What happens if you drink a glass or two of alcohol after taking an antibiotic tablet?When can you drink alcohol so as not to harm your health, how many hours or days after antibiotics can you drink alcohol?
Antibiotics and alcohol
The mandatory result of the use of alcohol and antibiotics is a decrease in the effectiveness of treatment.When consuming alcoholic beverages, inflammatory processes develop in the intestines and local immunity decreases.
At the same time, antibiotic-induced intestinal disorders are increasing.
Violation of drug concentration
The antibiotic begins to act after reaching a sufficiently high therapeutic concentration in the blood.Due to the intake of alcoholic beverages, the amount of the drug in the body decreases.
When they try to take antibiotics after alcohol, such drugs can be considered pointless and even dangerous.
Violation of the treatment regimen, decrease in the concentration of the drug, increases the resistance of the pathogenic microflora to the effect of the antibiotic.The disease itself, for which an antibiotic is prescribed, has a chance to turn from acute to chronic.
The concentration of the drug decreases due to acetaldehyde, a nephrotoxic metabolite of ethyl alcohol, disrupting the process of reabsorption of nutrients in the renal tubules.
Water reabsorption is also impaired, which increases the viscosity of the blood, and the concentration of the antibiotic in the blood can change in the most unpredictable way.
Features of metabolism
Antibiotics are drugs that are metabolized in the liver.The liver, dealing with ethyl alcohol, does not have time to neutralize all possible intermediate metabolic products of the drug.
In addition, ethanol can affect the activity of liver enzymes and even react directly with the antibiotic or its metabolites.These properties are expressed differently in antibacterial preparations.
One of the most dangerous features of combining the drug with ethyl alcohol is the interaction of these chemical compounds with the development of a disulfiram-like reaction.
Let's figure out whether it is possible to drink alcohol, beer while taking antibiotics, after that it is not dangerous to drink alcohol, and after that it is completely prohibited.
Disulfiram-like reaction
The disulfiram reaction is used to code alcoholism, which is accompanied by nausea, cramps, cough, 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 which antibiotics you should avoid drinking alcohol for, and for how long.
The results of ethanol intake during antibiotic treatment depend on the dose.
When you can drink alcohol after taking antibiotic tablets or injections is calculated based on the time it takes for the antibiotic to be eliminated from the body.
List of antibiotics
Do not drink with alcohol:
- nitroimidazoles - do not combine with alcohol for up to 48 hours (the drugs have a disulfiram-like reaction);
- cephalosporins - the chemical structure of this group is similar to the disulfiram molecule in a structure that reacts with ethyl alcohol in a disulfiram-like manner.You can drink alcohol every day;in case of kidney failure, the interval is extended;
- fluoroquinolones - synthetic antibiotics depress the nervous system and can cause coma.Take alcohol no later than 1.5 days;
- tetracyclines - there is a high risk of damage to liver hepatocytes;they are removed from the body for a long time.You can drink alcohol after 3 days;
- aminoglycosides are ototoxic, nephrotoxic, the side effects of the drug increase, the toxicity of the drug increases.drink alcohol no later than 0.5 months;
- lincosamides - central nervous system and liver are affected, disulfiram reaction develops.You can drink alcohol 4 days after the treatment;
- macrolides - the risk of liver cirrhosis increases, especially when taking erythromycin, they are slowly eliminated from the body.Alcohol is allowed after 3.5 days;
- anti-tuberculosis drugs - can cause drug-induced hepatitis with a fulminant course.Alcoholic beverages are prohibited!
The rate of elimination of antibacterial drugs from different environments of the body is different.Thus, if aminoglycosides are removed from the blood of adults in an average of 2.5 hours, this period can be up to 350 hours from the inner ear fluid.
Given the ototoxicity of aminoglycosides, it is easy to understand that drinking alcohol within 2 weeks of treatment can cause deafness.
Interaction
A disulfiram-like reaction develops during treatment with antibiotics and alcohol intake, due to the blocking of the synthesis of enzymes that destroy the ethanol molecule into simple substances.
The result is an increase in the blood concentration of the intermediate breakdown product of ethyl alcohol - acetaldehyde.Ethanol metabolite acetaldehyde is more toxic than ethyl alcohol itself.
The lack of liver enzymes caused by the toxic effect on the liver leads to a decrease in the synthesis of norepinephrine, so the next morning, the symptoms of intoxication appear brighter and are more difficult to endure.
Results
In small doses, the combination of alcohol and medicine may not cause any symptoms, but when drinking large doses of alcohol, the side effects of both the medicine and ethyl alcohol increase.
One of the most dangerous consequences of combining alcohol with antibiotics is a disulfiram-like reaction.The danger of this situation is that it is masked by alcohol intoxication and is not recognized by others as a signal of concern.
The disulfiram reaction is caused by an increase in the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood and is manifested by the following symptoms:
- heartbeat;
- nausea, vomiting;
- hot flash, feeling of heat;
- dizziness;
- abdominal pain;
- sharp drop in pressure.
If the patient's blood alcohol level is above 125 mg/100 ml and the victim is not provided with timely assistance, then even death is possible.
How to combine
Some medications should absolutely not be combined with ethyl alcohol in any dosage:
- nitroimidazoles;
- group of cephalosporins;
- fluoroquinolones;
- aminoglycosides.
How many days after antibiotics can you take drinks with alcohol?Is it possible to interrupt the course of treatment for a while?
It is best not to combine antibiotics and alcohol at all and not to take ethanol during treatment.If for some reason this is not possible and you have to drink alcohol, then you can calculate how long after taking antibiotics you can use a special alcohol calculator.
The alcohol calculator takes into account the person's weight, the amount and strength of the drink taken.Thus, in 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 taken into account 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 condition of the kidneys, intestines and liver.
The result
For complete removal of the antibacterial drug from the body, it should take from 1 to 3.5 - 5 days.The elimination time depends on the state of health, age, and metabolic characteristics of the person.
In most cases, drinking alcohol while taking an antibiotic course weakens the effectiveness of the treatment, increases the side effects of the drug, causes a disulfiram-like reaction and is fraught with serious consequences.