Everyone gets sick from time to time, and many of them have to resort to taking antibiotics. Society widely believes that these drugs are incompatible with alcohol, but what if the period of treatment coincided with the holidays? Where is the truth and where is the legend in our understanding of the interaction of antibiotics with alcoholic beverages?
antibiotics and alcohol
Antibiotics are drugs designed to fight bacteria. They penetrate pathogenic microorganisms or interfere with their metabolism, completely or partially disrupting it.
The question of the compatibility of antibiotics with alcohol and regarding when you can drink after therapy, doctors still have different attitudes. There are many doctors who strongly recommend that patients completely avoid alcohol during therapy to avoid the consequences of taking an antibiotic and alcohol at the same time. They explain this by the fact that these drugs, along with ethanol, destroy the liver and nullify the effectiveness of treatment.
To date, many studies have been conducted, the results of which allow us to confidently state that the pharmacological effect of most antibiotics under the influence of alcohol does not worsen, and the load on the liver does not increase.
However, alcohol itself causes intoxication and dehydration. If you take antibiotics with large doses of alcohol, the body will weaken, and in this case, the effectiveness of treatment will, of course, decrease.
Various antibiotics are also isolated, which enter into a disulfiram-like reaction with ethanol. Its simultaneous intake with alcohol is contraindicated, as this will lead to intoxication, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, convulsions. In very rare cases, death is possible.
myths and reality
Historically, there have been myths in society about the complications of alcohol consumption during antibiotic treatment.
The main myths are the following:
- Alcohol neutralizes the effect of antibiotics.
- Alcohol, along with antibiotics, increases liver damage.
- Alcoholic beverages reduce the efficacy of experimental therapy.
In fact, these theses are only partially true, which is confirmed by the results of numerous compatibility studies. In particular, the available data suggest that the intake of alcoholic beverages does not affect the pharmacokinetics of most antibiotics.
At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, a lot of research was carried out on the combined action of antibacterial drugs and alcohol. The experiments involved humans and laboratory animals. The results of antibiotic therapy were the same in the experimental and control groups, but there were no significant deviations in the absorption, distribution and excretion of the active substances of the drugs from the body. Data from these studies showed that it is possible to drink alcohol while taking antibiotics.
In 1982, Finnish scientists conducted a series of experiments among volunteers, the results of which showed that antibiotics of the penicillin group do not react with ethanol, so you can use them with alcohol. In 1988, Spanish researchers tested the compatibility of amoxicillin with alcohol: only insignificant changes in the absorption rate of the substance and the delay time were found in a group of subjects.
It was also found that the pharmacokinetic parameters of some antibiotics, for example, the group of tetracyclines, are significantly reduced under the influence of alcohol. However, fewer drugs with this effect have been identified.
The common belief that alcoholic beverages, along with alcohol, increase liver damage is also disproved by scientists around the world. Rather, alcohol can increase the hepatotoxicity of antibacterial drugs, but only in very rare cases. This fact becomes the exception and not the rule.
The scientists also showed that ethanol does not affect antibiotics used in the treatment of experimental pneumococcal infection in experimental rats.
Reasons for incompatibility
Despite the safety of the simultaneous use of most antibiotics with alcohol, there are a number of drugs that are incompatible with alcohol. These are drugs whose active substances enter into a disulfiram-like reaction with ethyl alcohol, mainly nitroimidazoles and cephalosporins.
The reason why it is impossible to take antibiotics and alcohol at the same time lies in the fact that the composition of the above drugs contains specific molecules that can change the exchange of ethanol. As a result, there is a delay in the excretion of acetaldehyde, which accumulates in the body and leads to intoxication.
The process is accompanied by characteristic symptoms:
- intense headache;
- rapid heartbeat;
- nausea with vomiting;
- heat in the areas of the face, neck, décolletage;
- difficulty breathing;
- seizures
A disulfiram-like reaction is used to code alcoholism, but this method should only be used under the strict supervision of a specialist. Even a small dose of alcohol causes intoxication during treatment with nitroimidazoles and cephalosporins. Alcohol abuse in this case can result in death.
Doctors allow a small amount of alcohol in treatment with penicillins, antifungal drugs, and some broad-spectrum antibiotics. A serving of a fortified beverage while taking these medications will not affect the effectiveness of the therapy and will not cause any negative health effects.
When do you have time
Although alcohol is allowed with most antibiotics, they should not be taken at the same time. The best to drink such drugs, is indicated in the instructions.
For example, the effectiveness of erythromycin and tetracyclines is increased by drinking alkaline mineral water and sulfonamides, indomethacin and reserpine, with milk.
If the antibiotic does not enter into a disulfiram-like reaction with ethanol, you can drink alcohol, but not earlier than 4 hours after the drug. This is the minimum time that antibiotics circulate in the blood, respectively, and is the answer to the question of how much you can drink after taking the medicine.
In any case, during the treatment period, it is allowed to take only a small dose of alcohol; otherwise, dehydration will begin in the body, and the antibacterial drug will simply be excreted in the urine.
The combination of alcohol with any antibacterial composition is dangerous for the body. Having found out how long after taking the drug it is allowed to drink alcohol, you can exclude all possible side effects.
conclusions
The myth of the incompatibility of antibiotics and alcohol appeared in the last century, while there are various hypotheses about the reasons for its appearance. According to one of them, the authorship of the legend belongs to some venereologists who wanted to warn their patients against drunkenness.
The myth is also supposed to have been invented by European doctors. Penicillin was a drug in short supply in the 1940s and soldiers liked to drink beer, which has a diuretic effect and flushes the drug out of the body.
Now it has been shown that alcohol in most cases does not affect the effectiveness of antibiotics and does not increase liver damage. If the active substances of the drug do not enter into a disulfiram-like reaction with ethanol, you can drink alcohol during treatment. However, 2 main rules must be observed: do not abuse alcohol and do not drink an antibiotic with it.