Unfortunately, there has been a stereotype of disease in non-drinkers. If you refuse a glass of vodka at a banquet, someone will definitely ask-"Are you sick? " But few people understand that alcohol is very harmful to the body, especially in the treatment of other diseases. In this article, we will discuss the compatibility of alcoholic beverages with antibiotic therapy. Can we drink alcohol during the treatment? Let's find a way.
Consequences of taking antibiotics and alcohol
Antibiotics are one of the most powerful, effective and efficient drugs that have revolutionized science and medicine. A few centuries ago, the average life expectancy of a person was about forty years. With the popularization of antibiotics, life expectancy began to extend. Today, antibiotics are controversial. Many young mothers are talking about the horrors and consequences of their children's frequent and long-term use of this drug. In fact, like any powerful drug, antibiotics require careful attention and special admission rules. One of them is the refusal to drink alcohol during treatment. Otherwise, it may cause serious consequences.
- The drug concentration is reduced.As you know, antibiotics do not start to work immediately, but only after a certain amount of medicine accumulates in the body. Alcohol can significantly reduce the absorption of drugs into the stomach and intestinal walls. This means that alcoholic beverages only counteract the effects of antibiotic treatment by reducing the concentration of drugs in the body. Because of this, taking medicine becomes useless and sometimes even dangerous, because the lack of therapeutic effect will cause the disease to spread and increase the number of bacteria. In addition, small doses of antibiotics can cause harmful microorganisms to develop resistance to this antibiotic, and then become ineffective.
- Bring a burden to the liver.Another negative consequence of using alcohol in combination with antibiotics is that the load on the liver is very high. This organ is involved in the processing of ethanol and the neutralization of intermediate metabolites of drugs. That is, during the period of taking antibiotics, the liver works as actively as possible, combined with the intake of alcohol, the load on the organs is very high, and sometimes the liver will refuse.
- Disulfiram-like reaction.Sometimes taking alcohol with antibiotics can cause strong reactions such as nausea, vomiting, seizures and feeling unwell. This happens when certain antibiotic groups are used in combination with ethanol. Usually, this response is used to code people who drink alcohol. A special pill containing a certain substance is sewn into the subcutaneous space, and it enters the body for a long time in the same dose-several months. If alcohol enters the body during this period, all the above symptoms will appear. A person will have a constant aversion to alcohol.
In addition, alcoholic beverages thicken the blood very strongly, causing the body to become dehydrated. The performance of antibiotics in this situation is a mystery, because every living thing is an individual. Sometimes, the consequences of this combination can be dangerous and irreversible. Therefore, drinking alcohol is strictly prohibited during antibiotic treatment. This also applies to low-alcohol beverages.
How to take antibiotics correctly
For medicine to be beneficial, it must be taken according to certain rules. As mentioned earlier, it is impossible to combine it with alcohol, you need to wait until the drug is completely cleared from the body. After the last dose of the drug, this may take several hours to several days. Here are more guidelines to follow when treating antibiotics.
Antibiotics should be taken regularly, which is very important. If the doctor prescribes injections or pills twice a day, they must be taken strictly after 12 hours. If 3 doses are prescribed, you will need to take antibiotics every 8 hours-for example, at 6. 00, 14. 00 and 22. 00.
If bacteria are highly resistant to such drugs, antibiotics may not be effective. Before starting treatment, ideally, you need to use bacterial culture to determine the most sensitive drug for a particular organism in a particular situation.
Any antibiotics should be taken as directed by your doctor—not even worth talking about. Some diseases, despite their severe symptoms, may not be sensitive to antibiotic treatment, such as viral diseases.
Before prescribing a prescription, be sure to inform your doctor of any previous allergic reactions to the medicine. You also need to inform your doctor about the medications you have been taking-hormonal contraceptives, blood thinners, antihistamines, etc. Combining certain drugs with antibiotics may have unintended consequences.
The duration of taking antibiotics should not be less than 5 days, and usually the course of treatment is about 7-10 days. Even if you feel better on the third day of taking the medicine, you cannot cancel it, otherwise the bacteria that are not completely suppressed will start to multiply and attack the body. Another consequence of stopping antibiotics prematurely is that this bacterial strain becomes resistant to the antibiotics being taken. Next time you have a similar disease, this medicine will be helpless.
Take antibiotics exactly as directed, especially when combined with food. Generally, most drugs in this group should be taken with plenty of water after meals. Medications are not washed away by juice, coffee, and milk, so their effectiveness may be reduced.
Antibiotics must be combined with the intake of beneficial bacteria, because antibiotic treatment can completely kill the intestinal flora, causing flora imbalance, diarrhea or diarrhea. To avoid this, you need to drink probiotics and prebiotics at the same time.
These are the basic rules for taking antibiotics, no matter what kind of drugs, they must be strictly followed. Sometimes doctors may not speak these simple rules, because everyone should know them.
When can antibiotics be combined with alcohol?
Some antibiotics are strictly prohibited in combination with alcohol. They are fluoroquinolones, nitroimidazoles, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, erythromycin and drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis. Under no circumstances should they be mixed with alcohol, otherwise complex disulfiram-like reactions will occur. If you plan to drink alcohol, you can't avoid it anyway. You need to try drinking to prevent it from intersecting with the drugs in your body. For example, certain types of antibiotics will be cleared from the blood within 2-3 hours. During this time, you can drink a glass of beer, and a person of medium build will hatch out in a few hours. In other words, through the intake of new drugs, the body will be awake and clean again. There are many nuances in this theory. You need to consider the clearance rate of drugs and alcohol from the body to know the time interval between taking drugs. Therefore, for your own health, it is better to refuse to drink alcohol during treatment.
The first mention of the harm of alcohol during antibiotic treatment dates back to the 1940s. During World War II, doctors began to actively use penicillin, which was first introduced, to treat the masses. Then the patient is a European soldier who likes to drink beer. As you know, beer has an obvious diuretic effect and can simply excrete the drug from the body. Then the doctor decided to "scare" the soldiers, telling them the serious consequences of the combination of treatment and alcohol. People in white coats are intuitively right, and even so, they will protect their patients from problems. Take care of yourself and don't drink alcohol during treatment!