| Your blood alcohol content, or blood alcohol level which | | | | that if you drink five beers tonight that the reading will |
| it is sometimes referred, is the actual percentage of | | | | be exactly the same. |
| concentration of alcohol in your bloodstream. The legal | | | | If you're tired or hungry, thirsty or stuffy or if you are |
| limit can vary by state, and country, but for nearly | | | | drinking a different type of alcohol (even if you're |
| everywhere in the United States and Canada, the legal | | | | drinking less of it than your regular drink of choice) than |
| limit for your blood alcohol content is .08, which means | | | | you normally consume you may be effected entirely |
| that less than one tenth of one percent of your blood | | | | differently than you may be expecting and that result |
| is concentrated with alcohol when you are considered | | | | can be reflected in your BAC. |
| legally intoxicated. | | | | There are also plenty of myths that go around about |
| Despite the popular misconception, there is no real | | | | someone's ability to manipulate their BAC and level of |
| definitive way for you to determine what your own | | | | intoxication by participating in some extraordinarily easy |
| blood alcohol content (BAC) is unless you've got | | | | activities, but in reality the only thing that can lower |
| access to a breathalyzer. There are so many factors | | | | your BAC is time. Things like: drinking lots of coffee, |
| that have bearing on your BAC that trying to calculate | | | | performing vigorous physical activity or jumping into an |
| the number own your own is really nothing more than | | | | ice cold shower will have no effect what so ever on |
| a guessing game. | | | | your BAC - stopping your consumption of alcohol and |
| Things like: your own tolerance built up over the time | | | | letting an adequate amount of time pass is all you can |
| that you've been drinking alcohol, what types of drinks | | | | do to bring your BAC back to a normal level. |
| you are consuming on a given night, what kind of food | | | | It takes an average person about one hour to |
| you ate before you began drinking and what type of | | | | metabolize the amount of alcohol contained in one |
| food (if any) you are munching on while you are | | | | standard alcoholic beverage (one 12 oz beer, one |
| drinking, your gender and your percentage of body fat | | | | glass of wine or one shot.) So if you knock back a six |
| are all things that can weigh pretty heavily on what | | | | pack of your favorite brew while watching the ball |
| your actual BAC is on a given night. Believe it or not, | | | | game at your buddies house, you better be prepared |
| other things can factor into the equation as well - if | | | | to spend the night or call a cab to get home unless |
| you have been or are currently suffering from an | | | | your planning on waiting until the wee hours of the |
| illness (even something like the common cold), your | | | | morning for your body to be able to metabolize all that |
| level of fatigue and your level of hydration can all also | | | | alcohol so your BAC can drop back down to well |
| have a bearing on your BAC. | | | | below the legal limit before you get on the road. |
| So there's no magic spread sheet that you can | | | | It doesn't matter if you feel fine, or even if you just had |
| download from the internet, and no magic | | | | a cup of java and ran around the block - you may still |
| mathematical equation that your friend's room mate | | | | be over the legal limit - one way to approximate the |
| came up with that will tell you with one hundred | | | | calculation of the level of alcohol in your blood is using |
| percent accuracy what you BAC is, because it can | | | | a BAC calculator. However, the safest thing to do |
| change for any number of reasons on any given night. | | | | when you are drinking is to stay where you are, or |
| Even if you drank five beers last night and a | | | | have someone who hasn't been drinking at all drive |
| breathalyzer gave a reading of .10, that's no guarantee | | | | you home. |