Often patients undergoing antibiotic treatment are interested in whether these drugs are compatible with alcohol.
Antibiotics are drugs prescribed by doctors for serious infectious diseases.Antibiotics act on bacteria, stopping them from multiplying in the body.
The scope of use of antibacterial drugs is very wide: they are prescribed for bacterial infections of the oral cavity and ENT organs, skin, internal organs, venereal diseases and other diseases.
Such drugs require mandatory compliance with the dosing regimen and have a number of contraindications that must be taken into account.Instructions often state that you should not drink alcohol during antibiotic treatment.
How do antibiotics and alcohol interact?
Scientists have been studying for many years how alcohol affects the human body when taking antibiotics and have concluded that in most cases the components of the drug do not interact with ethyl alcohol and therefore do not affect the treatment.But the researchers noted that they only studied small amounts of alcohol and that there was at least a day gap between taking the antibiotics and drinking the alcohol.If the patient drinks more often, the effectiveness of antibacterial therapy will decrease.
Doctors do not advise drinking alcohol during treatment, and this applies not only to antibiotics, but also to all other drugs.
Reasons why you should not combine antibiotics with alcohol
Among the main reasons why you should not drink alcohol while taking antibiotics, there are two:
- Extra load on the liver.
- Treatment effectiveness is reduced.
In fact, during treatment with any medication, you should avoid drinking alcohol because it can reduce the therapeutic effects of the medication.The reason is that the properties of alcohol can destroy the active ingredient of the drug or interrupt its effect on the virus.In addition, alcohol can accelerate or inhibit the elimination of drug ingredients from the body.In the first case, the treatment will be ineffective, in the second case, the internal organs will bear additional load and the body may become poisoned.Especially in this case, the liver is sick;Adverse reactions from the kidneys, pancreas, central nervous system, brain, heart, and blood vessels may occur.
Liver dysfunction is associated with the negative effect of alcohol on the synthesis of fatty acids in the cells of the organ and bile duct obstruction.
Alcohol entering the body is converted into acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, then into acetic acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.The drug slows down the breakdown of ethyl alcohol, causing acetaldehyde to accumulate in the liver, causing severe poisoning.
For some people, alcohol has a sedative effect, as do some antibiotics, so their combined use can lead to toxic depression of the central nervous system.
At the same time, the breakdown of antibiotics depends on the amount of alcohol consumed.If you take a lot in a short period of time, the breakdown of the drug slows down and its concentration in the body increases, causing a large amount of toxicity.
If you drink it continuously, enzymes begin to break down the drug faster and the benefit from it is practically zero, and at the same time you also become addicted to antibiotics.
When drinking alcohol, the body does not receive enough nutrients, blood sugar levels increase, and protective functions decrease.Therefore, taking additional supplements in the form of antibacterial drugs can not only aggravate chronic diseases, but also cause allergic reactions.Side effects may vary in each case.
Consequences of concurrent use
Many people can say that they drank alcohol while taking antibiotics and nothing happened, but each body is different, and no one can predict the immediate or delayed effects that alcohol combined with drugs will cause.All factors are important: age, physique, health status, presence of chronic diseases or allergies in the patient.
The combination of alcohol and antibiotics can cause:
- headache, dizziness;
- nausea, vomiting;
- sleep disorders;
- stomach or intestinal pain;
- rash on the body;
- increased heart rate, increased or decreased blood pressure;
- anaphylactic shock.
Alcohol also leads to dehydration, slowing down the body's healing and self-recovery process.
How long after taking antibiotics can I drink alcohol?
Do not drink alcohol immediately after finishing a course of antibiotics.Drugs tend to accumulate in the body and take time to be eliminated.Therefore, before drinking a glass of your favorite wine or beer, it is better to wait a few days until the antibiotic is completely eliminated from the body.
Should you take medication if you have been drinking alcohol?
Many doctors agree that the correct use of antibiotics plays an important role in the success of treatment, so they must be used according to a special regimen prescribed by the doctor, otherwise the entire treatment process may be ineffective.Therefore, doctors believe that even if patients still drink alcohol, they cannot ignore taking antibacterial drugs.This can cause bacteria to become more resistant to a particular antibiotic and require a stronger drug to cure the disease in the future.
When taking antibiotics, you should absolutely not drink alcohol
Taking a sip of wine or beer is unlikely to have much of an effect on your treatment with most medications.However, there are drugs that are strictly contraindicated with alcohol.
For example, fluoroquinolones affect the central nervous system, and when mixing drugs of this group with alcohol, a person can fall into a coma.Alcohol can increase the side effects of aminoglycosides and cause toxic damage to the liver and entire body.Nitroimidazole and some cephalosporins are prescribed to treat gastrointestinal infections and sexually transmitted diseases that cannot be combined with alcohol.When combined with alcohol, they enhance the effects of the drug and become toxic.The combination of the listed antibiotics and ethanol can cause unpleasant side symptoms: headache, nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, fever.Therefore, doctors do not recommend drinking alcohol earlier than three days after the end of treatment.For example, a representative of the oxazolidinone group when interacting with alcohol can cause an increase in blood pressure.In addition, for liver diseases, semi-synthetic antibiotics of the tetracycline group should absolutely not be used because it aggravates the patient's already difficult condition.
Treatment with macrolide antibiotics may not be effective if you drink alcohol at this time.Alcohol will reduce the effectiveness of the medicine and treatment will be delayed.
Some antibiotics do not have contraindications to alcohol in the instructions for use.Although a history of jaundice or liver dysfunction may be a limitation.
It must be remembered that alcohol in combination with antibiotics creates a large load on the liver and other organs and neutralizes the medicinal properties of the drug.A small dose of alcohol will not cause negative consequences, but it would be wiser to complete the course of treatment and only then allow yourself to relax.Furthermore, in addition to antibiotics, patients can use other drugs that do not bring the best effects to the body.After taking antibiotics, you can take them a day later: usually this time is enough for the drug to be completely eliminated from the body.If possible, it is best to extend the time period to avoid side effects.
For antibiotics to provide the necessary benefit, they should only be prescribed by a doctor and the instructions and dosing schedule must be strictly followed.It is better to give up alcohol during treatment so that the body has the opportunity to quickly cope with the disease and restore health.