You’ve probably already been told not to drink too much alcohol in flight, and you may even have felt a little strange after drinking a small amount of alcohol, even though it seemed trivial compared to your habits on the ground.
The explanation is simple: our bodies react differently on the ground and in the air, and we’re going to explain exactly what happens.
What happens when you drink alcohol?
Let’s start with the basics. When alcohol is consumed, it passes into the bloodstream before being eliminated by the liver. But when we absorb more of it, faster than the liver can process it, it stays in the bloodstream, reaches the brain, acts as a sedative and slows down nerve transmissions, impacting on our ability to think, move, act and even control ourselves.
Altitude increases the effects of alcohol
At altitude, our capacity to absorb oxygen from the air diminishes due to the low atmospheric pressure. This can sometimes cause mild dizziness (hypoxia), but is not serious. Let’s be clear: there’s just as much oxygen in the air at any altitude, it’s our ability to absorb it that varies with pressure.
But if you add alcohol consumption to the equation, things get even more complicated. When there’s less oxygen in the blood, alcohol penetrates much faster, and its effects are felt all the more quickly. You’ll have the same blood alcohol level as if you’d consumed the same amount of alcohol on the ground, but the effects will be much stronger.
Why this pressure problem while cabins are pressurized? Because even if enormous progress has been made, even if the latest aircraft are even more efficient in this respect, none of them can reproduce the atmospheric pressure of the cow’s floor. Let’s say that, on average, the pressure on board an aircraft is equivalent to that encountered at 2000m altitude. Add to this the very dry air in the cabin, combined with the fact that alcohol naturally dehydrates, and you have an explosive “cocktail”.
With bubbles, the intoxication is crazier…
But there’s worse: the bubbles you find in alcohol mixed with soda or “bubbly” spirits like champagne. They’re created with carbon dioxide, which dilates the blood vessels, ultimately causing the intestines to absorb alcohol even faster, so you’re drunk even faster than you were on the ground!
Bottom line: while it’s not dangerous in itself to consume alcohol in flight, you should be aware that for the same quantity, the effect will be two or three times greater than when you’re on the ground, and that by consuming carbonated beverages you’ll be making matters worse for yourself.
You can’t say you weren’t warned.
Photo : champagne on a plane by David Wingate via Shutterstock
Articles similaires
