Can You Drink Alcohol After Donating Blood or Plasma?

You’re at work, and your coworkers are planning to take an extra break and go to a blood drive for the local hospital. They are trying to convince you to join them, but you aren’t sure if you should. You were supposed to go out for drinks and dancing with your friends tonight after work. Can you donate blood and then drink alcohol that night? 

The simple answer is no — alcohol and blood donation do not mix. Keep reading to learn the science behind why we shouldn’t donate blood or plasma 24 hours before or after drinking alcohol. 

How Does Donating Blood or Plasma Affect Us? 

While donating can make our soul feel good, it can make our body feel tired. When we lose blood, voluntarily or otherwise, we lose red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body. With less oxygen circulating through us, we tire quickly. Other side effects include feeling nauseous, lightheaded, or dizzy. Typically, we will only notice the tiredness for a few days before feeling better, but after we donate blood, our body takes up to eight weeks to replace all the red blood cells we donate. 

Plasma is 90% water, so the biggest side effect of donating plasma is dehydration. Our brain and kidneys can sense the low water level of our blood and signal us to drink more water and not urinate as often. Other side effects of donating plasma include fatigue, lightheadedness, dizziness, or dehydration. If they occur, most symptoms go away within a few hours to days of donating, and, with proper hydration, it takes only 48 hours for our body to regenerate the plasma lost.

How Does Alcohol Impact Our Blood? 

Alcohol impacts almost all parts of our body, especially our blood. In fact, our blood alcohol concentration (BAC) determines how intoxicated we are. Alcohol affects our blood in several ways: 

• Absorbs into the bloodstream. When we consume alcohol, it enters our bloodstream via the stomach and small intestine. We can determine the level of intoxication through the BAC, which is expressed as a percentage. BAC is calculated by how quickly alcohol is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted from our body. BACs can range from 0% to over 0.4%, which is a potentially fatal level. 
• Dilates blood vessels. Alcohol is a vasodilator, meaning it expands our blood vessels. The expansion of the blood vessels leads to temporary feelings of warmth and reddening of the skin. When our blood vessels are dilated, our heart works harder to circulate blood, decreases the pressure on the walls of the blood vessels, and decreases our blood pressure. Decreases in blood pressure can lead to symptoms of dizziness or fainting. 
• Thins blood. Alcohol inhibits blood platelets, which thins blood and prevents it from clotting. Having thinned blood can be dangerous because even a minor injury such as a scratch can damage our blood vessels and cause a more intense bleed. 
• Reduces red blood cells. Alcohol has toxic effects on our bone marrow, impacting the production of red blood cells and the maturity of red blood cells. Chronic alcohol use can lead to anemia, which is a condition with a reduced number of red blood cells. 

The effects of alcohol on our blood can vary based on the amount of alcohol consumed, how often we consume it, our tolerance, and our overall health. Now that we know how alcohol can impact our blood, let’s consider the safety of drinking alcohol after donating blood or plasma. 

How Long Should You Wait To Drink Alcohol After Donating Blood or Plasma?

Now that we understand how donating and drinking each affect us, it should come as no surprise that a combination of the two would be risky. To give our body time to recover from donating blood or plasma, we should wait at least 24 hours before drinking any alcohol. If we choose to do so sooner, we run the risk of several medical issues: 

• Dehydration. Drinking alcohol and donating blood or plasma induce dehydration. Together, the increase in dehydration can lead to dizziness, fainting, or lightheadedness.
• Changes in blood pressure. Alcohol and blood/plasma donations can both lower our blood pressure, so the combination of the two increases our chances of becoming lightheaded, dizzy, or nauseous. 
• Impact on blood clotting. After we donate blood, our body immediately goes to work replenishing the supply. Alcohol can slow this process by thinning our blood and making us more prone to accidents and further blood loss.
• Delayed recovery. Donating blood or plasma lowers our blood volume and may cause us to feel fatigued or weak. Alcohol can exacerbate our exhaustion and delay our recovery.

This is why most blood donation organizations suggest waiting a minimum of 24 hours before drinking alcohol after donating blood or plasma. Make sure to check with your blood donation organization to confirm the suggested wait time. For further questions or concerns, consult a healthcare professional or the donation center staff. 

We established that we don’t want to drink alcohol for at least 24 hours after donating blood or plasma, but what if you went out drinking the night before your coworkers invited you to donate blood? 

Can You Donate Blood After Drinking Alcohol? 

Donation centers don’t want people under the influence of alcohol donating blood or plasma. There are several reasons for this, one being that alcohol may interfere with our ability to give a reliable health history or valid consent. Having alcohol in our system increases our chances of developing adverse side effects of donating such as feeling dizzy or fainting. Most donation places require that we haven’t drunk alcohol for 24 hours before we donate blood or plasma. We are also discouraged from donating blood or plasma if we are experiencing symptoms of hangovers as they can also mimic (or cause) complications: 

• Fatigue
• Dehydration 
• Headaches
• Muscle aches 
• Nausea or stomachaches 
• Vertigo 
• Anxiety 
• Sensitivity or light and sound

If we have any of these symptoms after drinking alcohol, we should make sure they dissipate before we consider donating blood. The same goes for plasma: we can’t donate plasma if we’ve been drinking within 24 hours before donating. 

How To Prepare for Blood or Plasma Donation

We’ve gone over what we shouldn’t do before donating blood or plasma, but what should we do? The American Red Cross and Carter BloodCare share a few ways to prepare:

• Nourish. Eat a well-balanced meal with plenty of iron-rich foods at least two hours before donation.
• Hydrate. Drink plenty of water or other non-alcoholic beverages.
• Get a good night’s rest. A well-rested body will recover more quickly. 
• Wear short sleeves. Or, if it’s really cold, wear sleeves that can easily be rolled up above your elbow. 
• Bring a friend. A buddy or a good book can be a welcome distraction if you’re feeling nervous about the process. 

Abstaining from alcohol and prepping your body properly for a blood donation will help you have the best possible experience. 

Summary

Donating blood or plasma can have side effects, and alcohol can worsen them. Most donation centers recommend waiting 24–48 hours after giving blood or plasma to drink alcohol. We should also wait 24 hours after drinking to donate blood or plasma so we can properly consent and answer our history.