white43
Member
I've seen a few people bandying around 'Half Life' in some of their replies. I understand what it means, but I think some of the responses given here are misinterpreting what it means, or not fully understanding it.
A half life is the time it takes for for a specified property to reach half it's original value.
It does not mean that it's reached half it's active life.
So, when you read in many scholarly articles that CDT has a half life of 14 days, it means that's the time it should take to reach half it's starting value. For example, someone has a CDT value of 3%, after 14 days, that should reach 1.5%. Likewise, someone with CDT of 4% will hit 2% in two weeks.
Half life only halves the next value. So in the first two weeks, 3.0% becomes 1.5%, but after two more weeks, it's half 1.5%, so 0.75%.
*This is theoretical and of course, there will be variances on all sorts of things like weight, sex, medications etc etc. Some put the half life of CDT at closer to 17 days.
The CDT blood test does not test 'half life' of CDT, because half life is the time it takes for CDT to halve it's value.
Half life doesn't mean that it's reached half it's active life and will only start to drop off after that.
This is why CDT only reflects (heavy and persistent)drinking that has taken place in the last 2-4 weeks and many articles point to CDT clearing in as little as 1-2 months.
It's all here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life
A half life is the time it takes for for a specified property to reach half it's original value.
It does not mean that it's reached half it's active life.
So, when you read in many scholarly articles that CDT has a half life of 14 days, it means that's the time it should take to reach half it's starting value. For example, someone has a CDT value of 3%, after 14 days, that should reach 1.5%. Likewise, someone with CDT of 4% will hit 2% in two weeks.
Half life only halves the next value. So in the first two weeks, 3.0% becomes 1.5%, but after two more weeks, it's half 1.5%, so 0.75%.
*This is theoretical and of course, there will be variances on all sorts of things like weight, sex, medications etc etc. Some put the half life of CDT at closer to 17 days.
The CDT blood test does not test 'half life' of CDT, because half life is the time it takes for CDT to halve it's value.
Half life doesn't mean that it's reached half it's active life and will only start to drop off after that.
This is why CDT only reflects (heavy and persistent)drinking that has taken place in the last 2-4 weeks and many articles point to CDT clearing in as little as 1-2 months.
It's all here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life