Almost each of us has had to deal with diseases that require the use of antibacterial drugs to achieve a therapeutic effect. These are medications that are aggressive to microflora. That is why the question arises when you can drink alcohol after antibiotics, since many would not want to give up wine, cognac, beer or vodka for a long time.
The question is ambiguous and there is no direct monosyllabic answer to it. There are different opinions in the media. Some people, during a festive holiday, consider it more correct to refuse to drink alcoholic beverages, relying more on intuition than on reliable information from reliable sources. Such a person in the company evokes sympathy and understanding, usually no onedoesn't convince you to drink. However, there are times when someone refers to an article in which a doctor popularly explains what does not always interfere with the healing process.
Why you shouldn't take medication with alcohol
As you know, there is no smoke without fire. Doctors can scientifically justify prohibiting the use of antimicrobial agents and the consumption of vodka or beer at the same time. Furthermore, they claim that you can take antibiotics after consuming alcohol after a strictly defined period of time. Experts appeal to the following facts:
- ethanol at the biochemical level significantly reduces the therapeutic effect of antimicrobial agents;
- the combination of alcohol with antibacterial drugs causes toxic damage to liver cells, as well as other internal organs;
- Alcohol consumption suppresses the immune system and has a devastating effect on health, which during the period of drug therapyhighly undesirable.
There is a rational grain to the above arguments. The biochemical processes occurring in the body are extremely complex and balanced, so the saturation of the tissues of internal organs with such a biologically active compound as ethyl alcohol cannot but affect metabolism. In fact, alcohol can significantly reduce the therapeutic effect of drugs. Either it destroys the atomic structure of the active substance or prevents the reaction of medicines with proteins of pathogenic microorganisms. Additionally, alcohol can cause accelerated elimination or make it difficult to absorb medications. So it happensdecreased effectiveness of therapy, or development of unwanted side symptoms.
Effect on liver function and condition
Scientific research and the practice of clinical medicine confirm the destructive effect of combining antimicrobials with alcoholic beverages on the liver. That is why the instructions for use of medications indicate contraindications and side effects on this extremely important organ. For patients with chronic liver disease, many medications are not available. If you combine antimicrobials and alcohol, the negative impact will be twofold. When should you drink alcohol after antibiotic treatment?depends on the general conditionthe body and its ability to recover.
Under the action of enzymes, ethanol is decomposed into water and carbon dioxide, but not immediately, but bypassing the intermediate stage of formation of an extremely toxic compound - acetaldehyde, which is a tissue poison. The faster alcohol breaks down, the less damage it does to the body. However, with the simultaneous presence of antimicrobials in the tissues of internal organs, alcohol catabolism significantly decreases due to the inhibition of the production of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which is necessary to complete the reaction of decomposition of ethanol into simple compounds. .
Ethanol does not interact directly with antibiotics
To find out how alcohol affects medications, as well as how many days you can drink alcohol after finishing a course of antibiotics,laboratory experiment. First, scientists carried out experiments on animals, and then invited volunteers who were asked to take a therapeutic course of antibacterial drugs. Participants were divided equally into two groups. Representatives of the first group received alcoholic beverages during the experiment, while those of the second did not. The main objective that the organizers tried to achieve was to establish the effect of ethanol on the biological activity of medicines.
The results of the experiment showed that most antibacterial drugs interact little or not at all with ethyl alcohol - it practically does not reduce the effectiveness of the drugs used. A similar conclusion was reached after studying and comparing the results of antibacterial drug therapy between the two groups. They turned out to be identical. The difference did not exceed the allowable error. The rate of absorption, distribution in the tissues of internal organs, as well as removal of active substances wasapproximately the same.
HoweverOne should not rush to conclusions that the simultaneous use of antibiotics and alcohol is completely safe. Experts ask you to take into account some nuances:
- the experiment was isolated and not confirmed by other studies, therefore one should not insist on the safety of the combination of drugs and alcohol;
- experimental subjects were offered small doses of alcoholic beverages, but in real life moderation in the consumption of vodka and beer is quite rare;
- The studies concerned only the interaction of medicines with ethanol, the effect of this combination on the state of internal organs was not studied, therefore the negative impact cannot be denied.
This was the first tentative step towards a complete answer to the important question of how long after antibiotic treatment you can drink alcohol, so the final conclusion andno clear results.
Reasons to avoid drinking during treatment
Clinical medicine has every right to say that the combination of alcohol and drugs should be avoided. Even though their mutual effects have not been adequately studied, enough is known about the health effects of ethanol to reach certain conclusions. It is impossible to deny that:
- alcohol disrupts metabolic processes if consumed regularly;
- ethanol causes an increase in sugar levels in the bloodstream;
- alcohol consumption leads to physical and nervous exhaustion;
- the risk of an allergic reaction increases by an order of magnitude.
Each person has individual characteristics of internal biological processes, so it is possible to predict the body's reactionalmost impossible, but it is unlikely to be positive.
Interaction of alcohol with antimicrobial medications
According to the experiment, the consumption of drinks containing alcohol does not affect the pharmacological properties of most antimicrobial agents and does not cause significant side effects. However, there are antimicrobial drugs that absolutely cannot be taken with alcoholic beverages, because such a combination leads to truly dangerous consequences.
Just a few days laterYou can drink alcohol after taking antibiotics, which affect metabolism. For example, such medicines against fungal infections and analogues require the participation of an enzyme in the biochemical reaction that is also necessary for the degradation of ethanol. Your supplies are limited. When consuming significant doses of ethanol, a conflict arises. There simply isn't enough enzyme to interact with the drug or to react with the ethyl alcohol. In the first case, we will certainly observe a decrease in the therapeutic efficacy of the medication, in addition to possible allergic reactions and an increase in the medication's side effects. If you do not decompose ethanol, acute poisoning with all the consequences cannot be avoided. This is why you should not take antimicrobial agents of this type at the same time as alcohol.
A disulfiram-like reaction is the main reason for prohibiting alcohol consumption during antimicrobial therapy. Interfering with the catabolism of ethanol in the body leads to the accumulation of the previously mentioned acetaldehyde - acetaldehyde. This is a potent toxin that has an overall negative effect on the body. The most common andunpleasant signs of intoxication:
- nausea with vomiting attacks;
- stomachache;
- sharp headache;
- intense sweating;
- general weakness, dizziness;
- tachycardia;
- increase in pressure.
I agree that this physical condition most clearly proves the thesis that antibiotics should be used after a course of alcohol, a few days later, so that ethanol and its toxic decomposition products have time to leave the body naturally.
By the way, the disulfiram-like reaction is so named after the drug for prohibitive drug therapy for chronic alcoholism - disulfiram. Its use forces the alcoholic to abandon alcohol consumption precisely due to the development of panic, fear of symptomsacute intoxication. The medicine is injected into the subcutaneous (implanted) layer, from where it gradually enters the body and blocks the production of the enzyme responsible for the degradation of ethanol.
What complications to expect
How long it takes to safely drink alcohol again after a course of antibiotics depends on the antimicrobial medication (the rate of its absorption and elimination), as well as the individual characteristics of a person's metabolism.
Doctors emphasize that the ban does not apply only to a glass of cognac or vodka. You need to forget about wine, beer and low-alcohol drinks. In addition, ethyl alcohol is often found in other foods, as well as in medicines, so you should pay attention to this aspect.
You can often hear that someone you know drank alcohol and took antimicrobial medications without any negative consequences. However, no one knows what happened to this man's body,how effectiveIt turned out how long the treatment lasted, how long it lasted, what his health is like now. Meanwhile, in the practice of clinical medicine, many cases have been recorded when people did not follow the recommendation on how long to drink alcohol after antibiotics, but drank during treatment and ultimately became victims:
- violationsliver function;
- anaphylactic shock;
- disturbances in the functioning of the brain and the central nervous system in general (severe headaches accompanied by dizziness, nausea with vomiting attacks, convulsive attacks);
- gastrointestinal diseases;
- sleep dysfunctions;
- high pressure;
- negative skin reactions (dermatitis);
- heart rhythm disturbances;
Our natural filter, the liver, suffers the most. Despite its ability to renew cells, it is so negatively affected that it ends up losing functionality.
The last word in the debate over combining alcohol and antibiotics
After completing drug therapy, you need to wait a few days before starting to consume alcohol. This is due to the removal of drug catabolism products from the body, and this requires a certain amount of time. All medications have different times to reach maximum blood concentrations and elimination. And alwaysindicated in the instructions.
It is not recommended to consume alcoholic beverages at the same time, not only with antimicrobials, but also with other medications. However, antimicrobial medications are one of the few that are strictly prohibited. If you are going to undergo drug treatment, ask your doctor how long after you can drink alcohol after taking antibiotics.
Despite the fact that the opinion of experts on the admissibility of the simultaneous use of alcoholic beverages and antibacterial drugs is divided (excluding medicines that havethe restrictions are clear), most doctors tend to conclude that it is best for patients to stop drinking alcohol during treatment.
In any case, alcoholic beverages are far from being a product worth risking your health for, even if the risk seems insignificant. Nothing bad will happen if you become an avid teetotaler for 2 weeks. Even a healthy person's body succumbs to alcohol over time. Prolonged consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to the development of a large number of various somatic and mental disorders. If a person does not give up alcohol during illness, then we can safely say that the physical and mentaldegradation will accelerateduring this period of time. Even if you could drink alcohol at the same time as taking medication, you still shouldn't do so. Ethanol is poison, but it's impossible to count how many destinies vodka has broken