What are the symptoms of alcohol poisoning?
Common symptoms of alcohol poisoning include:
- Confusion and slowed responses.
- Lack of coordination or being unable to walk.
- Difficulty remaining conscious.
- Vomiting.
- Delayed or absent gag reflex, which could lead to choking on vomit.
- Slow breathing (fewer than eight breaths per minute) or irregular breathing.
- Slow heart rate.
- Problems with bladder or bowel control (incontinence).
- Cold, clammy or bluish-colored skin (cyanosis), especially around the lips and fingernails.
- Low body temperature (hypothermia).
- Seizures.
The person may also smell strongly of alcohol.
If someone near you has these symptoms, call 911 (or your local emergency services number) or take them to the nearest emergency room. Alcohol poisoning can be fatal.
What should I do if I see someone who may have alcohol poisoning?
You can do several things to help someone who shows signs of alcohol poisoning:
- Seek help: Call 911 or other emergency services for help.
- Keep them awake: Stay with the person and keep them awake.
- Provide water if they’re awake: Have them sip water to keep them hydrated if they’re awake. If they’re unconscious, don’t give them anything. They could choke.
- Prevent choking: If they’re unconscious, turn them on their side. If the person vomits, they won’t choke on it.
- Keep them warm: Cover them with a warm blanket. Alcohol poisoning can cause low body temperature.
- Explain your actions: Talk to them and let them know why you’re doing things. Otherwise, they may become belligerent.
When paramedics arrive, be ready to tell them what you can about the person. You might need to describe how much they drank or what they’ve been doing since you called.
What causes alcohol poisoning?
As your body digests and absorbs alcohol, the alcohol enters your bloodstream. Your blood alcohol content (BAC) begins to rise. Your liver breaks down alcohol to remove it from your body because it’s a toxin. But when BAC levels are high, your liver can’t remove the toxins quickly enough.
The extra alcohol in your bloodstream acts as a depressant. This means that it slows down your body’s normal functions. If you continue to drink (and drink quickly), your BAC continues to rise. The depressant effect becomes more and more intense.
If the depressant effects begin affecting key functions of your body, like your breathing and consciousness, it’s considered alcohol poisoning. Every person is different, so there’s no way to know how much you can drink before you’re at risk of alcohol poisoning. That’s why you should always drink in moderation and slowly.
Here’s how different percentages of BAC can affect you physically and mentally:
- BAC 0.0%: There’s no alcohol in your blood (you’re sober).
- BAC 0.02%: You may experience an altered mood, relaxation and a slight loss of judgment.
- BAC 0.05%: You may feel uninhibited and have lowered alertness and impaired judgment.
- BAC 0.08%: You may have reduced muscle coordination, find it more difficult to detect danger and have impaired judgment and reasoning.
- BAC 0.10%: You may have a reduced reaction time, slurred speech and slowed thinking.
- BAC 0.15%: You may experience an altered mood, nausea and vomiting, and a loss of balance and some muscle control.
- BAC 0.15% to 0.30%: You may experience confusion, vomiting and drowsiness.
- BAC 0.30% to 0.40%: You’ll likely have alcohol poisoning and experience a loss of consciousness.
- BAC over 0.40%: This is a potentially fatal blood alcohol level. You’re at risk of coma and death from respiratory arrest (absence of breathing).
What are the risk factors for alcohol poisoning?
Alcohol poisoning can affect anyone. But several factors can increase your risk, including:
- Binge drinking: The faster you drink alcohol in a short amount of time, the more at risk you are for alcohol poisoning. This is especially true for people who binge drink. Binge drinking is a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings your BAC to 0.08% or higher. This typically occurs after a person assigned female at birth (AFAB) consumes four drinks or a person assigned male at birth (AMAB) consumes five drinks in about two hours.
- Combining medications and alcohol: Drinking alcohol and taking opioids or sedative hypnotics (like sleeping pills or anti-anxiety medications) can increase your risk of an overdose. Alcohol use while taking over-the-counter (OTC) antihistamines can also be dangerous. All these medications are depressants that slow down your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) — just like alcohol. So the effect is much stronger when you combine them.
- Drinking on an empty stomach: If you don’t eat food before or while drinking alcohol, you’re at a higher risk of alcohol poisoning. Your small intestine absorbs alcohol the quickest. The longer alcohol stays in your stomach, the slower your body absorbs it. Food in your stomach prevents alcohol from passing quickly into your small intestine.
- Your age: Teenagers and young adults who drink alcohol are more likely to experience alcohol overdose. This is because they’re more likely to engage in binge drinking.
- Your sex: People AMAB are more likely to experience alcohol poisoning. About 75% of people who die from it are people AMAB.
