Doctor reveals a critical tip for drinking alcohol that can save your life

Drinks will be flowing this holiday season, but a doctor has given a timely tip that could save live about how long it takes our body to break down our alcohol consumption.

Dr. Brian Hoeflinger (@doctorhoeflinger), an American neurosurgeon from Ohio who was worked in the medical profession for 23 years posts various health advice to his 247,000 TikToker followers on social media.

In his recent video, which already has 6.9m views since it was shared on Christmas Day, Dr. Hoeflinger revealed what happens when you take shots of alcohol in quick succession.

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To begin with, the doctor set the scene of being a party where there are "a lot of drinks going down," noting it could be vodka, beer or a glass of wine.

"You have to know what happens to the alcohol," he said. "Say you're having five drinks in the first hour," and gave playing pong and taking five shots as an example.

Dr. Hoeflinger then knocks back five shots (of water) to demonstrate, then explained how the "alcohol is building up in your system," and said it "goes to your brain within five minutes and starts to affect you."

But that isn't the same for other parts of the body, as he detailed: "Your liver only metabolises one ounce of alcohol per hour, so I just 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 metabolise the alcohol quickly.

In the example, Dr. Hoeflinger says the party continues and he takes three additional shots (of water again) in the next hour and so has a total of eight ounces of alcohol in two hours.

Doing the maths, the doctor explains his body has burned off two ounces but six ounces are still left in his system which will take six hours to burn off.

In hour three, the TikToker has just one additional shot as the party "winds down" which takes him up to nine ounces of alcohol in his system over three hours, with the liver metabolising three ounces - leaving in total six ounces in his bloodstream.

"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."

Dr. Hoeflinger noted some of the misconceptions people have - "Some people think they stop drinking an hour or two and can hop in my car and drive."

But he explained why "you can't do that as "you're still drunk five, 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 noted the horrible consequences of drink driving that can occur such as killing yourself or someone else and recommended taking an Uber or Lyft to travel instead.

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