What happens if you drink a glass or two of alcohol after taking an antibiotic tablet?When can you drink alcohol, how many hours or days after antibiotics can you drink alcohol so as not to harm your health?
Antibiotic and alcohol
A mandatory consequence of the use of alcohol and antibiotics is a decrease in the effectiveness of treatment.When drinking alcoholic beverages, inflammatory processes develop in the intestine and local immunity decreases.
At the same time, antibiotic-associated intestinal discomfort caused by taking the antibiotic increases.
Violation of the concentration of the drug
The antibiotic begins to act after reaching a sufficiently high therapeutic concentration in the blood.Due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the amount of the drug in the body decreases.
This type of medication, when trying to take antibiotics after alcohol, can be considered useless 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 action of the antibiotic.And the disease itself, against which an antibiotic is prescribed, has the ability to go from acute to chronic.
The concentration of the drug decreases 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 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.Busy processing ethyl alcohol, the liver does not have time to neutralize all possible intermediate metabolic products of the drug.
Additionally, 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 reaction similar to disulfiram.
Let's find out whether it is possible to drink alcohol, beer while taking antibiotics, after which it is not dangerous to drink alcohol and after which it is absolutely prohibited.
Reaction similar to disulfiram
The reaction to disulfiram is used to code alcoholism, accompanied by nausea, cramps, cough, vomiting, shortness of breath, and drop in blood pressure.
A similar effect occurs quite often when taking drugs with ethanol.
Below is a list of which antibiotics and for how long you should not drink alcohol.
The consequences of taking ethanol during antibiotic treatment depend on the dose.
The time when you can drink alcohol after taking antibiotic tablets or injections is calculated based on the time it takes for the antibiotic to be eliminated from the body.
List of antibiotics
Do not drink with alcohol:
- nitroimidazoles: do not combine with alcohol for up to 48 hours (medicines give a similar reaction to disulfiram);
- cephalosporins: the chemical structure of this group resembles the molecule disulfiram in structure, which gives a reaction similar to disulfiram with ethyl alcohol.You can drink alcohol every other day;in case of renal failure the interval is lengthened;
- Fluoroquinolones: Synthetic antibiotics depress the nervous system and can cause coma.Take alcohol no earlier than 1.5 days;
- tetracyclines: a high risk of damage to the hepatocytes of the liver;they are eliminated from the body for a long time.You can drink alcohol after 3 days;
- aminoglycosides are ototoxic, nephrotoxic, drug side effects increase, and drug toxicity increases.Drink alcohol no earlier than 0.5 months;
- lincosamides: the central nervous system and liver are affected, a reaction to disulfiram develops.You can drink alcohol 4 days after treatment;
- macrolides: increases the risk of liver cirrhosis, especially when taking erythromycin, they are slowly eliminated from the body.Alcohol is allowed after 3.5 days;
- antituberculous drugs - can cause drug-induced hepatitis with fulminant course.Alcoholic drinks are prohibited!
The rate of elimination of antibacterial drugs from different environments in the body is different.So, if aminoglycosides are eliminated from the blood of adults on average in 2.5 hours, from the fluid of the inner ear this time can reach up to 350 hours.
If we take into account the ototoxicity of aminoglycosides, it is easy to understand that drinking alcohol within 2 weeks of treatment can cause deafness.
Interaction
A disulfiram-like reaction during treatment with antibiotics and alcohol consumption develops due to blocking the synthesis of enzymes that destroy the ethanol molecule into simple substances.
The consequence is an increase in the concentration in the blood of the intermediate degradation product of ethyl alcohol - acetaldehyde.The ethanol metabolite 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 the synthesis of norepinephrine, which is why the symptoms of intoxication in the morning appear brighter and are more difficult to tolerate.
Consequences
The combination of small doses of alcohol and medicine may not cause any symptoms, but when you drink large doses of alcohol, 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 intoxication and is not recognized by others as a danger sign.
The reaction to disulfiram is caused by an increase in the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood and is manifested by the following symptoms:
- heartbeat;
- nausea, vomiting;
- hot flush, feeling of heat;
- dizziness;
- abdominal pain;
- a sharp drop in pressure.
If the patient's blood alcohol level is above 125 mg/100 ml and the victim does not receive timely care, even death is possible.
How to combine
Some drugs must absolutely not be combined with ethyl alcohol in any dosage:
- nitroimidazoles;
- group of cephalosporins;
- fluoroquinolones;
- aminoglycosides.
How many days after antibiotics can you drink alcohol?Is it possible to interrupt the course of treatment for a while?
It is better 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 calculate how long after drinking an antibiotic you can use a special alcohol calculator.
The alcohol calculator takes into account the person's weight, quantity and intensity of the drink consumed.Thus, in 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 borne in mind that all 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
For complete removal of the antibacterial drug from the body, it should take from 1 to 3.5 - 5 days.The elimination time depends on the person's state of health, age and metabolic characteristics.
In most cases, drinking alcohol during a course of antibiotics weakens the effectiveness of treatment, increases the side effects of the drug, causes a reaction similar to disulfiram and is fraught with serious consequences.