There are often situations in life when we have to take antibiotics, and at the same time be invited to some kind of celebration. Therefore, the question of whether it is possible to drink alcohol while taking antibiotics is especially acute in such cases. We will provide complete information on this issue below.
Treatment with antibacterial drugs is prescribed in a number of cases of bacterial and, less commonly, fungal infections. It is important to remember that the course of antibiotic treatment should never be interrupted. Its duration can be different, depending on the type of disease and severity (from 3-7 days or more). The thought that it is necessary to "fall out" of the holiday life and not accept invitations to any meal frightens many. But in practice, not everything is so terrible.
If you approach this problem competently, from a medical point of view, then you can participate in feasts with relatives and undergo antibiotic treatment.
The golden rule: always drink in moderation.
Under certain conditions, described below, you can, of course, combine alcohol with antibiotics. But when prescribing antibiotics, you must be careful not to overload the body with excess alcohol. In any case, ethanol is entering you, and all your defenses will be put into the fight against it. And in the case of, for example, long-term illness, these forces may be the last. Immunity will be further weakened and recovery will be delayed indefinitely. And in some cases describedbelow, even death is possible.
Myths about the compatibility of antibiotics and alcohol
The frightening stories that it is categorically impossible to combine antibacterial drugs and alcohol, most likely, began to spread immediately after the Second World War. At that time, venereal disease clinics were simply overcrowded with soldiers and officers, who bore all the hardships of military life on their shoulders.
Doctors then categorically forbade their patients to drink alcohol during antibiotic therapy, but not because of the harm to health from interfering with the latter, but for a very banal reason - after a glass, the soldier could "get out" and get a new genital infection.
According to the second version, the ban was due to the high labor costs of receiving penicillin, surprisingly, it evaporated from the urine of treated military personnel. Therefore, in order to receive a medically pure medicine, they were forbidden to drink beer during the entire period of treatment.
Since then, the theory of the dangers of mixing alcohol with antibiotics has become popular among the people, and many still believe that they cannot be combined. But what is the opinion on this issue of evidence-based medicine?
Research facts
It is known that in the late 20th - early 21st century, a number of studies were conducted on the effects of ethanol on various types of antibacterial drugs. The experiments were performed on both laboratory animals and human volunteers. The results clearly showed that alcohol consumption does not affect most types of antibiotics.
All tested antibiotics were effective in both the control and experimental groups, no global deviations were found in physicochemical reactions (drug distribution in the body, mechanisms of absorption and excretion of decomposition products).
However, there is a hypothesis that alcohol increases the negative effects of antibacterial drugs on the liver. But in the scientific medical literature, cases of describing such situations are quite rare (up to 10 cases per 100, 000), and no special research has been done in this area.
Antibiotics incompatible with alcohol exist
There are some types of antibacterial drugs that interact with alcohol and produce very unpleasant symptoms - in medical practice they are called disulfiram-like reactions.
This reaction occurs during the chemical interaction of ethanol and some specific antibiotic molecules, which causes a change in the metabolism of ethyl alcohol in the body and the accumulation of acetaldehyde is observed.
Signs of acetaldehyde poisoning:
- Vomiting, nausea.
- Severe headache.
- Cramps in arms and legs.
- Increased heart rate.
- Heavy, intermittent breathing.
- Fever and redness in the chest, face and neck.
In such cases, when large doses of alcohol are taken, a fatal outcome is possible!
All of the above symptoms are very severe for a person, so a disulfiram-like reaction is used in many medical clinics to treat alcoholism (so-called "coding").