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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Alcohol Dosage?

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phantomcosmonaut

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Messages
277
Every drug has a chart or guide or some information to help you with dosing both medicinally or recreationally. I can't seem to find anything about alcohol though. Does anyone know threshold/weak/average/strong/lethal doses of pure ethanol (and from there I can figure out how to dose any drink using its % by volume)?
 
This website provides decent amount of information you need.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2090019-overview#aw2aab6b2

Those numbers vary widely from person to person depending on their size/metabolism so no concrete answer can be formed.
Are you from other countries where alcohol content isn't legally required to be placed on bottles?
If the alcohol percentage is given to find out the amount of ethanol is simply totally volume x percentage of alcohol and voila you have the ethanol content of your drink.


However to know lethal doses and threshold doses you would have to factor in weight, metabolism, and tolerance to alcohol so it's not so simply done.
There is no tried and true method for determining alcohol toxicity levels for all.
Think of it like this, I had a friend who drank a mickey of 80 proof, passed out and threw up everything, whereas other friends can do about a 24 pack in a night and stil be on their feet.

Just as your safest bet put an oz of 80 proof liquor for mixed drinks.
This is practically standard an contains only slightly less alcohol than a 355ml bottle of beer

We could make a generalized statement for alcohol naive people saying that threshold effects for one person is one oz of 80 proof liquor, a light dosage to be between 1 and 3 oz of 80proo liquor, moderate being 4-8oz of 80 proof liquor, with a heavy dose being around 9-14oz of 80 proof liquor, whereas the ld50 is generally accepted when blood alcohol levels are between 65.1-86.8mmol/L and above.
Again, how many drinks that is depends on the persons size and rate of metabolism of alcohol
For some it may be 15-16 drinks, others it may be thirty, there is no definite answer o this question, just approximated intervals based on someone who is average sized an doesn't have an alcohol tolerance

EDIT quick calculations so every number represents the same value, and keep in mind that these are what I and the majority of people I've met who consider these light/moderate/strong doses.
There are anomalies who can drink a 40 of whiskey straight in a night and not passout/black out
Amount of ethanol in one ounce of 80 proof alcohol = (29.573mL)(0.40) = 11.829mL
Threshold(could also be considered 1/2 a drink for some): 1(11.829mL) = 11.829mL of ethanol
Light: 3 drinks-3(11.829mL) = 35.487mL ethanol, 2 drinks - 2(11.829mL) = 23.658mL ethanol, one drink - 11.829mL alcohol
Moderate:4 drinks - 4(11.829mL)=47.316mL ethanol, 5 drinks-5(11.829mL)=59.145mL ethanol, 6 drinks - 6(11.829mL)=70.974mL ethanol, 8 drinks - 8(11.829mL)= 94.643mL
All of the above are assumed to use the oral ROA
To calculate the volumes of ethanol for larger amounts just use the same formula.
Let it be known though that lethal doses can vary and are generally difficult to achieve.
But for the sake of ease it is said that 300-400+mg/dL I (or approx a BAC of 0.3-0.4) blood alcohol concentrations are needed to possibly die from ethanol consumption.
Lets assume that

Approx 4,850mL blood in body

4,850mL x 0.35 = 169.75mL of pure ethanol is the approximate lethal dose

Keep in mind that this would only refer to the amount of ethanol required in the blood stream to give it a lethal concentration ie. through IV administration. And does not take into account bioavailability or rate of absorption due to food in stomach/stomach pH, tolerance, metabolic factors when ethanol is consumed orally or the volume of blood in the individual

Considering everybody's metabolism is different so I can't really think of any method to calculate approximate blood alcohol concentrations from the amount of ethanol consumed, perhaps a mod or someone with a background in chemistry/biology could help verify this

EDIT EDIT: Also if you have 99% ethanol you could simply take the amount of 80-proof alcohol you would normally put in a drink and multiply it by the concentration of the 80 proof liquor/the concentration of your 198 proof mixture
ie: 1oz of whiskey = 40%/100%(rounded for simplicity) = 0.4
Therefor 1oz of whiskey is equal to 1oz ethanol x 0.4 = 0.4oz of ethanol

Also this was fucking PAINFUL to do on an iPhone :/
 
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Make sure you have eaten a good meal before drinking.

Drink one drink (one beer, one glass of wine, one ounce of 40% liquor [recommend you mix it with some juice or something]) slowly, allowing the effects to come on. You can start to feel it relatively quickly, but generally it will take several while, so don`t get ahead of yourself. Do not go higher than two drinks in the first hour since you seem very new to this.

It is also important that you drink a glass of water, or even juice between your alcoholic beverages; alcohol dehydrates your body very well, and keeping hydrated will help you avoid unpleasant things such as headache, nausea, etc.
 
New to alcohol but very familiar with many other drugs of all types, so I am not very worried about that.
Thanks for all the information, I now have an idea of what to ingest.
 
Venrak said:
Make sure you have eaten a good meal before drinking.

Drink one drink (one beer, one glass of wine, one ounce of 40% liquor [recommend you mix it with some juice or something]) slowly, allowing the effects to come on. You can start to feel it relatively quickly, but generally it will take several while, so don`t get ahead of yourself. Do not go higher than two drinks in the first hour since you seem very new to this.

It is also important that you drink a glass of water, or even juice between your alcoholic beverages; alcohol dehydrates your body very well, and keeping hydrated will help you avoid unpleasant things such as headache, nausea, etc.
Click to expand...

VERY good advice!! Drink slooowwww.

I made the mistake of thinkin "oh I took only a few benzos, my tolerance is high n I dnt feel anything still so open another drink".

I ended up takin 30 mg alprazolam (that I dnt remem takin) and after 3rd beer drank 3/4 of a fifth of high proof tequila. All within an hr or two. DON'T DO THIS!!!

I passed out. Thank God I'm still alive!!

Water is also fantastic! It'll save u from a hangover 99.9% of the time.
 
BabyGurl3171 said:
VERY good advice!! Drink slooowwww.

I made the mistake of thinkin "oh I took only a few benzos, my tolerance is high n I dnt feel anything still so open another drink".

I ended up takin 30 mg alprazolam (that I dnt remem takin) and after 3rd beer drank 3/4 of a fifth of high proof tequila. All within an hr or two. DON'T DO THIS!!!

I passed out. Thank God I'm still alive!!

Water is also fantastic! It'll save u from a hangover 99.9% of the time.
Click to expand...

I'm aware of the water thing, I have tried it the two times I drank many years ago and it worked both times, thank you though. I also wish you well, that event sounds like it was horrible...but it could've been much worse.

I don't really go about drugs like that though. Since I'm used to psychedelics I just like to take my one initial dose, which is why I asked this. And then I smoke bud if I feel I need to increase the intensity. I still don't know exactly how much I will drink, probably 5-8 "shots" of 80 proof vodka.

To get a better idea, would it help if I mentioned my normal doses of other similar depressant/dissociative drugs?... alprazolam - 2mg, lorazepam - 2mg, clonazepam - 2mg, ketamine (to hole) - 150mg.
 
Ethnicity can play a large role in alcohol metabolism. Those of Asian decent physically lack the/have a deficiency in one of the enzymes (in the pathway) which breaks down alcohol to safe, inert metabolites.

Basically the pathway goes like this;

ethanol to acetaldehyde to acetic acid to acetyl-CoA. Once acetyl-CoA is formed, it is free to enter directly into the citric acid cycle.
Click to expand...

Ethanol to acetaldehyde is metabolised by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase.*

Acetaldehyde is metabolised by aldehyde dehydrogenase* to Acetic Acid. It is here is where the genetic polymorphisms between races become apparent - those of Asian decent often lack or have a deficiency in this enzyme. This causes a "back-up" of acetic acid in the (usually hepatic cells however alcohols are able to be absorbed almost anywhere long the GI tract) in many cells. Most of which is excreted through the urine, although acetic acid is used widely throughout the body as substrates so some goes the way also. Two rxn's of note; the binding of the acetyl moiety SHCoA and lactate dehydrogenase for the interconversion back to pyruvate especially during anaerobic conditions - the cross-roads of metabolism! - both of which are extremely vital for many biochemical synthesis, especially metabolism.

Acetic acid is metabolised to acetyl-CoA (yay for initiation of the Kreb Cycle > CO2/H2O > ATP synthesis) by the enzyme descriptively named, "ACSS2" 8(
 
Okay so I drank exactly 300ml of 80 proof vodka within 30 minutes. I figured out that's roughly 5-8 shots. Within a half hour of finishing I was so high, I would not want to go past that, but around that dose was perfect. After a couple of hours I smoked a large amount of marijuana. It seemed to calm down the high a lot, made it more controllable. It didn't really make me higher, it just changed it around, and personally I preferred the alcohol alone. Also no hangover, I drank probably a couple of gallons of water that night.
 
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