Obesity Surgery Increases BAC

Obesity surgery, one of the western worlds most common operations, can directly affect our ability to successfully process alcohol, new research shows.

Dr Peter Holt, a researcher at Rockefeller University in New York said that overweight patients who have common "Stomach Stapling" operations are likely to have large concentrations of alcohol in their blood even if they drink little and that bacteria in the gut, cut off by gastric bypass, can produce pure alcohol. 

Dr Holt stated one patient who had undergone the operation several years before found themselves over the drink drive limit (US - .08%) a few hours after only one glass of wine. 

"Patients should be very concerned about high alcohol concentrations in breathalyser tests, out of proportion to intake, as alcohol is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream through the gut with a significant delay in return to normal levels.

There are so many factors that come in to play when trying to judge your BAC% and the list keeps getting longer! The only way to know your BAC is to test yourself with an Alcosense Breathalyser