Unfortunately, a stereotype of the disease of a non-drinker has developed. If you refuse a glass of vodka in the course of a feast, there will certainly be a person who will ask - "Is it sick? "But few people understand that alcohol is very harmful to the body, and especially during treatment for other diseases. In this article, we'll talk about the compatibility of alcoholic beverages and antibiotic therapy. Is it possible to drink during treatment, let's try to figure it out.
Consequences of taking antibiotics in combination with alcohol
Antibiotics are one of the most powerful, effective and efficient 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 broad masses, a person began to live much longer. Today antibiotics are very controversial, many young mothers talk about the horrors and consequences of frequent and long-term use of this medicine by children. Indeed, like any potent medicine, antibiotics require careful attention and special rules of admission. And one of them is the refusal of alcohol during the treatment. Otherwise, it can lead to serious consequences.
- Decreased drug concentration.As you know, the antibiotic does not begin to act immediately, but only after the accumulation of a certain amount of the drug in the body. And alcohol significantly reduces the absorption of the drug into the walls of the stomach and intestines. This means that alcoholic beverages simply cancel the effect of antibiotic therapy by reducing the concentration of the drug in the body. Because of this, taking the medicine becomes simply useless, and sometimes dangerous, because the absence of a therapeutic effect leads to the fact that the disease flourishes, the number of bacteria increases. In addition, small doses of an antibiotic lead to the fact that harmful microorganisms develop resistance to this antibiotic, subsequently it becomes ineffective.
- Load on the liver.Another negative consequence of combining alcohol with antibiotics is an extremely high load on the liver. This organ is involved in the processing of ethyl alcohol and the neutralization of intermediate metabolic products of drugs. That is, during the period of taking antibiotics, the liver works as actively as possible, in combination with the intake of alcohol, the load on the organ is high, sometimes the liver can refuse.
- Disulfiram-like reaction.Sometimes taking alcohol with an antibiotic ends with a strong reaction in the form of nausea, vomiting, seizures, and feeling unwell. This occurs when certain groups of antibiotics are taken in combination with ethanol. Often this reaction is used to encode a person from drinking alcohol. A special tablet with a substance is sewn into the subcutaneous space, which in equal doses enters the body for a long time - several months. If alcohol enters the human body during this period, all of the above symptoms appear. A person develops a persistent dislike for alcohol.
In addition, alcoholic beverages thickens the blood very strongly, leading to dehydration of the body. How an antibiotic will behave in such conditions is a mystery, because each organism is individual. Sometimes the consequences of such a combination can be dangerous and irreversible. Therefore, drinking alcohol during antibiotic therapy is strictly prohibited. This also applies to low alcohol drinks.
How to take antibiotics correctly
For a medicine to be beneficial, it must be taken according to certain rules. As noted, it is impossible to combine it with alcohol, you need to wait until the drug is completely removed from the body. This can take from several hours to several days after the last dose of the drug. Here are a few more guidelines to follow when treating antibiotics.
Antibiotics should be taken at regular intervals, this is very important. If the doctor prescribes injections or pills twice a day, they must be taken strictly after 12 hours. If a three-time dose is prescribed, then you need to take antibiotics every 8 hours - for example, at 6. 00, 14. 00 and 22. 00.
Antibiotics may not work if bacteria are highly resistant to this group of drugs. Before starting treatment, ideally, you need to pass a bacteriological culture to identify the most sensitive drug in a particular case for a given organism.
Any antibiotics should only be taken as directed by a doctor - not even worth talking about. Some diseases, for all the severity of symptoms, may not be sensitive to antibiotic therapy, for example, viral diseases.
Before prescribing, be sure to inform your doctor that you have previously had any allergic reactions to medications. You also need to inform your doctor about medications that you are taking constantly - hormonal contraceptives, blood thinners, antihistamines, etc. Combining some drugs with antibiotics can have unintended consequences.
Antibiotics should not be taken for less than 5 days, usually the course is about 7-10 days. Even if on the third day of taking the medicine you feel better, you should not cancel it, otherwise the bacteria, which are not completely suppressed, will again begin to multiply and attack the body. Another consequence of early withdrawal of the antibiotic is that this bacterial strain will acquire resistance to the antibiotic taken. The next time with a similar disease, this medicine will be powerless.
Take antibiotics exactly as directed, especially when combined with food. As a rule, most of the drugs in this group should be drunk after meals with plenty of water. Medicines are not washed down with juice, coffee and milk, their effectiveness may be reduced from this.
Antibiotics must be combined with the intake of beneficial bacteria, because antibiotic therapy can completely kill the intestinal microflora, which leads to dysbiosis, diarrhea or diarrhea. To avoid this, you need to drink probiotics and prebiotics in parallel.
These are the basic rules for taking antibiotics, which must be strictly observed, regardless of the group of drugs. Sometimes the doctor may not talk about these simple rules, since they should be known to everyone.
When can antibiotics be combined with alcohol?
There are some antibiotics, the combination of which with alcohol is strictly contraindicated. These are fluoroquinolones, nitroimidazoles, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, erythromycin and a drug for tuberculosis. In no case should they be combined with alcohol, otherwise a complex disulfiram-like reaction will develop. If you are planning to take alcohol, which cannot be avoided in any way, you need to try to drink alcohol so that it does not intersect with the medicine in the body. For example, some types of antibiotics are cleared from the blood within 2-3 hours. Through this interval, you can drink a glass of beer, which a man of average build will hatch in a couple of hours. That is, by a new intake of the medicine, the body will again be sober and clean. There are a lot of nuances in such a theory, you need to take into account the rate of elimination of the drug and alcohol from the body, to know the time interval between taking the drug. Therefore, it is still better to refuse alcohol during treatment for your own health.
The first mention of the dangers of alcohol during antibiotic treatment dates back to the 40s of the last century. During the Second World War, doctors began to actively use penicillin, which was introduced for the first time, in the treatment of broad masses. Then the patients were European soldiers who loved to drink beer. And beer, as you know, had a pronounced diuretic effect and simply flushed the drug out of the body. Then the doctors decided to "scare" the soldiers and told them about the serious consequences of the combination of treatment and alcohol. People in white coats were intuitively right and even then they protected their patients from problems. Take care of yourself, do not drink alcohol during the treatment period!