What if, after taking an antibiotic pill, you skip a glass or two of alcohol? When can you drink alcohol, how many hours or days after antibiotics can you drink alcohol so as not to harm your health?
Antibiotics and alcohol
A mandatory consequence of the use of alcohol and antibiotics is a decrease in the effectiveness of treatment. When alcohol is consumed, inflammatory processes develop in the intestines and local immunity is reduced.
At the same time, the antibiotic-related disorder in the gut has increased, which is provoked by taking the antibiotic.
Violation of drug concentration
The antibiotic begins to work after reaching a fairly high therapeutic concentration in the blood. Due to taking the same alcoholic beverage, the amount of medicine in the body decreases.
Such medication, when antibiotics try to be taken after alcohol, can be considered futile and even dangerous.
Violation of the treatment regimen, a decrease in the concentration of the drug contributes to an increase in the resistance of pathogenic microflora to the action of the antibiotic. And the disease itself, against which an antibiotic is prescribed, gets a chance to go from acute to chronic.
The concentration of the drug is reduced due to the fact that the nephrotoxic metabolite of ethyl alcohol acetaldehyde disrupts the process of reabsorption of nutrients in the renal tubules.
Water reabsorption is also impaired, which increases blood viscosity, and the antibiotic concentration in the blood can change in the most unpredictable way.
Characteristics of metabolism
Antibiotics are drugs that are metabolized in the liver. Busy with the processing of ethyl alcohol, the liver does not have time to neutralize all possible products of drug intermediate metabolism.
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 a drug with ethyl alcohol is the interaction of these chemical compounds with the development of a disulfiram-like reaction.
Let us understand if it is possible to drink alcohol, beer, take antibiotics, after which it is not dangerous to drink alcohol, and after which it is absolutely impossible.
Disulfiram-like reaction
The disulfiram reaction is used to codify alcoholism, accompanied by nausea, seizures, coughing, vomiting, shortness of breath, and a drop in blood pressure.
A similar effect occurs quite often when taking medication with ethanol.
Below is a list of taking antibiotics and for how long you should not drink alcohol.
The consequences of taking ethanol during antibiotic treatment depend on the dose.
When, after taking antibiotics or pills, you can drink alcohol - they are calculated based on how long it takes for the antibiotic to be excreted from the body.
List of antibiotics
Should not be consumed with alcohol:
- nitroimidazole - do not combine with alcohol for up to 48 hours (medicines give a disulfiram-like reaction);
- cephalosporins - the chemical structure of this group resembles a disulfiram molecule in structure, which gives a disulfiram-like reaction with ethyl alcohol. You can take alcohol every other day, with kidney failure, the interval is extended;
- fluoroquinolones - synthetic antibiotics inhibit the nervous system and can cause coma. Take alcohol no earlier than 1. 5 days;
- tetracyclines - a high risk of liver hepatocyte damage, excreted from the body for a long time. You can take alcohol after 3 days;
- aminoglycosides are ototoxic, nephrotoxic, drug side effects increase, drug toxicity increases. Take alcohol no earlier than 0. 5 months;
- lincosamides - the central nervous system and liver are affected, a disulfiram reaction develops. You can drink alcohol 4 days after treatment;
- macrolides - the risk of liver cirrhosis increases, especially when you take erythromycin, they are slowly excreted from the body. Alcohol is allowed after 3. 5 days;
- anti-tuberculosis drugs- can cause hepatitis caused by full-flow medications. Alcoholic beverages are forbidden!
The degree of elimination of antibacterial drugs from different environments of the body is different. So if aminoglycosides are removed from the blood in adults in 2. 5 hours on average, then from the inner ear fluid this time can be up to 350 hours.
Given the ototoxicity of aminoglycosides, it is easy to understand that drinking alcohol within 2 weeks after treatment can cause deafness.
interactions
A disulfiram-like reaction in antibiotic treatment and alcohol consumption develops due to blockade of the synthesis of enzymes that destroy the ethanol molecule to simple substances.
The consequence is an increase in the blood concentration of an intermediate decomposition product of ethyl alcohol - acetaldehyde. The metabolite ethanol acetaldehyde is more toxic than ethyl alcohol itself.
And the lack of liver enzymes, resulting from the toxic effect on the liver, causes a decrease in norepinephrine synthesis, which is why the symptoms of intoxication the next morning seem brighter and harder to tolerate.
effects
The combination of small doses of alcohol with medication may not occur at all, but when large doses of alcohol are consumed, the side effects of medication and ethyl alcohol intensify.
One of the most dangerous consequences of combining alcohol with an antibiotic is a disulfiram-like reaction. The danger of this condition is that it is masked by alcohol intoxication and is not recognized by others as a distress signal.
The disulfiram reaction is caused by an increase in the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood and is manifested by symptoms:
- palpitations;
- nausea, vomiting;
- tide, feeling of heat;
- dizziness;
- stomach ache;
- a sharp drop in pressure.
If a patient's blood alcohol level is higher than 125 mg / 100 ml and the victim does not receive timely assistance, then even a fatal outcome is possible.
How to combine
Some drugs can absolutely not be combined with ethyl alcohol in any dose:
- nitroimidazole;
- a group of cephalosporins;
- fluoroquinolones;
- aminoglycosides.
How many days after antibiotics can you take alcoholic beverages, can you 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 impossible and you have to consume alcoholic beverages, then you can calculate how long after alcohol to take an antibiotic using a special alcohol calculator.
The alcohol calculator takes into account a person's weight, quantity and strength of beverages taken. So, for 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 noted 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.
exit
For complete removal of antibacterial drug from the body, it should take from 1 to 3. 5 - 5 - 5 days. The time of elimination depends on the state of health, age, metabolic characteristics of a person.
In most cases, drinking alcohol while taking a course of antibiotics weakens the effectiveness of treatment, increases the side effects of the drug, provokes a disulfiram-like reaction, and is fraught with serious consequences.