What happens with different ppm blood alcohol levels?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

What exactly happens to the body with different ppm of alcohol in the blood, and how does this affect us? Let's figure it out with Professor Janne Tolstrupa, head of research at the Danish State Institute of Health, including the study of the relationship between alcohol and health.

All mammals can break down alcohol

Let's start from the very beginning and talk about what alcohol is.

When it comes to drinkable alcohol, its molecule is called ethanol, but there are many other forms of alcohol that are best avoided. For example, methanol is a great fuel - or glycol, which acts as an antifreeze in cars.

Alcohol - one that you can drink - is a completely natural organic molecule that, for example, arises in fermentation processes. For example, as a result of fermentation of beer or wine, but also in nature, say, when fruits that have fallen to the ground begin to rot.

This means that, in principle, there is alcohol in nature, and many animals have learned to process it.

“Since alcohol occurs naturally, all mammals have enzymes that can break down alcohol. This also applies to mice, and horses, and people. However, enzymes are not able to break down alcohol as fast as we humans sometimes drink it, which is why we get drunk,”explains Janne Tolstrup.

In women, ppm grow faster

When people drink alcohol, it is dispersed in body fluids, which means it enters the bloodstream.

Alcohol is not deposited in adipose tissue and bones, and when we talk about the presence of it per mille in the blood, we mean how much of the body fluid now consists of alcohol consumed.

If you, for example, have one ppm of alcohol in your blood, this means that one thousandth of all your body fluids is alcohol.

Thus, ppm of alcohol appears in our blood in different ways. For example, after a glass of beer, a tall man weighing 120 kg will have less ppm in his blood than a man weighing 60 kg.

The overall difference in body fat percentage between men and women also means that the average woman gets more ppm of alcohol from a glass of beer than a man, even if they weigh the same.

“Since women have less fluid in which alcohol can accumulate when they drink, their ppm also grows faster,” explains Janne Tolstrup.

Alcohol affects the eyes first

So let's talk about ppm.

Christmas dinner has begun, and the first sip of beer is already in my mouth.

The beer goes well with pickled herring, and as Carl in the sales department continues to toast, the bottle empties before the beer has time to heat up.

As the first bottle of beer enters the body and is distributed through its fluids, in most people, the ppm of alcohol in the blood crosses the 0, 2 line.

Then, according to Janne Tolstrup, the first effects of alcohol can be seen.

“One of the first manifestations is that the eyes begin to adapt worse to the transition from bright lighting to semi-darkness. Typically, alcohol has an inhibitory effect on signaling pathways in the brain, which makes a person also more slowly satiate with anything when drinking, says Janne Tolstrup. “I'm sure the same thing is happening here as with the signaling pathways that are responsible for the eye's reaction to changing lighting from bright to dark, which is why we see this effect.”

It is illegal to drive with more than 0.5 ppm in your blood

The first Christmas beer quickly disappeared, and accountant Ruth insists it's never too early to get schnapps.

Young trainee Peter shouts “Drink it to the bottom!”, And now, as if by magic, the schnapps disappears.

The harsh taste of schnapps is best served up with a couple of deep sips of new beer, so while the whole company tackles the fish fillets with homemade remoulade sauce, ppm continues to grow.

Very quickly they pass the border, after which it is impossible to get behind the wheel - 0, 5 - and set a course for a new mark at 0, 8.

When ppm is around 0.8, the reaction rate slows down, which is why driving after drinking more than one beer is a bad idea. Plus it's illegal.

Alcohol makes people overconfident

The reaction time is not the only thing that is influenced by ppm, close to one.

One American study several years ago showed that with every glass you drink, your caution decreases.

During the study, scientists asked American taxi drivers to drive between the cones on a test track, with the distance between the cones getting smaller and smaller. At the same time, some drivers took alcohol, while others did not. It is important to mention that, of course, these drivers did not work on this day or the next.

The results of the study showed that drivers with one or more ppm of alcohol in their blood were more presumptuous and more willing to take risks when assessing whether their car would pass between the cones.

Because of this, some of the cones became flat.

“When a person drinks, his willingness to take risks increases. He feels invulnerable and is ready to go on various adventures. It's not just about a car, but about behavior in the city in general, for example, when you need to meet a girl in a bar or a guy on the dance floor,”explains Janne Tolstrup.

"Of course, we are not saying that a person will immediately send his car down a slope, but he becomes a little bolder and starts taking risks, and this does not fit well with driving a car."

The difference in drunkenness with a different amount of ppm in the blood

But back to Christmas dinner.

The herring disappeared from the table, and a pork roast took its place.

The food turned out to be too much, and it is better to wash it down with a glass of red wine, although the young intern Peter thinks that the bottle of schnapps should be emptied first.

When a couple of glasses of red wine join in the blood with the company of beer and schnapps, the ppm skyrockets even higher.

With ppm somewhere between 1 and 1, 5, the person's ability to concentrate begins to decline, and Ruth's story about the dead cat cannot keep the attention of the audience.

Her tongue starts to feel too big and twists in her mouth, and the ability to stay on her feet is cheating on her on the way to the toilet, so the others have to help her to her feet again.

But not all ppm in 1, 5 acts in the same way. Peter is still clear-headed and able to maintain balance while standing on one leg, while the very young girl at the other end of the table shouldn't have had a last glass of schnapps at all.

“How a person is influenced by 1, 5 ppm depends on how much he is used to drinking. If a person drinks often, the body compensates for the effect of alcohol, and in order to get drunk, he needs to drink much more. In addition, a person feels less drunk if he had more ppm in his blood before, but now their number has dropped to 1.5. If this figure rises from a lower level, the feeling of drunkenness is stronger,”explains Janne Tolstrup.

Three ppm will make you slap in your pants

The roast pork, already pretty ruined, is still on the table when the almond rice is brought in.

The boss and the secretary retired to the room with the copier, and the rest of the company pounced on the port.

Thanks to the combination of Christmas beer, schnapps, red wine and port, ppm in blood has exceeded two and is quickly approaching three.

By this time, Christmas dinner is no longer so fun, because the ppm in the guests' blood has reached the point where a person, according to Janne Tolstrup, begins to completely lose control.

People pee in their pants or fall asleep. Some do both at the same time.

“If it comes to this, it’s obviously high time for you to stop drinking,” warns Janne Tolstrup.

More than three ppm can be dangerous

If the company did not manage to stop in time, then now is definitely the time to put the glasses aside.

When blood ppm surpasses three and begins to strive for four, the celebration of Christmas becomes simply dangerous.

People lose consciousness, and ppm in region 4 for most people means mortal danger.

This is because alcohol can affect the centers in the brain that are responsible for breathing, even when we are unconscious, and if these centers are so deafened that they cease to perform their vital function, the person dies.

“Fortunately, this happens quite rarely, because when we drink so much, we usually feel sick. But there were times when a person drank very quickly, and ppm in his blood rose so rapidly that he fell unconscious and stopped breathing. There are examples when people survived with 4, 5 or even more ppm in their blood, but this is possible only if you are used to drinking a lot,”says Janne Tolstrup.

Christmas dinner ends, people wander over to the taxi and drive home. Tomorrow they will have a hangover, both mental and physical.

This is probably actually the body's cunning natural way of getting us to drink less.

This is what happens with different ppm of alcohol

0, 2 - it becomes more difficult for the eyes to adapt to the transition from light to dark

0, 5 - you can no longer drive a car in Denmark

0, 8 - the reaction speed slows down, but the courage grows

1, 5 - difficult to maintain balance, concentration deteriorates

2-3 - you fall asleep and possibly pee in your pants

more than 3 ppm is life-threatening, you may stop breathing

How to calculate how much ppm you have in your blood

On average, alcohol is distributed over 60% of body weight in women and 70% of body weight in men. It is generally believed that alcohol is processed at a rate of 0.15 ppm per hour. For an approximate calculation of ppm, use the following formula:

For women:

Alcohol in grams / (weight in kilograms x 60%) = ppm

For men:

Alcohol in grams / (weight in kilograms x 70%) = ppm

Example:

A man weighing 80 kg drinks five bottles of beer (which corresponds to five servings of alcohol, 12 grams each). In total, he takes 12 × 5 = 60 grams of alcohol. The calculation is carried out accordingly:

Alcohol is distributed over 80 kilograms x 70% = 56 kilograms of body weight.

The concentration of alcohol in the blood is then obtained: 60 grams / 56 kilograms = 1.07 grams / kilogram = 1.07 ppm.

This formula allows only a very rough estimate of the blood alcohol per mille.

Highest ppm

There are a number of scientific articles on very high blood ppm in humans. For example, one Thai woman recorded 13.5 ppm. From this she died.

According to another article, one Irish man survived after 15 ppm of blood alcohol.