Often, patients undergoing antibiotic treatment are interested in whether these medications are compatible with alcohol.
Antibiotics are medicines prescribed by a doctor for serious infectious diseases.Antibiotics act on bacteria, preventing them from multiplying in the body.
The range of use of antibacterial drugs is wide: they are prescribed for bacterial infections of the oral cavity and ENT organs, skin, internal organs, venereal and other diseases.
Such medicines require mandatory adherence to the dosage regimen and have a number of contraindications that must be taken into account.Instructions usually contain information that alcohol should not be consumed 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 come to the conclusion 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 a single dose of alcohol in a small amount and that there was an interval of at least one day between ingestion of the antibiotic and alcohol.If the patient drank more frequently, the effectiveness of antibacterial therapy decreased.
Doctors do not advise 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
Among the main reasons why it is not recommended to drink alcohol while taking antibiotics, there are two:
- Additional load on the liver.
- The effectiveness of the treatment decreases.
In fact, during treatment with any medication, you should avoid drinking alcoholic beverages, as they can reduce the therapeutic effect of the medications.The reason is the properties of alcohol, which can destroy the active substance of the medicine or disrupt its effect on the virus.Additionally, alcohol can accelerate or inhibit the removal of drug components from the body.In the first case, the treatment will be ineffective, in the second, there will be an additional load on the internal organs, intoxication of the body is possible.Especially in this case, the liver suffers;Adverse reactions to 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 organ's cells and blockage of the bile ducts.
Alcohol entering the body is converted to acetaldehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase and then to acetic acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.Medicines slow down the breakdown of ethyl alcohol, which causes acetaldehyde to accumulate in the liver, causing severe poisoning.
For 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 degradation of the antibiotic depends on the amount of alcohol consumed.If you drink a lot in a short period of time, the degradation of the drug slows down and its level in the body increases, which causes a large toxic load.
If you drink constantly, the enzymes begin to break down the medicine faster and the benefit from it is practically zero, and you also become addicted to antibiotics.
When drinking alcohol, the body does not receive enough nutrients, blood sugar levels rise and protective functions decrease.Therefore, an additional load in the form of antibacterial drugs can cause not only an exacerbation of chronic diseases, but also an allergic reaction.Side effects may vary in each case.
Consequences of concomitant use
Many people can say that they drank while taking antibiotics and nothing happened, but each body is different and no one can predict the consequences, immediate or delayed, that alcohol in combination with medications causes.All factors are important: age, physical constitution, health status, presence of chronic pathologies or allergies in the patient.
The combination of alcohol and antibiotics can cause:
- headache, dizziness;
- nausea, vomiting;
- sleep disturbance;
- pain in the stomach or intestines;
- rash on the body;
- increased heart rate, increased or decreased blood pressure;
- anaphylactic shock.
Alcohol also leads to dehydration, which slows down the body's healing and self-healing process.
How long after taking antibiotics can you drink alcohol?
It is not recommended to drink alcohol immediately after finishing antibiotic treatment.The medicine tends to accumulate in the body and takes time to eliminate it.Therefore, before drinking a glass of your favorite wine or beer, it is best to wait a few days until the antibiotic is completely eliminated from the body.
Should you take medicine if you've already drunk alcohol?
Many doctors agree that the correct course of antibiotics is a big part of the success of the treatment, so they must be taken according to a special regimen prescribed by the doctor, otherwise the entire treatment process may be nullified.Therefore, doctors are sure that even if the patient still consumed alcohol, it is impossible to stop taking the antibacterial drug.This can cause the bacteria to become more resistant to a certain type of antibiotic and require a stronger medicine to cure the disease in the future.
When taking antibiotics you absolutely should not drink alcohol
A sip of wine or beer is unlikely to have much of an effect on your treatment while you are taking most medications.However, there are medications for which alcohol is strictly contraindicated.
For example, fluoroquinolones affect the central nervous system and, when mixing drugs from 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 the entire body.Nitroimidazoles and some cephalosporins prescribed for the treatment of gastrointestinal infections and sexually transmitted diseases cannot be combined with alcohol.When combined with alcohol, they enhance the effect 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 class, when interacting with alcohol, can cause an increase in blood pressure.In addition, for liver diseases, the use of semi-synthetic antibiotics from the tetracycline group is strictly not recommended, as it aggravates the patient's already difficult condition.
Treatment with a macrolide antibiotic may not be effective if you drink alcohol at this time.Alcohol will weaken the effect of drugs and treatment will be 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 creates a large load on the liver and other organs, and also neutralizes the medicinal properties of the drug.A single dose of small amounts of alcohol will not cause negative consequences, but it would be wiser to complete the treatment and only then relax.Furthermore, in addition to antibiotics, the patient can 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 extend the interval to avoid side effects.
For antibiotics to provide the necessary benefit, they must be prescribed only by a doctor, and the instructions and dosage schedule must be strictly followed.It is better to give up alcohol during treatment to give the body the opportunity to quickly cope with the disease and restore health.