Parties, cheering for our favorite sports team, or simply enjoying a break from work are occasions where we drink, sometimes in excess.

After a few rounds, we start to feel inebriated, and cringe at the bad taste of liquor and the inevitable hangover in the morning. To avoid the cons of alcohol, including calories, taste, and hangovers, people go to great lengths to get a buzz — no drinking required.

Approximately 20 percent of alcohol is absorbed in our stomach when we drink, while the other 80 percent is absorbed by the small intestine, according to Brown University. Our liver helps filter out toxins to prevent us from ingesting too much alcohol, which is why we end up puking.

Typically, alcohol stays in your bloodstream until it is broken down by the liver. However, unconventional methods to getting drunk allow alcohol to directly enter the bloodstream and bypass the liver. This can make the body susceptible to blood-alcohol poisoning.

Our blood alcohol level is used to legally define whether or not we’re drunk. The legal limit for blood alcohol usually falls between 0.08 and 0.10 in most states, says Medline Plus. A blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.60 will cause breathing to stop, and eventually lead to death.