Blood Alcohol by Percentage
Despite the laws and serious prosecutions against DUI, many people still continue to consume alcohol and cause destruction of property and lives on the roads. In most states, you are considered legally drunk if found to have a blood alcohol by percentage of .08 or higher even if you are not acting drunk. And as a general rule, the higher the alcohol level found in your bloodstream, the more number of days you will have to spend in jail.
Scientific studies have long established that the effects of blood alcohol level between.03 percent and .12 percent on the human body include mild euphoria, and reduced competence to make judgments and pay attention to driving. Because of these findings, majority of the states have lowered the threshold blood alcohol level by percentage from .10 to .08 at which a person is presumed to be under the influence.
The concentration of alcohol in your bloodstream is determined by a balance between the speed of alcohol absorption into your blood and the speed of its elimination from the system. Since the elimination process is at a moderately steady rate, the degree of intoxication depends largely on the absorption rate. The presence of food in your stomach, the rate of your alcohol intake, and your body’s composition contribute to how fast your blood absorbs alcohol.
If you want to slow down the absorption rate, you should take alcoholic beverages with a substantial meal, or eat some fatty foods and meat. Notwithstanding the amount of food in your stomach, drinking large amounts of alcohol within a few minutes’ interval exposes your brain to higher blood alcohol concentration. Unless you want to be pulled over by a police officer, the best thing you can do the next time you plan to drink more than moderate amounts of alcohol is not to drive a motor vehicle.