Blog 5 –Can you drive after Just one beer? Science Behind Blood Alcohol Concentration

Blog 5 – Substance Usage Disorder – Alcohol  

Disclaimer:

1.       Drinking Alcohol and Other Substance Intoxication are injuries to Heath

2.       This Blog didn’t endorse drinking

3.       This is purely education purpose

Alcohol is one of most common intoxication taken from adolescent to old age. The main reason for this might be easily available across all places. In recent decade drinking alcohol is seen as status symbol, peer compulsion and pain relief, celebration, sadness and all other human emotion. Indian cinema particularly Tamil cinema highly endorses this habit. Tamil cinema without this drinking scene will very rare these days.  Alcohol Usage Disorder (AUD) is one of the common and under treatment problem in health industry. Most AUD cases are misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed in hospitals.

Is there is completely safe amount of alcohol?

What do you think safer limit of alcohol for the man and women?

You may answer it many 1 round or 2 round but the answer is big NO. There are around 7 types of cancer caused due to Asbestos, Radiations and Tobacco and there are known as group 1 carcinogens. Now you might get question what is carcinogen and how it is related to alcohol

Carcinogen: Any substance that promotes the development of cancer by damaging the DNA and cause the gene mutation.
Have you watch the film Chernobyl? Those high radiation causes cancer because radiation is carcinogen.

 

How alcohol is related?

Alcohol is classified by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as the group 1 carcinogen. This means there is sufficient scientific evidence that alcohol can cause cancer in humans

Why Alcohol rate is Alarming?

According to latest report of Magnitude of Substance Use in India Report, 2019 alarm us by giving various data points which literally gives us chill

è Almost 14.6 % of India aged 10-75 yrs are current alcohol user which is almost approximately 16 crore people

è On those 5.2% people are alcohol dependent, which means they drink more 4 standard units in single occasions

è Overall alcohol prevalence among the population is 2.7 %

è Only 1 in 38 people receive any treatment which gives you a shocking Treatment Gap.

Do Alcohol affect Men and Women Equal?

Unfortunately, Alcohol affects women comparing men. According to this survey almost 1.6% women are under alcohol addiction

Reason why it affects women more then men

There are few difference between women and men purely related to biological aspects

è Women have lower total body water percentage comparing man this results in increase Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in women
What is BAC? Amount of alcohol present in bloodstream.

è  Women have more body fat percentage compared men this makes the alcohol distribution little slower compared men
why more fat? Estrogen stores fat, reproductive reasons, less muscle mass comparing men
how it affects distribution? Alcohol is water soluble rather then fat soluble, so it slower the distribution and affects the BAC

è There is enzyme know as Alcohol Dehydrogenase, which breaks down the alcohol to acetaldehyde which is toxic more acetaldehyde may cause nausea, head pain (hang over symptoms) then it further breaks down to acetate which flushes out through waste
how it affects women: women have 20% less alcohol dehydrogenase so this breaking down takes more time comparing men. More the time more exposure more damage to organs

Keep the Note: Since it affects the women it has no meaning that men are least affected. Both men and women are affected by comparing the percentage of damage, women are little higher on the scale

Now comes the main question
Do we can drive after having a Beer?

The Answer is NO. You should not drink at first place, if you are drinking you should not drive in first place,
Drinking and Driving is Punishable Offence and also it will cause a serious consequence for the person driving and innocents on the roads

But you will get a question one beer only what is going to cause? I will explain this with formula so that you will get the better picture

Before seeing formula let, we understand what is standard unit of alcohol

One Standard Unit = Volume (mL) x ABV % x 0.789 / 1000 x 100

è Volume = how much you drink in mL

è ABV = Alcohol by Volume (you can easily find in the label of bottle)

è 0.789 = density of ethanol

I know this formula is bit confusing, remember this cheat table

Beverage	Typical Amount	ABV	Standard drink (Approx.)
Beer	330 mL	5%	1.3
Beer	650 mL	5%	2.6
Strong beer	650 mL	8%	4.1
Wine	150 mL	12%	1.4
Whisky/Rum/Vodka	30 mL (1 peg)	42.8%	1
Whisky/Rum/Vodka	60 mL (Large peg)	42.8%	2
Whisky/Rum/Vodka	180 mL (Quater)	42.8%	5.5
Whisky/Rum/Vodka	375 mL (Half)	42.8%	12.7
Whisky/Rum/Vodka	750 mL (Full)	42.8%	25

 

Remember
One Standard Unit = 10 g Ethanol

 

Now you all know what is standard unit and what is BAC, to calculate BAC there is formula known as Widmark formula

BAC =      A / W x r  

                               Multiple by 100 to derive answer in mL/g

Were,

A, Amount of Alcohol consumed in g

W, Weight of person in Kg

r, Widmark factor r = 0.68 (men); r = 0.55 (women), we studied why this difference before apply this here

According to Indian Government, BAC during driving should within the level of 30 mL/100 g

BAC decrease in the constant speed of 15 mL/100 g per one hour

Now consider the example

Two person, Person A (70 kg, male) and Person B (70 kg, Female) took part in office party and drank 3 large pegs of Vodka from 11 Pm, party finishes at 5 Am do they can drive a car

Let me tell the answer first, they both shouldn’t drive, but let’s see the evidence-based formula

Amount of Alcohol consumed = 6 units each => 60 g of ethanol for both

By applying formula

Person A,                                                                                         Person B,

BAC = 126 mL /100g                                                      BAC = 156 mL / 100g

Time	Person A	Person B
0 hr	126	156
1 hr	111	141
2 hrs	96	126
3 hrs	81	111
4 hrs	66	96
5 hrs	51	81
6 hrs	36	66
6.4 hrs	30 (Approved Limit)	60
7.4 hrs	15	45
8.4 hrs	0	30 (Approved limit)
9.4 hrs	0	15

 

Form the table we can understand it takes almost 8 hrs to flush out the alcohol out of the various there are various factors affecting this so you should arrange a designated driver, use public transport or hire a taxi after drunk. It will be safe for both you and fellow peoples

Myth: One beer won’t affect my driving

Buster: Even one beer can impair the reaction time, judgement, attention and coordination. The degree of impairment may change between the individuals and depends upon factors like body weight, gender, food intake, and alcohol content. Even if someone is below the legal BAC limit, driving ability may still be affected

End of Blog

Thank you for reading. In the next blog, we will explore an important question: how alcohol affects the brain, how alcohol dependence formed and how it became habit

References

1.       Magnitude of Substance Use in India Report, NDUS 2019

2.       NIMHANS E-Learning