Unfortunately, a stereotype of the illness of a nondrinker has developed. If you refuse a glass of vodka during a feast, there will certainly be a person who asks, "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 tolerability of alcoholic beverages and antibiotic therapy. Is it possible to drink during treatment, let's try to find out.
Consequences of taking antibiotics in combination with alcohol
Antibiotics are one of the most powerful, effective and efficient groups of drugs that have fundamentally 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 masses, a person began to live much longer. Antibiotics are very controversial today, many young mothers talk about the horrors and consequences of frequent and long-term use of this drug by children. Indeed, like any potent drug, antibiotics require careful attention and special rules of admission. And one of them is the refusal of alcohol during treatment. Failure to do so could result in serious consequences.
- Decreased drug concentration.As you know, the antibiotic does not start to work immediately, but only after a certain amount of the drug has accumulated 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 can simply cancel out the effects of antibiotic therapy by reducing the concentration of the drug in the body. Because of this, taking the drug simply becomes useless and sometimes dangerous, since the lack of a therapeutic effect leads to the fact that the disease flourishes, the number of bacteria increases. In addition, small doses of an antibiotic cause harmful microorganisms to develop resistance to this antibiotic and subsequently render it ineffective.
- Stress on the liver.Another negative consequence of combining alcohol with antibiotics is extremely high stress on the liver. This organ is involved in the processing of ethyl alcohol and the neutralization of metabolic intermediates of drugs. That is, while 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 the use of alcohol with an antibiotic ends with a strong reaction in the form of nausea, vomiting, seizures, and malaise. This occurs when certain groups of antibiotics are taken in combination with ethanol. Often times this reaction is used to deter a person from drinking alcohol. A special tablet is sewn into the subcutaneous space with a substance that enters the body in equal doses for a long time - several months. If alcohol gets into the human body during this time, then all of the above symptoms will appear. A person develops a persistent aversion to alcohol.
In addition, alcoholic drinks thicken the blood very much, which leads to dehydration of the body. How an antibiotic behaves under such conditions is a mystery, as every 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
In order for a drug to be of any use, it must be taken according to certain rules. As mentioned earlier, it is impossible to combine it with alcohol. You will have to wait for the drug to be completely removed from the body. This may take several hours to several days after the last dose of the medicine. Here are some more guidelines to keep in mind when treating antibiotics.
Antibiotics should be taken on a regular basis, this is very important. If the doctor prescribes injections or tablets twice a day, they must be taken after 12 hours. If a three-time dose is prescribed, you will need to take antibiotics every 8 hours - for example at 6: 00 a. m. , 2: 00 p. m. and 10: 00 p. m.
Antibiotics may not work if bacteria are very resistant to this group of drugs. Ideally, before starting treatment, you need to go through a bacteriological culture to identify the most sensitive drug in a particular case for a particular organism.
All antibiotics should only be taken as directed by a doctor - not even worth mentioning. Some diseases, for example viral diseases, may not be sensitive to antibiotic therapy despite the severity of symptoms.
Before prescribing, be sure to tell your doctor that you have had allergic reactions to any medication. You also need to tell your doctor about drugs that you are constantly taking - hormonal contraceptives, blood thinners, antihistamines, etc. The combination of some drugs with antibiotics can have unintended consequences.
Antibiotics should be taken no less than 5 days, usually the course lasts about 7-10 days. Even if you feel better on the third day of taking the drug, you should not stop it, otherwise the bacteria, which are not completely suppressed, will multiply again and attack the body. Another consequence of prematurely discontinuing the antibiotic is that this bacterial strain becomes resistant to the antibiotic ingested. The next time with a similar disease, this medicine will be powerless.
Take antibiotics exactly as directed, especially in combination with food. As a rule, most drugs in this group should be drunk with plenty of water after meals. Medicines are not rinsed off with juice, coffee and milk, and this can reduce their effectiveness.
Antibiotics must be combined with ingesting beneficial bacteria, as antibiotic therapy can kill the intestinal flora completely, resulting in dysbiosis, 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 that must be strictly adhered to regardless of the drug group. Sometimes the doctor may not talk about these simple rules because everyone should be familiar with them.
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 an anti-tuberculosis drug. In no case should they be combined with alcohol, otherwise a complex disulfiram-like reaction will develop. If you intend to consume alcohol, which cannot be avoided in any way, you must try drinking alcohol so that it does not overlap with the medicine in the body. For example, some types of antibiotics are cleared from the blood within 2-3 hours. During this time, you can have a glass of beer that a man of average stature will hatch in a few hours. This means that when you take the drug again, your body will sober up and become clean again. There are many nuances in such a theory. You need to consider the rate of excretion of the drug and alcohol from the body to know the time interval between taking the drug. Therefore, it is still better to avoid alcohol during treatment in order to maintain your own health.
The first mention of the dangers of alcohol during antibiotic treatment comes from the 1940s. During the Second World War, doctors began to actively use the first introduced penicillin to treat large numbers of people. Back then, the patients were European soldiers who liked 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 tell them about the serious consequences of the combination of treatment and alcohol. People in white coats were intuitively right and protected their patients from problems even then. Take care, drink whileno alcohol during the treatment time!