All people get sick from time to time, and many of them have to resort to taking antibiotics. In the community, it is widely believed that these drugs are incompatible with alcohol, but what if the treatment period coincides with the holidays? Where is the truth, and where are the legends in our ideas about the interaction of antibiotics with alcoholic beverages?
Antibiotics and alcohol
Antibiotics are drugs designed to fight bacteria. They penetrate into pathogenic microorganisms or interfere with their metabolism, breaking it completely or partially.
To the issue of the compatibility of antibiotics with alcohol and regarding when to drink after therapy, doctors still treat differently. There are many doctors who strongly recommend patients to completely eliminate alcoholic beverages during therapy in order to avoid the consequences of simultaneous antibiotic and alcohol intake. They explain this by the fact that these drugs, together with ethanol, destroy the liver and negate the effectiveness of treatment.
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 treatment, of course, will decrease.
There are also a number of antibiotics that come with ethanol in a disulfiram-like reaction. Their simultaneous intake with alcohol is contraindicated, as this will cause intoxication, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, convulsions. In very rare cases, a lethal outcome is possible.
Myths and Reality
Historically, the society has developed myths about complications after drinking alcohol during antibiotic treatment.
The main myths are as follows:
- Alcohol neutralizes the action of antibiotics.
- Alcohol combined with antibiotics increases liver damage.
- Alcoholic drinks reduce the effectiveness of experimental therapy.
Actually, these theses are only partially true, which is confirmed by the results of numerous studies on compatibility. In particular, the available data allow us to state that the intake of alcohol-containing beverages does not affect the pharmacokinetics of most antibiotics.
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At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, a lot of research was carried out on the joint action of antibacterial drugs and alcohol. In the experiments, people and laboratory animals were involved. The results of antibiotic therapy turned out to be the same in the experimental and control groups, but no significant deviations in absorption, distribution and excretion of the drug active substances from the body were found. Data from these studies showed that you can drink alcohol while taking antibiotics.
As early as 1982, a number of experiments were conducted among volunteers among volunteers, the results of which showed that the antibiotics of the penicillin group do not enter into any reactions with ethanol and, accordingly, can be consumed with alcohol. In 1988, Spanish researchers tested amoxicillin for compatibility with alcohol: in the group of subjects only insignificant changes in the absorption rate of the substance and the delay time were revealed.
In addition, at different times, scientists from different countries made similar conclusions about erythromycin, cefpirome, azithromycin and many other antibacterial drugs. It was also found that the pharmacokinetic indices of some antibiotics - for example, tetracycline groups - under the influence of alcohol are significantly reduced. However, drugs with this effect were identified less.
The widespread belief that alcoholic beverages, along with alcohol enhance 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 to the rule.
Also, scientists have proven that ethanol does not affect the antibiotics azithromycin, travofloxacin and ceftriaxone, used in the treatment of experimental pneumococcal infection among experimental rats. Interesting results were obtained during experiments with moxifloxacin: it was found that rats that received small doses of alcohol during treatment received cure faster.
Why it is customary to claim that alcohol and antibiotics are incompatible:
Causes of incompatibility
Despite the fact that the safety of simultaneous intake of most antibiotics along with alcohol is proven, a number of drugs are incompatible with alcohol. These are drugs, the active substances of which enter a disulfiram-like reaction with ethyl alcohol - primarily nitroimidazoles and cephalosporins.
The reason why it is impossible to take both antibiotics and alcohol simultaneously is that the above drugs contain specific molecules that are capable of changing the ethanol metabolism. As a result, there is a delay in the removal of acetaldehyde, which accumulates in the body and leads to intoxication.
The process is accompanied by the characteristic symptoms:
- with an intense headache;
- heart palpitations;
- with nausea and vomiting;
- heat in the areas of face, neck, chest;
- shortness of breath;
- convulsions.
A small amount of alcohol used by doctors is permitted in the treatment of penicillins, antifungal agents, certain broad-spectrum antibiotics. A portion of fortified beverage when taking these medicines will not affect the effectiveness of therapy and will not cause negative health effects.
When can
Although most antibiotics are allowed to drink alcohol, their simultaneous use is not permissible. The better to drink these drugs, it is indicated in the instructions. For example, the effectiveness of erythromycin and tetracyclines increases alkalinity washings, and sulfonamides, indomethacin and reserpine - milk.
If the antibiotic does not enter ethanol into a disulfiram-like reaction, 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, through how much you can drink after taking the drug. In any case, during the treatment period it is allowed to take only a small dose of alcohol, otherwise the body will begin dehydration, and the antibacterial drug will simply be excreted in the urine.
Conclusions
The myth of the incompatibility of antibiotics and alcohol appeared in the last century, and there are several hypotheses about the causes of its occurrence. According to one of them, the authorship of the legend belongs to the venereologists who wanted to warn their patients from drunkenness.
There is also the assumption that the myth was invented by European doctors. Penicillin in the 1940s was a scarce medicine, and soldiers loved to drink beer, which has a diuretic effect and removes the drug from the body.
It is now proved that alcohol in most cases does not affect the effectiveness of antibiotics and does not enhance liver damage. If the active substances of the drug do not enter a disulfiram-like reaction with ethanol, you can use alcohol during treatment. However, two main rules should be observed: do not abuse alcohol and do not drink antibiotic.