All people get sick from time to time and many of them have to resort to antibiotics. It is widely believed in society that these drugs are incompatible with alcohol, but what if the treatment period 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 interrupting it.
On the question of the compatibility of antibiotics with alcohol and when to drink after therapy, doctors still have different attitudes. There are many doctors who strongly recommend that patients avoid alcohol completely during therapy to avoid the consequences of taking antibiotics and alcohol at the same time. They explain this by the fact that these drugs, together with ethanol, destroy the liver and nullify the effectiveness of the treatment.
To date, many studies have been conducted, the results of which allow us to confidently say 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 drink antibiotics with large doses of alcohol, the body will weaken, and in this case, the effectiveness of the treatment, of course, will decrease.
A number of antibiotics are also isolated, which enter into a disulfiram-like reaction with ethanol. Their simultaneous intake with alcohol is contraindicated, as this will cause 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 as follows:
- Alcohol neutralizes the effect of antibiotics.
- Alcohol, along with antibiotics, increases liver damage.
- Alcoholic beverages reduce the effectiveness of the 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 conducted 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 from the penicillin group do not enter into any reactions with ethanol, so you can use them with alcohol. In 1988, Spanish researchers tested the compatibility of amoxicillin with alcohol: in a group of subjects only insignificant variations in the rate of absorption of the substance and in the delay time were found.
It was also found that the pharmacokinetic parameters of some antibiotics, for example the tetracyclines group, 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 refuted 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 rather than the rule.
Scientists have also shown that ethanol does not affect antibiotics used in the treatment of experimental pneumococcal infection among experimental rats.
Reasons for incompatibility
Although the safety of the simultaneous use of most antibiotics with alcohol has been demonstrated, there are a number of drugs that are incompatible with alcohol. These are drugs whose active ingredients 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 aforementioned drugs contains specific molecules that can modify 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, chest;
- difficult breathing;
- convulsions.
A disulfiram-like reaction is used in the coding of alcoholism, but this method should only be used under the close supervision of a specialist. Even a small dose of alcohol causes poisoning during treatment with nitroimidazoles and cephalosporins. Alcohol abuse in this case can lead to death.
Doctors allow a small amount of alcohol in treatment with penicillins, antifungal drugs, and some broad-spectrum antibiotics. One serving of a fortified drink while taking these drugs will not affect the effectiveness of the therapy and will not cause adverse health effects.
When can
Although alcohol is allowed with most antibiotics, they should not be taken at the same time. To better drink such drugs, it is indicated in the instructions.
For example, the effectiveness of erythromycin and tetracyclines increases the consumption of alkaline mineral water and sulfonamides, indomethacin and reserpine - with milk.
If the antibiotic does not go 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 for antibiotics to circulate in the blood, respectively, and is the answer to the question of how much you can drink after taking the drug.
In any case, during the treatment period, it is permissible 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 figured out how long after taking the medicine 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 several hypotheses about the reasons for its occurrence. According to one of them, the authorship of the legend belongs to venereologists who wanted to warn their patients against drunkenness.
It is also assumed that the myth was invented by European doctors. Penicillin was a drug that was in short supply in the 1940s and soldiers liked to drink beer, which has a diuretic effect and removes the drug from the body.
It has now been shown that alcohol in most cases does not affect the effectiveness of antibiotics and does not increase liver damage. If the active ingredients of the drug do not enter into a disulfiram-like reaction with ethanol, you can drink alcohol during treatment. However, 2 main rules should be observed - do not abuse alcohol and do not drink an antibiotic with it.