What happens if you drink a glass or two of alcohol after taking an antibiotic pill?When can you drink alcohol, how many hours or days after antibiotics, so as not to harm your health?
Antibiotics and alcohol
The mandatory consequence of the use of alcohol and antibiotics is a decrease in the effectiveness of the treatment.During the consumption of alcoholic beverages, inflammatory processes develop in the intestines and local immunity decreases.
At the same time, the intestinal disorder associated with antibiotic treatment increases, which is caused by taking the antibiotic.
Violation of drug concentration
The antibiotic begins to work after it reaches a high enough therapeutic concentration in the blood.Due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the amount of the substance in the body decreases.
This type of medicine, when trying to take antibiotics after alcohol, is considered pointless and even dangerous.
Violation of the treatment regimen, a decrease in the concentration of the drug increases the resistance of the pathogenic microflora to the effect of the antibiotic.And the disease itself, against which antibiotics are prescribed, has a chance of turning from acute to chronic.
The concentration of the drug decreases due to the fact that the nephrotoxic metabolite of ethyl alcohol, acetaldehyde, interferes with the reabsorption of nutrients in the renal tubules.
The reabsorption of water also deteriorates, which increases the viscosity of the blood, and the concentration of the antibiotic in the blood can change in the most unpredictable way.
Characteristics of metabolism
Antibiotics are drugs that are metabolized in the liver.With the busy processing of ethyl alcohol, the liver 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 drugs.
One of the most dangerous features of combining the drug with ethyl alcohol is the interaction of these chemical compounds with the formation of a disulfiram-like reaction.
Let's see if it is possible to drink alcohol and beer while taking antibiotics, after which alcohol consumption is not dangerous, and after that it is completely prohibited.
Disulfiram-like reaction
The disulfiram reaction is used to code for alcoholism, which is accompanied by nausea, convulsions, cough, vomiting, shortness of breath, and a drop in blood pressure.
A similar effect often occurs when taking drugs with ethanol.
Below is a list of which antibiotics you should not drink alcohol for and for how long.
The consequences of taking ethanol during antibiotic treatment are dose-dependent.
The duration of alcohol consumption after taking tablets or antibiotic injections is calculated based on the time it takes for the antibiotic to be cleared from the body.
List of antibiotics
Do not drink with alcohol:
- nitroimidazoles - do not mix with alcohol for up to 48 hours (the drugs cause a disulfiram-like reaction);
- cephalosporins - the chemical structure of this group is similar in structure to the disulfiram molecule, which gives a disulfiram-like reaction with ethyl alcohol.You can drink alcohol every other day;in case of kidney failure, the interval is extended;
- fluoroquinolones - synthetic antibiotics depress the nervous system and can cause coma.Drink alcohol no earlier than 1.5 days later;
- tetracyclines - high risk of damage to liver hepatocytes;they are eliminated from the body for a long time.After 3 days you can drink alcohol;
- Aminoglycosides are ototoxic and nephrotoxic, the side effects of the drug increase, and the toxicity of the drugs increases.Drink alcohol no earlier than after 0.5 months;
- lincosamides - the central nervous system and the liver are affected, a 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.Consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited!
The rate of clearance of antibacterial drugs varies from different environments of the body.So, if aminoglycosides are eliminated from the blood of adults in an average of 2.5 hours, then this time can be up to 350 hours from the fluid of the inner ear.
Considering the ototoxicity of aminoglycosides, it is easy to understand that alcohol consumption within 2 weeks of treatment can cause deafness.
Interaction
During antibiotic treatment and alcohol consumption, a disulfiram-like reaction develops due to the blocking of the synthesis of enzymes that break down the ethanol molecule into simple substances.
The consequence of this is an increase in the blood concentration of the intermediate decomposition product of ethyl alcohol - acetaldehyde.Ethanol's metabolite, acetaldehyde, is more toxic than ethyl alcohol itself.
The lack of liver enzymes resulting from the toxic effect of the liver causes a decrease in the synthesis of norepinephrine, which is why the symptoms of poisoning the next morning appear more vividly and are more difficult to tolerate.
Consequences
The combination of a small dose of alcohol and medicine may not cause symptoms, but in the case of high doses of alcohol consumption, the side effects of both the medicine and ethyl alcohol increase.
One of the most dangerous consequences of the combination of alcohol and antibiotics is a disulfiram-like reaction.The danger of this condition is that it is masked by alcohol poisoning and is not recognized by others as a warning sign.
The disulfiram reaction is caused by an increase in the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood, and the following symptoms are manifested:
- heartbeat;
- nausea, vomiting;
- heat wave, feeling of heat;
- dizziness;
- abdominal pain;
- sharp pressure drop.
If the patient's blood alcohol level exceeds 125 mg/100 ml, and the victim does not receive help in time, even death is possible.
How to combine
Some medicines should not be combined with ethyl alcohol in any dose:
- nitroimidazoles;
- group of cephalosporins;
- fluoroquinolones;
- aminoglycosides.
How many days after taking antibiotics can you drink alcohol?Is it possible to interrupt the 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, you can use a special alcohol calculator to calculate how long it takes for an antibiotic to work after drinking it.
The alcohol calculator takes into account the person's weight, the amount and strength of the drink consumed.Thus, for men weighing 70 kg, 100 g of vodka is 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 these calculations are approximate, and the actual rate of elimination from the body depends not only on the properties of these chemical compounds, but also on the condition of the kidneys, intestines and liver.
Conclusion
The complete removal of the antibacterial drug from the body takes 1-3.5-5 days.The elimination time depends on the person's health, age and metabolic characteristics.
In most cases, alcohol consumption during antibiotic treatment weakens the effectiveness of the treatment, increases the side effects of the drug, causes a disulfiram-like reaction and has serious consequences.