Alcoholic beverages that have been pumped full of oxygen may take less time to process in the body—meaning that drinkers sober up faster, according to a new study published this month in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. A team of researchers from Chungnam National University in South Korea began with the understanding that oxygen is necessary for the body to process alcohol, and a higher level of oxygen can speed how quickly alcohol is metabolized. To see how processing alcohol differed when booze was pumped full of additional oxygen, they gave 49 study participants alcoholic drinks with three different levels of oxygen concentration—8, 20 and 25 parts per million (ppm). After consuming the booze, participants blood alcohol content (BAC) levels were checked at regular intervals. Researchers found that, in those who had consumed the most heavily oxygenated alcoholic drinks, the time it took for BAC to reach zero was significantly shorter than for the less oxygen-rich drinks.
