Unfortunately, a stereotype has developed about the illness of a person who does not drink. If you refuse a glass of vodka during a feast, you will surely find a person who will ask - "Is it sick? " But few people understand that alcohol is very harmful to the body, especially during the treatment of other diseases. In this article, we will talk about the compatibility of alcoholic beverages and antibiotic therapy. Is it possible to drink during treatment, let's try to understand that.
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, a person’s average life expectancy 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 drug by children. Indeed, like any powerful drug, antibiotics require careful attention and special rules of administration. And one of them is the rejection of alcohol during treatment. Otherwise, it can lead to serious consequences.
- Decreased drug concentration.As you know, an antibiotic does not start to work 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 reverse the effect of antibiotic therapy by reducing the concentration of the drug in the body. Therefore, taking the drug becomes simply useless, and sometimes dangerous, because the lack of therapeutic effect leads to the fact that the disease progresses, the number of bacteria increases. In addition, small doses of antibiotics cause harmful microorganisms to develop resistance to this antibiotic, after which it becomes ineffective.
- Liver load.Another negative consequence of combining alcohol with antibiotics is an extremely high liver load. 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 organs is great, sometimes the liver can refuse.
- Disulfiram-like reaction.Sometimes taking alcohol with an antibiotic ends in a strong reaction in the form of nausea, vomiting, seizures and feeling unwell. This happens when certain groups of antibiotics are taken in combination with ethanol. Often this reaction is used to code a person from drinking alcohol. A special tablet with the substance is sewn into the subcutaneous space, which enters the body in equal doses for a long time - several months. If alcohol enters the human body during this period, all the above symptoms appear. The person develops a persistent aversion to alcohol.
In addition, alcoholic beverages strongly thicken the blood, which leads to dehydration of the body. How the 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, alcohol consumption during antibiotic therapy is strictly prohibited. This also applies to low-alcohol drinks.
How to take antibiotics properly
For the drug to be useful, it must be taken according to certain rules. As stated, it is impossible to combine it with alcohol, you have to wait until the drug is completely removed from the body. This may take from a few hours to a few days after the last dose of the medicine. Here are some more guidelines you need to follow when treating with antibiotics.
Antibiotics should be taken at regular intervals, which is very important. If the doctor prescribes injections or tablets twice a day, they must be taken strictly after 12 hours. If a triple dose is prescribed, then you need to take antibiotics every 8 hours - for example, at 6am, 2pm and 10pm.
Antibiotics may not work if the bacteria are very resistant to this group of drugs. Before starting treatment, ideally, you should undergo a bacteriological culture to identify the most sensitive drug in a particular case for a particular organism.
Any antibiotics should be taken only according to the doctor's instructions - it is not worth talking about. Some diseases, with all the severity of the symptoms, may not be sensitive to antibiotic therapy, for example, viral diseases.
Before prescribing, be sure to tell your doctor that you have previously had allergic reactions to medications. You should also tell your doctor about the medications you are constantly taking - hormonal contraceptives, blood thinners, antihistamines, etc. The combination of some medications with antibiotics can have side effects.
Antibiotics should not be taken for less than 5 days, usually the course is about 7-10 days. Even if you feel better on the third day of taking the medicine, you must not cancel it, otherwise the bacteria, which are not completely suppressed, will start to multiply again and attack the organism. Another consequence of early antibiotic withdrawal is that this bacterial strain will acquire resistance to the antibiotic taken. Next time with a similar disease this medicine will be powerless.
Take antibiotics exactly as instructed, especially in combination with food. As a rule, most drugs in this group should be taken after meals with plenty of water. Medicines are not rinsed with juice, coffee and milk, so their effectiveness may be reduced.
Antibiotics must be combined with the intake of beneficial bacteria, because antibiotic therapy can completely destroy the intestinal microflora, which leads to dysbiosis, diarrhea or diarrhea. To avoid this, you need to take probiotics and prebiotics at the same time.
These are the basic rules for taking antibiotics that must be strictly adhered to, regardless of the group of medications. Sometimes the doctor may not talk about these simple rules, because it should be known to everyone.
When can antibiotics be combined with alcohol?
There are some antibiotics, whose combination with alcohol is strictly contraindicated. These are fluoroquinolones, nitroimidazoles, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, erythromycin and a drug for tuberculosis. Under no circumstances should they be combined with alcohol, otherwise a complex disulfiram-like reaction will develop. If you plan to drink alcohol, which can not be avoided, you need to try to drink alcohol so as not to cross with the drug in the body. For example, some types of antibiotics are removed from the blood within 2-3 hours. During this interval, you can drink a glass of beer, which a man of average build will pour out in a couple of hours. That is, with the new intake of the medicine, the body will be sober and clean again. There are a lot of nuances in such a theory, you have to take into account the rate of elimination of the drug and alcohol from the body, in order 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 1940s. During World War II, doctors began to actively use penicillin, which was first introduced, in the treatment of the masses. At that time, the patients were European soldiers who liked to drink beer. And beer, as you know, had a pronounced diuretic effect and simply expelled the drug from the body. Then the doctors decided to "scare" the soldiers and told them about the serious consequences of the combination of treatment and alcohol. The people in white coats were intuitively right and even then they protected their patients from problems. Beware, do not drink alcohol during the treatment period!