Almost all of us have had to face diseases that require the use of antibacterial drugs to achieve a therapeutic effect. These are drugs that are aggressive to the microflora. That is why the question arises of how soon you can drink alcohol after antibiotics, since many would not want to give up wine, cognac, beer or vodka for a long time.
The question is ambiguous and there is no direct monosyllabic answer. There are different opinions in the media. Some people during a holiday with a holiday believe that it is more correct to refuse to drink alcoholic beverages, based more on intuition than on reliable information from authoritative sources. Such a person in a company causes sympathy and understanding, usually no onedoes not persuade him to drink. However, there are times when someone refers to an article in which a doctor popularly explains what does not always interfere with the healing process.
Why you shouldn't take medication with alcohol
As you know, there is no smoke without fire. Doctors can scientifically justify the ban on the use of antimicrobial agents and the simultaneous consumption of vodka or beer. In addition, they claim that you can take antibiotics after drinking alcohol after a strictly defined period of time. Experts refer to the following facts:
- ethanol at the biochemical level significantly reduces the therapeutic effect of antimicrobial agents;
- the combination of alcohol with antibacterial drugs causes toxic damage to liver cells, as well as other internal organs;
- Alcohol consumption suppresses the immune system and has a devastating effect on health, which during drug therapyhighly undesirable.
There is a grain of rationality in the above arguments. The biochemical processes taking place in the body are extremely complex and balanced, so the saturation of the tissues of the internal organs with such a biologically active compound as ethyl alcohol cannot but affect the metabolism. Alcohol can indeed significantly reduce the therapeutic effect of drugs. It either destroys the atomic structure of the active substance or prevents the reaction of drugs with proteins of pathogenic microorganisms. In addition, alcohol can cause accelerated elimination or make it harder for drugs to be absorbed. That's how it happensreduced effectiveness of therapy, or develop unwanted side symptoms.
Effect on the function and condition of the liver
Scientific research and the practice of clinical medicine confirm the destructive effect on the liver of the combination of antimicrobial drugs with alcoholic beverages. That is why the instructions for the use of drugs indicate contraindications and side effects on this extremely important organ. For patients with chronic liver disease, many drugs are not available. If you combine antimicrobial drugs and alcohol, the negative impact will be double. How soon should you drink alcohol after a course of antibiotics?depends on the general conditionthe body and its ability to recover.
Under the action of enzymes, ethanol breaks down into water and carbon dioxide, but not immediately, but bypassing the intermediate stage of formation of an extremely toxic compound - acetaldehyde, which is a tissue poison. The faster alcohol breaks down, the less harm it does to the body. However, with the simultaneous presence of antimicrobial drugs in the tissues of internal organs, the catabolism of alcohol slows down significantly due to the inhibition of the production of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which is necessary to complete the reaction of breaking down ethanol into simple compounds. .
Ethanol does not interact directly with antibiotics
To find out how alcohol affects drugs, as well as how many days you can drink alcohol after finishing a course of antibiotics,laboratory experience. First, the scientists conducted experiments on animals and then invited volunteers who were asked to undergo a therapeutic course of antibacterial drugs. The participants were divided equally into two groups. The representatives of the first group were offered alcoholic beverages during the experiment, and the second group was not. The main goal that the organizers tried to achieve was to establish the effect of ethanol on the biological activity of drugs.
The results of the experiment showed that most antibacterial drugs interact slightly or not at all with ethyl alcohol - it practically does not reduce the effectiveness of the drugs used. A similar conclusion was reached after studying and comparing the results of antibacterial drug therapy between the two groups. They turned out to be identical. The difference does not exceed the permissible error. The rate of absorption, distribution in the tissues of internal organs, as well as the removal of active substances wasabout the same.
HoweverOne should not jump to conclusions that the simultaneous use of antibiotics and alcohol is completely safe. Experts ask you to consider some nuances:
- the experiment was isolated and not confirmed by other studies, therefore the safety of the combination of drugs and alcohol should not be insisted on;
- experimental subjects were offered small doses of alcoholic beverages, but in real life moderation in the consumption of vodka and beer is quite rare;
- Research only concerns the interaction of drugs with ethanol, the effect of this combination on the state of internal organs has not been studied, so the negative impact cannot be denied.
This was the first preliminary step towards a complete answer to the important question of how long after a course of antibiotics you can drink alcohol, so the final andno clear results.
Reasons to avoid drinking during treatment
Clinical medicine has every right to say that the combination of alcohol and drugs should be avoided. Even if their mutual effects are not well studied, enough is known about ethanol's health effects to draw certain conclusions. It is impossible to deny that:
- alcohol disrupts metabolic processes if drunk regularly;
- ethanol provokes an increase in blood sugar levels;
- alcohol consumption leads to physical and nervous exhaustion;
- the risk of an allergic reaction increases by an order of magnitude.
Each person has individual characteristics of internal biological processes, so it is possible to predict the body's reactionnearly impossible, but it will hardly be positive.
Interaction of alcohol with antimicrobial drugs
According to the experiment, drinking beverages that contain alcohol does not affect the pharmacological properties of most antimicrobials and does not cause significant side effects. However, there are antimicrobial drugs that absolutely cannot be taken with alcoholic beverages, since such a combination leads to really dangerous consequences.
In just a few daysYou can drink alcohol after taking antibiotics that affect metabolism. For example, such drugs against fungal infections and analogues require the participation of an enzyme in the biochemical reaction, which is also necessary for the degradation of ethanol. Its supplies are limited. When consuming significant doses of ethanol, a conflict occurs. There simply isn't enough enzyme to interact with the drug or react with ethyl alcohol. In the first case, we will definitely observe a decrease in the therapeutic effectiveness of the drug, plus possible allergic reactions and increased side effects of the drug. If you do not break down ethanol, then acute intoxication with all the resulting consequences cannot be avoided. Therefore, you should not take antimicrobials of this type at the same time as alcohol.
A disulfiram-like reaction is the main reason for the prohibition of alcohol consumption during antimicrobial therapy. Interference with the catabolism of ethanol in the body leads to the accumulation of the above-mentioned acetaldehyde - acetaldehyde. It is a powerful toxin that has a global negative effect on the body. The most common andunpleasant signs of intoxication:
- nausea with bouts of vomiting;
- disorder;
- acute headache;
- profuse sweating;
- general weakness, dizziness;
- tachycardia;
- Pressure increase.
Agree that this physical condition most clearly proves the thesis that antibiotics should be used after a course of alcohol a few days later, so that ethanol and its toxic decay products have time to leave the body naturally.
By the way, the disulfiram-like reaction is called so because of the drug for drug prohibition therapy of chronic alcoholism - disulfiram. Its use forces alcoholics to give up drinking alcohol precisely because of the development of panic fear of the symptomsacute intoxication. The drug is injected under the skin (implanted), from where it gradually enters the body and blocks the production of the enzyme responsible for breaking down ethanol.
What complications to expect
How long it takes to safely drink alcohol again after a course of antibiotics depends on the antimicrobial drug (the speed of its absorption and elimination), as well as on the individual characteristics of the person's metabolism.
Doctors emphasize that the ban does not apply only to a glass of cognac or vodka. You should forget about wine, beer, low-alcohol drinks. In addition, ethyl alcohol is often found in other foods as well as in medicines, so you should pay attention to this aspect.
You can often hear that someone you know has taken alcohol and antimicrobial drugs without any negative consequences. However, no one knows what happened to this man's body,how effectiveIt turned out that the treatment lasted, how long it lasted, what is his health at the moment. Meanwhile, in the practice of clinical medicine, many cases were recorded when people did not adhere to the recommendation of how long to drink alcohol after antibiotics, but drank it during treatment and eventually became victims:
- violationsliver function;
- anaphylactic shock;
- disorders in the functioning of the brain and the central nervous system in general (severe headache accompanied by dizziness, nausea with bouts of vomiting, convulsive attacks);
- gastrointestinal diseases;
- sleep dysfunctions;
- high blood pressure;
- negative skin reactions (dermatitis);
- heart rhythm disorders;
Our natural filter - the liver - suffers the most. Despite the ability to renew cells, it is so negatively affected that it eventually loses functionality.
The last word in the debate about the combination of alcohol and antibiotics
After you finish the drug therapy, you should wait a few days before you start drinking alcohol. This is due to the removal of the products of drug catabolism from the body, and this requires some time. All drugs have different times to reach maximum blood concentrations and elimination. Always the casespecified in the instructions.
It is not recommended to consume alcoholic beverages at the same time not only with antimicrobial agents, but also with other drugs. However, antimicrobial drugs are one of the few that are strictly prohibited. If you are going to undergo a course of drug treatment, be sure to ask your doctor how long you can drink alcohol after taking antibiotics.
Despite the fact that the expert opinion of specialists regarding the permissibility of the simultaneous use of alcoholic beverages and antibacterial drugs is divided (except for those drugs that havethe limitations are clear), most doctors tend to conclude that it is better for patients to stop drinking alcohol during treatment.
In any case, alcoholic beverages are far from a product worth risking your health for, even if the risk seems insignificant. Nothing bad will happen if you become an avid teetotaler in 2 weeks. Even a healthy person's body succumbs to alcohol over time. Long-term use of alcoholic beverages leads to the development of a large number of different somatic and mental disorders. If a person does not give up alcohol during illness, then we can say with confidence that physically and mentallydegradation will accelerateduring this period of time. Even if you can drink alcohol while taking medication, you still shouldn't. Ethanol is poison, but it is impossible to count how many fates vodka has broken