Author: John Carter
Alcohol Poisoning: Symptoms, Signs, and More
Below we’ll explore some of the factors that can contribute to alcohol poisoning and how long you’ll feel the effects. Unlike food, which can take hours to digest, the body absorbs alcohol quickly — long before most other nutrients. And it takes a lot more time for the body to get rid of alcohol.
- Every person is different, so there’s no way to know how much you can drink before you’re at risk of alcohol poisoning.
- While alcohol poisoning is certainly a concern for people with alcohol use disorder, alcohol poisoning is more common than most people realize and can happen to anyone who drinks.
- Examples of these medications include sleep aids, such as zolpidem and eszopiclone, and benzodiazepines, such as diazepam and alprazolam.
- If they are experiencing an episode of acute alcohol poisoning, their condition could lead to coma and even death if you do not intervene.
Prompt medical treatment can help prevent these complications from occurring. It’s also important to remember that BAC can continue to increase as long as 40 minutes after your last drink. Therefore, if you’ve consumed a lot of alcohol, you could still be at risk for alcohol poisoning even if you’ve stopped drinking. Your doctor can diagnose alcohol poisoning based on your symptoms.
What is the prognosis for alcohol poisoning?
Continuing to drink despite clear signs of significant impairments can result in an alcohol overdose. For a man, binge drinking is when you have five or more drinks in less than 2 hours. For a woman, it’s four or more drinks in the same time frame. Teens and college-age adults are most likely to engage in binge drinking.
One potential danger of alcohol overdose is choking on one’s own vomit. Alcohol at very high levels can hinder signals in the brain that control automatic responses, such as the gag reflex. With no gag reflex, a person who drinks to the point of passing out is in danger of choking on their vomit and dying from a lack of oxygen (i.e., asphyxiation). Even if the person survives, an alcohol overdose like this can lead to long-lasting brain damage.
Emergency Action for Alcohol Poisoning
They’ll also order blood and urine tests to check your alcohol levels. To prevent alcohol poisoning, limit your alcohol consumption. If you or a friend are drinking, pay attention to how much you consume and how quickly. If a friend appears to be drinking too much too fast, try to intervene and limit how much more they have. One of the biggest dangers is the belief that you can tolerate a large amount of alcohol just because you have consumed that amount in the past. Most people can physically manage moderate amounts of alcohol, but everyone’s ability to metabolize alcohol is different.
When you can’t metabolize alcohol efficiently, the harmful effects on your body occur quickly, have a more dramatic effect, and last longer. When you have alcohol in your system, you may also experience vasodilation (widening of the blood vessels), which decreases blood pressure. Vasodilation also causes blood to rush to the skin, potentially leading to hypothermia. As a CNS depressant, a high blood concentration of alcohol can also inhibit respiration, usually resulting in a slow, shallow breathing pattern. If a person suspects someone has alcohol poisoning they should call an ambulance.
Consuming alcoholic beverages leads to increases in your blood alcohol concentration (BAC). As your BAC increases, so does your risk for alcohol poisoning. In addition to the serious risk of death, alcohol poisoning can also lead to irreversible brain damage. Other long-term complications of heavy alcohol use include addiction, cancer, cirrhosis, liver disease, vitamin deficiencies, and mental health problems.
Why They Occur and Possible Complications
This effect decreases the gag reflex, which can make you choke on your own vomit while passed out or sleeping, causing potentially fatal consequences. Alcohol also disrupts a person’s balance due to its effects on the brainstem and cerebellum. Not only does this cause a lack of physical coordination, which can cause falls or other accidents, but it also contributes to alcohol-induced nausea and vomiting. Alcohol poisoning happens when you drink too much alcohol too fast. If you suspect someone has alcohol poisoning, always call 911. If you’ve drunk a dangerous amount of alcohol, doctors may “pump” your stomach.
If you think that someone has alcohol poisoning, get medical attention right away. A healthcare provider can offer treatment recommendations, assist with medical detox, and prescribe medications that can treat cravings and withdrawal symptoms. This article discusses the causes and symptoms of alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning typically happens when you consume a large amount of alcohol in a short amount of time.
Know the danger signals, and if you suspect that someone has an alcohol overdose, call 911 for help immediately. Do not wait for the person to have all the symptoms, and be aware that a person who has passed out can die. Don’t play doctor—cold showers, hot coffee, and walking do not reverse the effects of alcohol overdose and could actually make things worse. Using alcohol with opioid pain relievers, such as oxycodone and morphine, or illicit opioids, such as heroin, is also a very dangerous combination. Like alcohol, these drugs suppress areas in the brain that control vital functions such as breathing. Ingesting alcohol and other drugs together intensifies their individual effects and could produce an overdose with even moderate amounts of alcohol.
After receiving medical intervention, they will continue to have severe hangover symptoms until their condition becomes more stable. Alcohol poisoning affects the brain, blood vessels, and liver. Rapid fluid ingestion alters the fluid concentration in the body, potentially disrupting fluid and electrolyte balance. In other words, your friend who drank way too much may not just be sleeping it off.
Alcohol use and taking opioids or sedative hypnotics, such as sleep and anti-anxiety medications, can increase your risk of an overdose. Examples of these medications include sleep aids, such as zolpidem and eszopiclone, and benzodiazepines, such as diazepam and alprazolam. Even drinking alcohol while taking over-the-counter antihistamines can be dangerous.
Normally, anyone experiencing a medical emergency must give permission to receive professional help. This requires understanding the necessity of treatment, knowing the possible side effects of treatment, and being informed of the consequences of refusing help. Someone who is drunk can experience worsening symptoms within a few hours. Alcohol affects many physical functions, including blood pressure, breathing, and a person’s level of awareness. When somebody consumes an alcoholic drink, their liver has to filter out the alcohol, a toxin, from their blood.