Patients undergoing antibiotic treatment are often interested in whether these drugs are compatible with alcohol.
Antibiotics are medications that a doctor prescribes to treat serious infectious diseases.Antibiotics act on bacteria and prevent them from multiplying in the body.
The spectrum of use of antibacterial drugs is wide: they are prescribed for bacterial infections of the oral cavity and ENT organs, skin, internal organs, venereological and other diseases.
Such drugs require mandatory adherence to the dosage regimen and have a number of contraindications that must be taken into account.The instructions for use usually contain a note that alcohol should not be consumed during antibiotic treatment.
How do antibiotics and alcohol interact?
Scientists have been studying how alcohol affects the human body while taking antibiotics for many years and have come to the conclusion that in most cases drug components do not interact with ethyl alcohol and therefore do not affect treatment.However, the researchers noted that they only examined a single dose of alcohol in small amounts and there was a gap of at least a day between taking the antibiotic and taking alcohol.If the patient drank more often, the effectiveness of antibacterial therapy decreased.
Doctors do not recommend drinking alcohol during treatment, and this applies not only to antibiotics, but also to all other medications.
Reasons why antibiotics should not be combined with alcohol
The main reasons why it is not recommended to drink alcohol while taking antibiotics include two:
- Additional strain on the liver.
- The effectiveness of treatment decreases.
In fact, you should avoid alcohol during treatment with medication as it can reduce the therapeutic effect of the medication.The reason is the properties of alcohol, which can destroy the active ingredient of the drug or disrupt its effect on the virus.In addition, alcohol can accelerate or inhibit the removal of drug components from the body.In the first case, the treatment is ineffective, in the second case, there is an additional load on the internal organs and poisoning of the body is possible.Especially in this case the liver suffers;Side effects from the kidneys, pancreas, central nervous system, brain, heart and blood vessels are possible.
Liver dysfunction is associated with the negative effect of alcohol on the synthesis of fatty acids in the cells of the organ and with blockage of the bile ducts.
Alcohol entering the body is converted into acetaldehyde using the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase and then converted into acetic acid using the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.Drugs slow the breakdown of ethyl alcohol, causing acetaldehyde to accumulate in the liver and cause severe poisoning.
In some people, alcohol has a sedative effect, as do certain types of antibiotics with a sedative effect, so their combined use can lead to toxic depression of the central nervous system.
At the same time, the breakdown of the antibiotic depends on the amount of alcohol consumed.If you drink a lot in a short period of time, the breakdown of the drug slows down and its levels in the body increase, resulting in a large toxic load.
If you drink constantly, enzymes begin to break down the drug faster, and the benefit from this is practically nil, and you also become dependent on antibiotics.
When drinking alcohol, the body does not receive enough nutrients, blood sugar levels rise and protective functions decrease.Therefore, additional exposure in the form of antibacterial drugs can lead not only to an exacerbation of chronic diseases, but also to an allergic reaction.The side effects can vary in each case.
Consequences of simultaneous use
Many people can say that they drank while taking antibiotics and nothing happened, but every body is different and no one can predict the immediate or delayed consequences that alcohol causes in combination with medications.All factors are important: age, physique, state of health, the presence of chronic pathologies or allergies in the patient.
The combination of alcohol and antibiotics can cause:
- headache, dizziness;
- nausea, vomiting;
- sleep disorder;
- pain in the stomach or intestines;
- rash on body;
- increased heart rate, increased or decreased blood pressure;
- anaphylactic shock.
Alcohol also causes dehydration, which slows down the healing process and the body's ability to heal itself.
How long after taking antibiotics can you drink alcohol?
It is not recommended to drink alcohol immediately after completing a course of antibiotics.The medicine tends to build up in the body and takes time to be excreted.Therefore, it is better to wait a few days until the antibiotic is completely eliminated from the body before drinking a glass of your favorite wine or beer.
Should you take medication if you have already drunk alcohol?
Many doctors agree that the correct course of antibiotics plays a large part in the success of treatment.Therefore, they must be taken according to a special regimen prescribed by the doctor, otherwise the entire treatment process may be ruined.Therefore, doctors are sure that it is impossible to stop taking the antibacterial drug even if the patient continues to drink alcohol.This can cause bacteria to become more resistant to a certain type of antibiotic and require a stronger drug to cure the disease in the future.
Under no circumstances should you drink alcohol while taking antibiotics
A sip of wine or beer is unlikely to have much of an impact on your treatment while taking most medications.However, there are medications for which alcohol is strictly contraindicated.
For example, fluoroquinolones affect the central nervous system and mixing drugs of this group with alcohol can cause a person to fall into a coma.Alcohol can increase the side effects of aminoglycosides and cause toxic damage to the liver and the entire body.Nitroimidazoles and some cephalosporins prescribed to treat gastrointestinal infections and sexually transmitted diseases should not be combined with alcohol.When combined with alcohol, they increase the effects of the drug and become toxic.The combination of the listed antibiotics and ethanol can cause unpleasant side effects: headache, nausea, vomiting, rapid heartbeat, fever.Therefore, doctors recommend drinking alcohol no earlier than three days after the end of treatment.For example, a representative of the oxazolidinone class can cause an increase in blood pressure when interacting with alcohol.Even in liver diseases, the use of a semi-synthetic antibiotic of the tetracycline group is categorically not recommended, as it aggravates the patient's already difficult condition.
If you drink alcohol at this time, treatment with a macrolide antibiotic may not be effective.Alcohol weakens the effect of the medication and treatment is delayed.
Some antibiotics do not contain contraindications to alcohol in their instructions.Although a history of jaundice or liver dysfunction may be a limitation.
It must be remembered that alcohol in combination with an antibiotic puts a lot of stress on the liver and other organs, and also neutralizes the medicinal properties of the drug.A one-time intake of small amounts of alcohol will not cause negative consequences, but it would be wiser to complete the treatment and only then relax.In addition, in addition to antibiotics, the patient may also take other medications that also do not have the best effect on the body.After taking antibiotics, you can drink it a day later: often this time is enough for the medicine to be completely eliminated from the body.If possible, it is better to increase the interval to avoid side effects.
In order for antibiotics to provide the necessary benefit, they should only be prescribed by a doctor and the instructions and dosage schedule should be followed exactly.It is better to avoid alcohol during treatment to give the body the opportunity to quickly cope with the disease and restore health.