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@urwen-starial, sorry for falling under a rock, I’ve been having a rough time of it spiritually and mentally as of late. Not because of external circumstances so far as I can tell – my brain’s just a hot mess. But it’ll help focus me to answer your question, so I’ll do so as comprehensively as I can.

So, ethanol (that is, drinking alcohol) is a general nervous system depressant, meaning that it reduces the efficiency, speed, energy, and responsiveness of the nervous system overall – hence why drunks seem to lose a few dozen IQ points and generally act like dingoes when they’re deep in their cups. This affects not only your voluntary actions (parasympathetic) but involuntary actions (sympathetic) as well, meaning your heart rate, breathing, gag reflex, even your body’s ability to maintain its appropriate temperature. One of the prominent causes of death in alcohol poisoning is choking on your own vomit due to the weakening of the gag reflex and the vomiting caused by excessive alcohol consumption (as your body tries to rid itself of poison).

The symptoms of alcohol poisoning reflect extreme symptoms of heavy, rapid alcohol consumption, such as by binge drinking. Your heart-rate will be lowered, breathing rate dropping to less than 8 breaths per minute (normal is 18 – 24), and hypothermia (especially if also out in the cold) may result in cardiac arrest – besides your heart simply stopping because it’s stopped receiving nerve impulses from the brain (due to the depressant effects of alcohol). Because alcohol loosens your bowels, you will also urinate and defecate more often, resulting in dehydration and exacerbation of the above effects on the cardiac and respiratory systems.

There is some research to suggest that heavy regular drinkers develop some resistance to alcohol, to the extent that they can drink more than the teetotaler before getting to the alcohol poisoning stage. However, said regular heavy drinkers are more likely to actually get to that point than the teetotaler who may feel very sick after only a couple of drinks (but not actually in any danger of poisoning).

As for the amount you can drink before entering the range of alcohol poisoning, that is heavily dependent on body weight and gender. Because women generally have a higher fat content in their bodies due to lower muscle mass relative to men and alcohol is a water-soluble substance (and muscles are filled with water), women tend to be intoxicated more quickly than men. For example, a 160 pound man could have 9-10 drinks before he might begin suffering the warning symptoms of alcohol poisoning (around a BAC of 0.20+); a 100 pound woman would hit a BAC of 0.25 between the 5th and 6th drink, putting her at risk for alcohol poisoning.

Between a BAC (blood alcohol concentration) of 0.25% and 0.4% is the range of “alcohol poisoning” with the effects as above, including loss of consciousness. At 0.40% plus, there is the onset of coma and a high risk of spontaneous cardiac arrest.