Drinking alcohol before FUE

Hi everyone, first post, great forum!

I'm interested in the fact some Docs seem to recommend not drinking alcohol 7-10 days before surgery, whereas others say 3 days is fine. Obviously the smart thing to do is exactly what your Doc says but I'm just curious as to how alcohol you've drunk over a week ago can affect your blood coagulation.

Alcohol burns off at a rate of .016 BAC (blood alcohol content) per hour, which is roughly equal to 1 standard drink. Therefore if your BAC is .20, about 2 and a half times the legal driving limit (ie drunk!), it will take 12.5 hours or so for the alcohol to leave your blood.

So what I'm interested in is how something you've drunk 7-10 days ago can affect your blood for an HT procedure. I understand that alcohol consumption can affect the platelets in one's blood which can in turn affect the coagulation (the problem for HTs), b ut this is something that happens more over time than as a result of one night's drinking. So is it physically possible for say, 3 glasses of wine you drunk a week ago to still be affecting your blood thickness 7 days later, despite the fact it's been out of your bloodstream for 4-5 days?

I may be being totally stupid here (very possible!) and missing a difference between there being alcohol actually present in your blood and any residual thinning effects it may leave behind, but I'd just like to know whether the 7-10 days thing is actually based on science, or is it just those particular Docs staying on the safe side with their advice?

Many thanks for any answers.

Your theory seems about right and guess that most Docs would tell you 7-10 days to be on the safe side. If they tell 3 days - you might have a glass of red wine (or a bottle) 3 days before and it theoretically will thin your blood a little and could give small complications at time of surgery.

Some times you have to treat adults like you treat children to get the results you want :-)

Drinking alcohol should really be avoided at least 10 days before surgery of any kind. Not only does it thin your blood, but is does not create a great environment to maximize healing. Do yourself a favor and stop drinking at least ten days before and ten days after surgery.

Great question because there is no answer. I love questions that me say, "let me check the literature". Of course there is not source to your particular questions.

Alcohol is a toxin to most cells. This does not mean it will affect you or a hair transplant. I really doubt it will affect your clotting ability, but what might it affect? Might it affect the survival of your hair grafts? Who knows? Probably not, but might it?

Variables that might affect your success rate without proven affects are best avoided. This does not mean they will affect you. It means that we don't know if they will. I suspect that this particular variable will not be a hindrance to your results, but only God knows for sure because there is no research data to support a theory one way or another. I hope this completely blind line of rational reasoning is of value to you.