Every year record crowds come to the Valley of the Sun to enjoy the most popular and rowdiest event on the PGA tour. The Phoenix Open, a social hotspot that is better than any festival you may encounter in the Scottsdale area. Taking place during Super Bowl weekend, the Phoenix Open is known to attract enough people to consistently break attendance records, and is filled with live music, games, drinks galore, and rowdy fans constantly testing the mental concentration of their favorite golfer. However, one fact that goes unnoticed is the large number of police presence.

Picture this: After sipping on a few drinks you may start to notice that you have a slight buzz, and as the Open is coming to a close you can’t help but to wonder if you had a little too much to drink. So you think “what is my BAC?” You think you might be okay, but you aren’t really sure. Hold on…there are BAC calculator apps on your smartphone! There are apps for practically everything today, so this should be easy. So you pull one up, like Show me my Buzz¹ or iDrink Smarter² and try to determine what your BAC level is.

Most of these applications will give you a BAC estimation based on the amount of drinks that you’ve had. Some also take your height, weight, and sex into consideration. The problem is that it’s hard to determine an accurate BAC when other factors are present. Many of these sites are incomplete or don’t take things into consideration, like: Food consumption, medication, health and psychological conditions.³ While it’s always a good thing to keep track of how much alcohol you are consuming throughout the night, keep in mind that the calculations for BAC levels are not that simple. It can take between a half-hour to two hours for your body to fully absorb and then eliminate the drink, depending on whether or not you’ve eaten.⁵ A study by Kurt Dubowski, PhD of the University of Oklahoma found that blood alcohol time curves can fluctuate, and “alcohol absorption isn’t always complete in 60-90 minutes, as is often claimed.”

Further, apps that calculate how many “drinks” you’ve had are only as accurate as your memory of them will be. It’s also difficult to approximate what “one drink” is because a different sized glass or a heavy-handed bartender can make one drink actually become 3 or 4. Typically, 1.5 oz of hard liquor constitutes one drink, and can be poured in 6 seconds.⁴ But not all bartenders measure this exactly the same way.

One way to monitor your consumption is to drink easily measured drinks over a set time, like a 12-oz light beer(considered a “standard drink” in the study of alcohol consumption and BAC calculation) every hour or so. One standard drink an hour is typically what the average male can process, on a general scale. This does differ from person to person, and even between men and women. Again, there are other incalculable factors can potentially change your BAC. Remember, depending on the above mentioned factors, even the smallest amount of alcohol can impair your senses and judgment. If you feel in the slightest bit uncomfortable to drive, then you would be better off using your iPhone app to call a cab. Apps are great for many things, but estimating your ability to drive a car is not one of them!

(1) http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/alcohol/new-smartphone-app-estimates-blood-alcohol-concentration

(2) http://appadvice.com/appguides/show/best-blood-alcohol-content-gauging-apps-for-the-iPhone

(3) http://www.modot.org/safety/ImpairedDriving.htm

(4) http://www.examiner.com/bartender-in-national/bartending-101-free-pouring-vs-the-jigger

(5) http://www.forcon.ca/learning/alcohol.html

Thanksgiving is a special celebration where our relatives and friends gather around the table to eat abundantly and celebrate, not unlike a Roman feast, but (usually) much more civilized. The average amount of calories consumed on this day usually ranges between 3,000 and up to 4,500, more than two days’ worth for most of us(1).  It is not uncommon to see popped seams and shirt buttons on the floor when the pie is finally served. “Eat, drink, and be merry” is the mot de jour on this holiday, and ‘moderation’ is temporarily removed from the English language.

We’ve all heard of that common myth that eating more while you drink will “soak up” the alcohol in your stomach and prevent you from getting too drunk, an ancient myth that may have its roots in college parties. However, that second (or third, or fourth) plate of turkey and stuffing won’t stop your body from processing that second (or third, or fourth) glass of wine. Your digestive system works much like an older computer. Everything you input into the system will just be added to already long queue, and just take longer to process.

The human body generally digests one drink per hour(2). While you are enjoying some pre-dinner conversation and a pre-dinner cocktail to facilitate said conversation, the alcohol in your drink will be absorbed into your bloodstream at a normal rate. This is because the rate of absorption is higher than the rate that the alcohol is eliminated from your system, especially on an empty stomach with nothing to slow down the process. Think of this as a cup with a small drip at the bottom being filled more rapidly than it empties.

Researchers Borkenstein, Jones, and Neri conducted a 2006 study on consistent alcohol consumption, which produced the following results. In the experiment, twelve men were asked to drink over a period of 5-10 hours. Blood samples from the men were collected periodically to measure rates of absorption over the time period. Results showed that consistent heavy drinking over an extended period did not speed up absorption but rather it steadily climbed; the time it took to reach maximum intoxication usually exceeded by the time spent drinking, although by only a small margin. The drop-off rate, or rate of elimination, took much longer. Essentially, what this means is that ingested alcohol is absorbed by the body at a constant rate, and generally, also eliminated at a constant rate.

Adding food to this equation, especially in Thanksgiving-level proportions, slows down the rate which alcohol is absorbed by giving another “task” to the digestive system. We begin digesting carbohydrates through saliva, but protein and fats aren’t processed until they reach the intestines. A fat and protein- heavy Thanksgiving meal generally takes many hours to digest, so ingested alcohol can also stay in the system for long periods of time because of an overloaded digestive system. So while you may not reach peak levels of intoxication as you would without food, drinks will still stay in your system longer, BAC will still climb, and the alcohol take longer to be eliminated. While we may refill our wine glasses in anticipation of a family discussion on politics or in an attempt to delay the inevitable clean up, the alcohol’s effects will be delayed by turkey and stuffing but stay in the system longer than usual.

So be careful tomorrow, and on Thanksgivings to come, of how much food (and drink) you take. A heavy meal will keep drinks in the body much longer than usual, so they may still be in your system when you leave the party to drive home. An unwelcome post-Thanksgiving hangover could make us stop drinking cold turkey, at least until the next family gathering at Christmastime.

(1) http://www.acefitness.org/
Jones, A.W., Wigmore, J.G., & House, C.J. (2006). The Course of the Blood-Alcohol Curve After Consumption of Large Amounts of Alcohol under Realistic Conditions. The Canadian Society of Forensic Sciences Journal, 39

(2) http://www.bio.davidson.edu/

(3) http://www.rochester.edu/