Unfortunately, a stereotype has developed about the illness of non-drinkers. If you refuse a glass of vodka during a feast, there will surely be someone who asks, "Sick? " But few understand that alcohol is very harmful to the body, especially when treating other ailments. In this article, we will talk about the compatibility of alcoholic beverages with antibiotic therapy. Whether you can drink during treatment, let's try to figure out.
Consequences of taking antibiotics in combination with alcohol
Antibiotics are one of the strongest, most effective, and most effective groups of drugs that have completely changed science and medicine. A few centuries ago, the average life expectancy of a person was about forty years, and with the introduction of antibiotics into the masses, man lived much longer. Nowadays, antibiotics are very controversial, with many young mothers talking about the horrors and consequences of frequent and long-term use of the drug by children. In fact, like all strong drugs, antibiotics require careful attention and special rules of intake. And one of them is the refusal of alcohol during treatment. Failure to do so could have serious consequences.
- Decreased drug concentration.As you know, the antibiotic does not start working immediately, but only when a certain amount of the drug accumulates in the body. Alcohol, in turn, significantly reduces the absorption of the drug into the stomach and intestinal wall. This means that alcoholic beverages simply eliminate the effects of antibiotic therapy by reducing the concentration of the drug in the body. Because of this, taking the drug simply becomes useless and sometimes dangerous, as the lack of therapeutic effect leads to the flourishing of the disease, an increase in the number of bacteria. In addition, low doses of antibiotics lead to the fact that harmful microorganisms develop resistance to this antibiotic, which later becomes ineffective.
- Load on the liver.Another negative consequence of combining alcohol and antibiotics is the extremely high strain on the liver. This body is involved in the processing of ethyl alcohol and the neutralization of drug intermediates. That is, during the period of taking antibiotics, the liver is as active as possible, combined with alcohol consumption, the load on the organ is high, sometimes the liver may refuse.
- Disulfiram-like reaction.Sometimes taking alcohol and antibiotics results in a strong reaction, such as nausea, vomiting, seizures, and malaise. This occurs when certain groups of antibiotics are taken with ethanol. This reaction is often used to encode a person from consuming alcohol. A special tablet is sewn into the subcutaneous space with a substance that enters the body in equal doses over a long period of time, several months. If alcohol enters the human body during this period, all of the above symptoms will appear. There is a persistent aversion to alcohol in humans.
In addition, alcoholic beverages thicken the blood very strongly, leading to dehydration of the body. How an antibiotic behaves in such conditions is a mystery because each organism is unique. Sometimes the consequences of such a combination can be dangerous and irreversible. Therefore, alcohol consumption is strictly prohibited during antibiotic therapy. This also applies to low-alcohol beverages.
How to take antibiotics correctly
In order for a drug to be beneficial, it must be taken according to certain rules. As noted, it is impossible to combine with alcohol, you have to wait until the drug is completely removed from the body. This may take from several hours to several days after the last dose of the medicine. Here are some additional guidelines to follow when treating antibiotics.
The antibiotic should be taken at regular intervals, this is very important. If your doctor prescribes an injection or tablet twice a day, it should be taken strictly after 12 hours. If three doses are prescribed, antibiotics should be taken every 8 hours - for example, at 6: 00, 14: 00 and 22: 00.
Antibiotics may not work if the bacteria are very resistant to this group of medicines. Ideally, you should transfer a bacteriological culture before starting treatment to identify the most sensitive drug for a given organism.
You should not take any antibiotics unless your doctor tells you to - you should not talk. Some diseases, despite the severity of symptoms, are not necessarily sensitive to antibiotic therapy, such as viral diseases.
Before prescribing, be sure to tell your doctor if you have previously had any allergic reactions to any medicines. Also tell your doctor about the medicines you are taking regularly - hormonal contraceptives, blood thinners, antihistamines, etc. The combination of some drugs with antibiotics can have unintended consequences.
The antibiotic should not be taken for less than 5 days, usually about 7-10 days. Even if you feel better on the third day of taking the drug, you should not give up, otherwise the incompletely suppressed bacteria will start to multiply again and attack the body. Another consequence of early withdrawal of the antibiotic is that this bacterial strain acquires resistance to the antibiotic taken. Next time, a similar illness will make this drug helpless.
Take antibiotics exactly as instructed, especially in combination with food. As a general rule, most medicines in this group should be taken with plenty of water after a meal. Medicines are not rinsed with juice, coffee and milk, which may reduce their effectiveness.
Antibiotics should be combined with the intake of beneficial bacteria because antibiotic therapy can completely destroy the intestinal microflora, leading to dysbiosis, diarrhea, or diarrhea. To avoid this, probiotics and prebiotics should be taken in parallel.
These are the basic rules for taking antibiotics that must be strictly followed, regardless of the group of drugs. Your doctor may not talk about these simple rules, as everyone should know them.
When can antibiotics be combined with alcohol?
There are antibiotics whose combination with alcohol is strictly contraindicated. These are fluoroquinolones, nitroimidazoles, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, erythromycin and anti-tuberculosis drugs. Under no circumstances should it be combined with alcohol, otherwise a complex disulfiram-like reaction will occur. If you are planning to consume alcohol, which is in no way to be avoided, you should try to consume alcohol so that it does not cross with the medicine in your body. For example, certain types of antibiotics are cleared from the blood within 2-3 hours. Through this interval, you can drink a glass of beer that a person of average body will hatch in a few hours. That is, by taking the drug again, the body will be sober and clean again. There are many nuances in such a theory, the rate of elimination of the drug and alcohol from the body must be taken into account, and the time interval between intake of the drug must be known. Therefore, for your own health, it is still better to refuse alcohol during treatment.
The first mention of the dangers of alcohol during antibiotic treatment dates back to the 1940s. During World War II, doctors began to actively use penicillin, which was first introduced to treat a wide range of people. Back then, the patients were European soldiers who loved to drink beer. And beer, as you know, had a pronounced diuretic effect and simply eliminated the drug from the body. Then the doctors decided to "scare" the soldiers and told them the serious consequences of the combination of treatment and alcohol. The white capes were intuitively right and were already protecting their patients from problems. Take care not to drink alcohol during treatment!