When you have been drinking, your blood and alcohol
concentration depends upon how much you have drunk and
how quickly you drank it. Other factors that affect
concentration are:
Your
size If you are small, your blood volume is much
less than that of someone who is larger. You are,
therefore, likely to be affected more by the same
amount of alcohol than someone much larger than
you.
Your
water level If you are dehydrated, alcohol will have a much
greater effect than if your body's water concentration
is normal. This is why drinking alcohol in the summer
or after exercise will affect you more.
Your
gender
Women are generally smaller than men and they also
have proportionately less body water. Therefore,
they are more easily affected by alcohol.
The
amount of food in your stomach If you drink one unit of alcohol on an empty
stomach, almost all the alcohol will be absorbed
within an hour. However, if there is food in your
stomach this process will be slowed down, and the
alcohol will reach your brain and other parts of
your body more slowly.
How
often you drink People who drink regularly become less affected
by alcohol as their bodies get used to it. They
then need to drink more for it to have the same
effect. This is called developing a tolerance to
alcohol.