There are times in life when we have to take antibiotics and at the same time we are invited to a kind of party. Therefore, the question of whether it is possible to drink alcohol while taking antibiotics is especially acute in such cases. We will provide full information on this issue below.
Treatment with antibacterial drugs is prescribed in a number of bacterial and less often fungal infections. Remember that the course of antibiotic treatment should never be interrupted. Its duration can vary depending on the type and severity of the disease (3-7 days or more). The idea that one should "get out" of the festive life and not accept an invitation to any meal frightens many. But in practice, not everything is so scary.
If you approach this problem competently, from a medical point of view, then you can attend parties with relatives and undergo antibiotic treatment.
The golden rule: always drink in moderation.
Under certain conditions described below, of course, you can combine alcohol with antibiotics. However, when prescribing antibiotics, you should be careful not to overload your body with alcohol. In any case, ethanol enters you and all your defenses will be thrown against it. And, for example, in the case of a long-term illness, these forces may be the last. Immunity will be further weakened and recovery will be postponed indefinitely. And in some cases it has been describedbelow, even death is possible.
Antibiotic and alcohol compatibility myths
Horror stories about the impossibility of combining antibacterial drugs with alcohol probably began to spread immediately after World War II. At that time, venereal clinics were simply full of soldiers and officers who had to endure all the hardships of military life.
Doctors later strictly forbade their patients to drink alcohol during antibiotic therapy, but not because of the health effects of mixing the latter, but for a very simple reason - after drinking a glass, a soldier could "take it all out" and get a new one. genital infection.
According to another version, the ban was caused by the high labor costs of taking penicillin, which, strangely enough, evaporated from the urine of treated servicemen. Therefore, in order to obtain medically pure medicine, they were forbidden to drink beer during the entire treatment.
Since then, the theory of the dangers of mixing alcohol with antibiotics has become popular among people, and many still believe that they cannot be combined. What is the attitude to this issue of evidence-based medicine?
Research facts
It is known that in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a number of studies were conducted on the effects of ethanol on various antibacterial drugs. The experiments were performed on both laboratory animals and human volunteers. The results clearly showed that most antibiotics are not affected by alcohol consumption.
All the antibiotics studied were effective in both the control and experimental groups, and no global deviations in physicochemical reactions (distribution of drugs in the body, mechanisms of absorption and excretion of breakdown products) were detected.
However, there is a hypothesis that alcohol increases the adverse effects of antibacterial drugs on the liver. However, the description of such cases in the scientific medical literature is very rare (up to 10 per 100, 000) and no specific research has been conducted in this area.
There are antibiotics that are not compatible with alcohol
There are some types of antibacterial drugs that interact with alcohol and cause 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, resulting in changes in the metabolism of ethyl alcohol in the body and the accumulation of acetaldehyde.
Symptoms 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 taking large doses of alcohol, a fatal outcome is possible!
All of the above symptoms are very difficult for a person, so many medical clinics use a disulfiram-like reaction in the treatment of alcoholism (so-called "coding").