Doctor Reveals A Critical Tip For Drinking Alcohol That Can Save Your Life

By Abdul Rafay in Health and Fitness On 28th December 2022
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This holiday season, drinks will be flowing, but a doctor offers important advice regarding how long it takes our body to break down alcohol use that could save lives.

Dr. Brian Hoeflinger (@doctorhoeflinger), an American neurosurgeon from Ohio with 23 years of experience in the medical field, shares diverse health advice on social media with his 247,000 TikToker followers.

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Dr. Hoeflinger recently uploaded a video that has received 6.9 million views since it was posted on Christmas Day. It describes what happens when you consume several shots of alcohol quickly.

The doctor began by setting the scene as a party with "a lot of drinks going down," emphasizing that it might be vodka, beer, or a glass of wine.

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He said, "You've got to know what happens to the alcohol. Say you're having five drinks in the first hour," he said, using the example of playing five rounds of ping pong and taking five shots.

In order to demonstrate, Dr. Hoeflinger downs five shots of water. He then talks about how the alcohol "is building up in your system" and how it "goes to your brain within five minutes and starts to affect you."

@doctorhoeflinger Knowing this about drinking could save your life! #fyp #party #drinking #alcohol #foryou #holiday #christmas ♬ Storytelling - Adriel

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As he explained, however, this is not true for other regions of the body: "Your liver only metabolizes one ounce of alcohol every hour, therefore I only had five ounces of alcohol in my system.

"But I've got five ounces of liqueur in my system right now and at the end of the hour, I'm only going to burn off an ounce so I'm going to have five ounces left in my bloodstream," since the liver can't metabolize the alcohol quickly.

In the given instance, Dr. Hoeflinger claims that the celebration goes on and that he consumes three more shots (this time of water) over the course of the following hour, for a total of four more ounces of alcohol in two hours.

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The doctor calculates that while his body has burnt off two ounces, there are still six ounces in his system that will take six hours to burn out.

The TikTok user consumes just one more shot in hour three as the party "winds down," increasing his total intake to nine ounces of alcohol over the course of three hours. Three of those ounces are metabolized by the liver, leaving six ounces of alcohol in his bloodstream overall.

"That's only going to burn off by the hour, and you're going to be drunk well into the wee hours of the morning - it doesn't wear off."

Some common misconceptions were mentioned by Dr. Hoeflinger. "Some people assume they can hop in my car and drive an hour or two after they stop drinking," he said.

However, he argued that you couldn't since "you're still drunk five to six hours down."

At the end of his video, Dr. Hoeflinger concluded: "For this holiday season the whole point is I really want to tell people that's how alcohol can stack up in your system easily when you're drunk and you won't know it and it won't wear off for hours and hours down the road."

He also warned against driving after drinking, saying that you risk hurting yourself or someone else, and suggested using an Uber or Lyft as a substitute.