When can you drink alcohol after taking antibiotics?

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• Compatibility of antibiotics with alcohol
• Harm from alcohol during antibiotic treatment
• Antibiotics and fluoroquinolones
• Alcohol and aminoglycosides
• Nitroimidazoles in combination with alcohol
• Effect of alcohol on other antibiotics

The question of whether it is possible to combine drinking alcoholic beverages with taking antibiotics often arises for people who have suffered from various diseases during holiday feasts. And this is not at all surprising, because antibacterial drugs are most often used to treat infections of various origins.

Antibacterial therapy imposes restrictions on a person’s life - this applies to the simultaneous use of other medications, certain foods, and alcoholic beverages. What effect do antibiotics and alcohol have on the body and can this combination cause serious harm to health?

Is it possible to drink alcohol with antibiotics?

You have been prescribed antibiotics, and you do not know whether you can drink a glass of wine or a glass of beer.
There is an opinion that you should not mix antibiotics and alcohol. For many who don’t like to drink, it has even become a convenient excuse for drinking. As soon as you say that you are taking antibiotics, the persuasion to drink immediately stops. However, legends are legends, but it doesn’t hurt to find out the truth. Let's figure out whether you can afford alcohol during antibacterial therapy. To begin with, a few words about antibiotics.
These are medications prescribed for bacterial infections. Different antibiotics have different mechanisms of action, but the result is the same - the death of bacteria or their inability to reproduce. Important. Antibiotics are not taken for viral diseases because they are unable to fight viruses.
Therefore, for flu and colds, taking antibiotics is not advisable. Many people, with symptoms of acute respiratory diseases, immediately grab antibiotics, which makes a big mistake. You can take these medications only with your doctor's permission. Like other medications, antibiotics have side effects. It is noteworthy that when combined with alcoholic beverages, the likelihood of side effects may increase. In addition, there is a danger of new adverse reactions. This, by the way, applies not only to antibiotics, but also to other medications, for example, sleeping pills, antiallergic drugs, sedatives, anti-inflammatory and painkillers.

Speaking about antibiotics and alcohol, the compatibility of which is questioned, it is important to note how alcohol interacts with the drug. Let's consider 2 main mechanisms due to which it is impossible to mix antibiotics and alcohol.

Metabolism of drugs

Any drug is metabolized in the body, that is, it goes through a series of transformations. The medicine begins to disintegrate already in the oral cavity. This process is enhanced in the gastrointestinal tract, where the drug is absorbed into the blood in the small intestine. The substance then passes through the liver, where it can undergo changes. The drug circulates in the bloodstream for some time, after which it is excreted in the urine (often in an altered form).

Now let's figure out what happens when you take alcohol while on antibiotic therapy. Like medications, alcohol is also metabolized. This happens in the liver with the help of specific enzymes. If the liver needs to cope with both alcohol and drugs at the same time, then the enzymes will either work too quickly or will not have time to do their job.

If the liver works too quickly, then the antibiotic will be destroyed prematurely and will not have time to fully realize the therapeutic effect. If liver function is slowed down, the antibiotic will accumulate in the blood too quickly, which leads to great toxicity of the drug.

Increased side effects

In some cases, the combination of alcohol with antibiotics can cause increased side effects or the appearance of new ones (from taking antibiotics). In particular, this is indicated for antibiotics that, for example, cause drowsiness. If you also drink alcohol, your drowsiness will increase. However, in addition to increasing the main side effects (which are indicated in the instructions for the drug), new ones may also appear. Often these are headaches, nausea, heart rhythm disturbances, intestinal disorders and abdominal pain.

Important: antibiotic resistance. Bacteria, like any other living organisms, evolve, adapting to new environmental conditions. In this case, they are able to adapt to the action of antibiotics. This is how antibiotic resistance develops—the resistance of certain types of bacteria to one or another type of antibiotic. Currently, this is one of the most serious medical problems, as resistant bacteria are becoming more and more, and the search for new antibiotics is difficult. Uncontrolled use of antibiotics is one of the reasons for bacterial resistance. Often patients stop taking the medication on their own as soon as they feel improvement. You can't do this with antibiotics. It is important to drink the entire course prescribed by the doctor, even if you feel significant relief “ahead of schedule.”

What happens if you drink alcohol with antibiotics?

Let's look at some of the negative consequences of taking alcohol and antibiotics at the same time. Let us immediately note that such phenomena may not be observed, but we are obliged to tell the reader about this, since such reactions occur in medical practice.

• Liver dysfunction . If you have a healthy liver, you may not feel the effects of mixing alcohol with antibiotics. However, be aware that the liver experiences a double burden of processing both alcohol and the drug.
• Disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system . In some people, alcohol in combination with antibiotics causes significant disturbances in the central and peripheral nervous system. In particular, this is expressed by headaches, dizziness, nausea and even convulsions.
• Sleep disorder . Disturbances may occur up to the reversal of day and night.
• Cardiovascular disorders . Most often this is a change in blood pressure (both upward and downward).
• Allergic reactions . In rare cases, antibiotics and alcohol can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock. The latter is a serious condition that threatens human life. In this case, you need to call an ambulance.
• Digestive tract disorders . Combining antibacterial drugs with alcohol may cause indigestion, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

How many days after taking antibiotics can you drink alcohol?

How much should you not drink after taking antibiotics? This is also one of the most common questions asked by patients forced to take antibacterial drugs. In this case, much depends on the specific drug, namely, the time it takes to remove it from the body.

In most cases, it is enough to take a two-day break (48 hours) after taking antibiotics, after which you can indulge in alcohol. In some countries they recommend waiting 3 days. There is no consensus on this matter. The only thing that can be said for sure is that you need to wait at least 2 days.

When are antibacterial medications needed?

This is one of the most extensive classes of drugs. In Russia alone, about 30 groups of various antimicrobial agents are used in clinical practice, and the total number of drugs (we are not talking about trade names, but about international names of active compounds) exceeds 200. Their mechanism of action is associated either with inhibition of growth and the further development cycle, or with the destruction of the pathogenic cell. Many have both effects depending on the dose taken.

The indication for use is a bacterial infection. They are prescribed only by a doctor, based on test results (ideally culture), medical history and course of the disease. On average, the duration of the course of use is from 5 to 7-10 days, in severe cases - up to 2 weeks, sometimes the drug is administered by injection during the first 2-3 days (usually in a hospital), then the patient is transferred to the tablet form.

The main condition for an effective therapeutic course is compliance with all doctor’s recommendations regarding dosage, duration and frequency of use - pills must be taken at equal intervals, preferably at the same time of day.

Why you shouldn't drink while on antibiotics

The medical literature (scientific articles, treatment recommendations, etc.), which talks about the harmfulness of combining antibacterial drugs with alcohol, indicates a number of negative phenomena that occur when taking alcoholic beverages and antibiotics at the same time. The negative consequences come down to two undesirable effects, namely:

• Reduced effectiveness of antibacterial therapy . It is indicated that alcohol inhibits the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. Thus, the suppression of pathogenic microflora is less effective, which creates the need to extend treatment or find a new antibiotic.
• Liver damage . With the simultaneous use of alcoholic beverages and antibiotics, a large load is placed on the liver tissue. The risk of intoxication not only of the liver, but also of the body increases, since the liver is a filter through which blood passes.

Let's figure out how true these statements are. And if an antibiotic and alcohol have already been mixed, what will happen to the body?

As for reducing the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy, such a danger really exists. But this applies not only to antibiotics, but also to other medications. It is noteworthy that there is still no convincing data regarding the negative effects of alcohol on various groups of antibiotics. In one animal study, no interaction between antibiotics and alcohol was observed. A study in humans did not show a significant decrease in the effectiveness of antibacterial therapy.

However, the instructions for such drugs state in black and white that it is advisable to abstain from drinking alcohol. Experts say that not enough research has been done on this issue, so it is better to stay away from alcohol while taking antibiotics. In addition, in the studies conducted, volunteers were given small doses of alcohol, which most likely do not have a significant effect on the metabolism of pharmacological drugs. Therefore, to the question of whether you can drink if you take antibiotics, the answer is still negative.

To summarize the above, we can identify 5 main reasons why it is undesirable to combine antibiotics and alcohol:

1. Deterioration of metabolic processes . Alcoholic drinks impair the absorption of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and medications. This means that antibiotics will be less absorbed into the blood, which will reduce their effectiveness.
2. Increased blood sugar . Alcohol is metabolized in the body to form sugars. This is a particularly dangerous situation for patients with diabetes. In addition, an increase in sugar levels during infectious diseases can only aggravate the course of the pathological process, because sugar is a substrate for pathogenic microorganisms.
3. Decreased immunity . Drinking alcoholic beverages reduces the body's defenses. Thus, the infectious process will only intensify.
4. Allergy . Combining antibiotics and alcohol increases the likelihood of allergic reactions such as skin rashes.
5. Unpredictable consequences . Despite the contradictory evidence base, it is difficult to make predictions regarding the interaction of drugs with alcohol in each specific case. Perhaps this combination will lead to undesirable consequences for you.

Important: antibiotics and other medications. For the information of our readers, it is undesirable to combine antibiotics not only with alcohol, but also with some other medications. When prescribing antibacterial therapy, the doctor will definitely ask what medications the patient is currently taking. As a rule, antibiotics are not recommended to be combined with anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, some hypoglycemic drugs and other drugs. If for some reason the doctor forgot to ask about the medications you are taking, then do not hesitate to ask him this question.

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Antibiotics and beer

Or maybe beer with antibiotics, because of all alcoholic drinks this is the least “strong”? Indeed, beer is a low-alcohol drink. However, its insidiousness is that, as a rule, people drink a lot of beer. So, 100 ml of beer contains approximately 3-6 ml of pure alcohol. Thus, if you drink 0.5 liters of beer, then this is already 15-30 ml of ethanol. And if the beer is strong, then this is already 40-50 ml of alcohol.

You shouldn’t relax about non-alcoholic beer either, because it still contains some amount of alcohol. Therefore, if you are taking antibiotics (especially if it is a short-term course), then it is better to abstain from alcohol, even if it is beer. For the sake of your health, you can wait a week or two without a bottle of beer.

Sources

• Abolonin A.F. Clinical and neurophysiological features and therapy of cerebrovascular disorders in alcoholism with comorbid traumatic brain damage: Abstract of thesis. dis. ...cand. medical sciences - Tomsk, 1997. - 25 p.;
• Avtandilov G.G. Fundamentals of quantitative pathological anatomy: Textbook. - M.: Medicine, 2002. -240;

• Preheim LC, Olsen KM, Yue M, Snitily MU, Gentry MJ. Ethanol feeding does not affect the efficacy or pharmacokinetics of azithromycin, trovafloxacin, or ceftriaxone in a rat model of pneumococcal pneumonia. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1999 May;23(5):842-9;
• Mergenhagen KA, Wattengel BA, Skelly MK, Clark CM, Russo TA. Fact versus Fiction: a Review of the Evidence behind Alcohol and Antibiotic Interactions. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2022 Feb 21;64(3):e02167-19. doi: 10.1128/AAC.02167-19. PMID: 31871085; PMCID: PMC7038249.

Antibiotics and alcohol: myths

So, as mentioned above, the negative effect of alcohol on antibiotics is a debatable issue. No one has proven this yet. Medical recommendations regarding abstinence from drinking alcohol during antibacterial therapy are rather “insurance” against a possible negative effect.

There are several theories why doctors still prohibit drinking alcohol while taking antibiotics. One of these is that when treating sexually transmitted diseases, doctors in this way simply punished their patients for their dissolute lifestyle.

There is a second interesting story related to the shortage of penicillin during World War II. It was in Africa, where British troops were conducting military operations. For the doctors there, penicillin was worth its weight in gold. It got to the point that urine was taken from sick soldiers in order to isolate penicillin from it and reuse the drug. But if you drink beer at the same time, the volume of urine increases sharply, which complicates the process of excreting the medicine from the urine. Therefore, patients who were prescribed an antibiotic were prohibited from drinking.

Alcohol addiction treatment

People who abuse alcohol are unable to give up alcohol during illness and continue to use it in parallel with antibiotics, slowing down the healing process and causing irreparable harm to their body.
Alcoholism is a severe addiction that cannot be controlled. To get rid of it, you need the help of professional narcologists who provide treatment using modern therapeutic techniques. You can get help from such specialists in our drug treatment clinic. We employ experienced, highly qualified narcologists who are fluent in the most modern methods of getting rid of alcohol and drug addiction. We treat patients in a hospital setting; in milder cases, we can provide treatment on an outpatient basis. You can order a call from a narcologist to your home[/anchor] to help patients break their drinking habit. We also perform alcoholism coding and provide psychological support to clients after treatment. Call 8 (495) 150-85-96

Augmentin and alcohol

Among other things, many patients may have a question: is it possible to drink alcohol while taking Augmentin? Is Augmentin compatible with beer, cognac and other alcoholic drinks? It is noteworthy that the American instructions for amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (Augmentin) do not list side effects associated with the combined use of alcohol. There have also not been any studies on the negative effects of combining amoxicillin with alcohol to reasonably prohibit patients from taking alcohol during antibiotic therapy.