What happens if, after taking an antibiotic pill, you skip a glass or two of alcohol? When can you drink alcohol, how many hours or days after antibiotics can you drink alcohol so as not to harm your health?
Antibiotic and alcohol
An obligatory consequence of the use of alcohol and antibiotics is a decrease in the effectiveness of treatment. When alcohol is consumed, inflammatory processes develop in the intestines and local immunity decreases.
At the same time, the antibiotic-associated disorder in the intestine increases, which is caused by taking the antibiotic.
Violation of drug concentration
The antibiotic begins to act after it reaches a sufficiently high therapeutic concentration in the blood. Due to the intake of the same alcoholic beverage, the amount of the drug in the body decreases.
Such a drug, when trying to take antibiotics after alcohol, can be considered useless and even dangerous.
Violation of the treatment regimen, a decrease in the concentration of the drug contributes to an increase in the resistance of the pathogenic microflora to the action of the antibiotic. And the disease itself, against which an antibiotic is prescribed, has a chance to go from acute to chronic.
The concentration of the drug is reduced due to the fact that the nephrotoxic metabolite of ethyl alcohol acetaldehyde disrupts the process of reabsorption of nutrients in the renal tubules.
The reabsorption of water is also affected, which increases the viscosity of the blood, and the concentration of the antibiotic in the blood can change in the most unpredictable ways.
Characteristics of metabolism.
Antibiotics are drugs that are metabolized in the liver. Busy with the processing of ethyl alcohol, the liver does not have time to neutralize all possible products of the intermediate metabolism of the drug.
Furthermore, ethanol can affect the activity of liver enzymes and even react directly with the antibiotic or its metabolites. These properties are expressed in antibacterial drugs differently.
One of the most dangerous characteristics of combining a drug with ethyl alcohol is the interaction of these chemical compounds with the development of a reaction similar to disulfiram.
Let's find out whether it is possible to drink alcohol, beer, take antibiotics, after which it is not dangerous to drink alcohol, and after which it is absolutely impossible.
Disulfiram-like reaction
The disulfiram reaction is used to code for alcoholism, accompanied by nausea, seizures, coughing, vomiting, shortness of breath, and a drop in blood pressure.
A similar effect occurs quite often when taking drugs with ethanol.
Below is a list of after taking antibiotics and how long you should not drink alcohol.
The consequences of taking ethanol during antibiotic treatment depend on the dose.
When, after taking antibiotic pills or injections, you can drink alcohol, they are calculated based on the time it takes for the antibiotic to be excreted from the body.
List of antibiotics
It should not be consumed with alcohol:
- nitroimidazoles - do not combine with alcohol for up to 48 hours (drugs produce a reaction similar to disulfiram);
- Cephalosporins: The chemical structure of this group resembles the structure of a disulfiram molecule, resulting in a reaction similar to disulfiram with ethyl alcohol. You can drink alcohol every other day, with kidney failure, the interval lengthens;
- fluoroquinolones: synthetic antibiotics inhibit the nervous system and can cause coma. Do not drink alcohol before 1, 5 days;
- tetracyclines - a high risk of damage to liver hepatocytes, is excreted from the body for a long time. You can drink alcohol after 3 days;
- aminoglycosides are ototoxic, nephrotoxic, drug side effects increase, drug toxicity increases. Do not drink alcohol before 0, 5 months;
- Lincosamides - the central nervous system and liver are affected, a disulfiram reaction develops. You can drink alcohol 4 days after treatment;
- macrolides: the risk of liver cirrhosis increases, especially when taking erythromycin, they are slowly excreted from the body. Alcohol is allowed after 3. 5 days;
- Antituberculous drugs: can cause drug-induced hepatitis with fulminant course. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited!
The rate of removal of antibacterial drugs from different environments of the body is different. So, if aminoglycosides are eliminated from the blood in adults in an average of 2. 5 hours, then from the fluid of the inner ear this time can be up to 350 hours.
Given the ototoxicity of aminoglycosides, it is easy to understand that drinking alcohol within 2 weeks of treatment can cause deafness.
Interaction
A reaction similar to disulfiram develops in treatment with antibiotics and alcohol consumption due to the blocking of the synthesis of enzymes that destroy the ethanol molecule in simple substances.
The consequence is an increase in the blood concentration of an intermediate product of the breakdown of ethyl alcohol, acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde, a metabolite of ethanol, is more toxic than ethyl alcohol itself.
And the lack of liver enzymes, resulting from the toxic effect on the liver, causes a decrease in the synthesis of norepinephrine, which is why the symptoms of poisoning the next morning appear brighter and more difficult to tolerate.
Effects edit
The combination of small doses of alcohol with medications may not appear at all, but when large doses of alcohol are consumed, the side effects of both drugs and ethyl alcohol are intensified.
One of the most dangerous consequences of combining alcohol with an antibiotic is a reaction similar to disulfiram. The danger with this condition is that it is masked by alcohol intoxication and is not recognized by others as a sign of distress.
The disulfiram reaction is caused by an increase in the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood and is manifested by symptoms:
- palpitations
- nausea vomiting;
- tide, feeling of heat;
- dizziness;
- Stomach ache;
- a strong pressure drop.
If a patient's blood alcohol level is above 125 mg / 100 ml and the victim does not receive timely assistance, even a fatal outcome is possible.
How to combine
Some medications cannot be combined with ethyl alcohol at all in any dose:
- nitroimidazoles;
- a group of cephalosporins;
- fluoroquinolones;
- aminoglycosides.
How many days after antibiotics can you drink alcoholic beverages, can you interrupt the treatment for a while?
It is best not to combine antibiotics and alcohol at all and not to drink ethanol during treatment. If for some reason this is impossible and you have to consume alcoholic beverages, then you can calculate how long after alcohol to take an antibiotic using a special alcohol calculator.
The alcohol calculator takes into account the weight of a person, the amount and the concentration of the drink that is taken. So, for men weighing 70 kg, 100 g of vodka will be completely eliminated from the body in 5. 8 hours and 200 g of beer in 1. 44 hours.
It should be noted that all these calculations are approximate, and the actual rate of excretion from the body depends not only on the properties of these chemical compounds, but also on the state of the kidneys, intestines and liver.
Production
For the complete removal of antibacterial drug from the body, it should take 1-3 days. The elimination time depends on the state of health, age, characteristics of a person's metabolism.
In most cases, drinking alcohol while taking antibiotics weakens the effectiveness of the treatment, increases the side effects of the drug, causes a reaction similar to disulfiram, and is fraught with serious consequences.