Body Mass

• One of the most important factors that influences alcohol tolerance is body mass. The concentration of alcohol in the blood stream has a large impact on how much the body's functions are impaired, and those with more mass have more blood to dilute alcohol. In general the heavier the person is, the higher alcohol tolerance they will have.

Gender

• Another major factor in alcohol tolerance is gender. Women's bodies are able to process alcohol more quickly, which causes the amount of alcohol in a woman's bloodstream to go up faster when drinking. This, combined with the fact that most women are also lighter than men, means that the average women has significantly lower alcohol tolerance than the average man.

Increasing Tolerance

• Alcohol tolerance can be increased over time by drinking alcohol regularly, which lowers the body's sensitivity to alcohol in the blood stream. Someone that drinks regularly will be much less likely to feel impaired from a certain number of drinks than a person that has never drank before. Also, practicing different activities while drunk can increase aptitude and lead to a soft of "learned" alcohol tolerance.

Benefits

• Alcohol tolerance can be beneficial since it allows a person to participate in social activities, such as drinking at a bar, without experiencing many negative affects from the drinks. Having high body mass is also helpful because it will tend to reduce BAC, making it less likely that a person will be over the legal limit to drive after a few drinks. In many social circles alcohol tolerance is praised, and it is sometimes (and fallaciously) equated with a barometer of manliness.

Dangers

• Alcohol tolerance is dangerous in many ways. Firstly, someone with high alcohol tolerance may not feel drunk, despite being well over the legal driving limit. Secondly, decreases in motor function from drinking are often delayed in people with higher alcohol tolerance, so they might attempt a certain task and become more and more tipsy as time goes on. Since many people enjoy the feeling of being "buzzed," or drunk, those with high tolerance must spend more money on drinks to achieve the desired feeling, which also is likely to result in more damage to their bodies.