rises.

The more time passes from the start of drinking alcohol, the greater the difference in the level of ethanol in the urine and blood increases.

Often, after cleansing the bloodstream of an alcohol-containing product, its presence in the human body can only be determined by laboratory urine analysis.

Preparing for the test

To get reliable results from a urine test, you need to properly prepare for it. A few days before the test, completely eliminate any alcoholic drinks. In the last 24 hours, do not consume foods with coloring compounds. This may affect the color of urine, which is assessed as one of the laboratory indicators.

Before donating, you need to stop using diuretics. Women are prohibited from taking tests during menstruation. Immediately before urine collection, genital hygiene is performed.

For a routine urine test, fluid is collected in the morning, immediately after waking up. In this case, only the middle portion is collected. For the first few seconds, you need to urinate in the toilet, then collect a medium portion of urine in a container specially designed for this, and flush the remaining urine into the toilet.

It takes no more than two hours to deliver the collected material. You only need to select containers specially adapted for this purpose for delivery. They are sold in pharmacies at a low price, are made of plastic and are sterile.

Reusing containers from food or liquids for analysis is prohibited, since improper disinfection will affect the analysis results. Laboratories currently refuse to accept urine and other tests in non-sterile disposable containers.

Acceptable standards for drivers

Normally, alcohol should be completely absent in urine. But sometimes even when drinking soft drinks, alcohol is detected in biological samples. This is possible after drinking kefir or regular kvass. But then the ethanol content will be insignificant - about 0.1 ppm.

Determination of alcohol in blood or urine is usually carried out when required by representatives of the State Traffic Inspectorate to assess the driver’s condition. Typically, such requirements are relevant when a citizen exhibits inappropriate behavior, overexcitation, lack of communication or inhibition, there are coordination and speech disorders, and the smell of alcohol is smelled from the breath.

If alcohol is detected in an amount of 0.1 ppm, a lack of intoxication is diagnosed. If the results showed 0.3-1 ppm, they are questioned, and therefore it is impossible to draw conclusions about intoxication from them. If the indicator is 1 ppm, then the fact of intoxication is recorded.

Alcohol in the body

Not a single narcologist can tell you the exact time of breakdown of alcohol in the body, since this process is influenced by a lot of factors such as existing pathologies, metabolic characteristics, the amount of alcohol consumed, and a person’s gender characteristics. Ethanol penetrates into the bloodstream within 1-1.5 hours. Strong alcohol disappears from the body in about a day, only then can it be detected in the samples.

When ethanol enters the body, it goes through several stages of transformation.

1. In the first stage, alcohol is absorbed from the stomach into the bloodstream.
2. At the second stage, ethanol penetrates into the products of human metabolic metabolism - urine, bloodstream, sweat, etc.
3. The final stage is the removal of ethanol breakdown products from the body. In this case, the remaining molecules can be deposited in the reproductive and nervous system structures.

The final duration of the content of alcoholic components in urine is determined by the speed of metabolic processes, which slow down against the background of liver and kidney pathologies, metabolic and digestive disorders.

Methods for determining presence in urine

In order to study urine submitted for analysis for alcohol content, the following methods can be used:

1. Gas or liquid chromatography may be used. This method is considered the most accurate. During the study, the volatile components of urine are separated and analyzed in more detail, on the basis of which final conclusions are drawn.
2. Using an enzymatic technique. This type of analysis is usually performed in a drug treatment clinic. This test provides doctors with a wealth of information.
3. Application of the Widmark formula. Determines the exact amount of ppm of alcohol contained in urine.

Even when there is no alcohol left in the blood, traces of it can still be detected in the urine. It is impossible to give an exact date when there will be no traces left at all.