In life, there are often situations 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 topic below.
Treatment with antibacterial drugs is prescribed in various cases of bacterial and, less often, fungal infections. It is important to remember that the course of antibiotic treatment should never be interrupted. Its duration may be different, depending on the type of disease and its severity (3-7 days or more). The idea that it is necessary to "get out" of the festive life and not accept invitations to any meal scares many. But in practice, everything is not so scary.
If you deal with this problem competently, from a medical point of view, you can participate in parties with relatives and undergo a course of antibiotics.
The golden rule: always drink in moderation.
Under certain conditions, which are described below, you can, of course, combine alcohol with antibiotics. But when prescribing antibiotics, you need to be careful not to overload your body with excess alcohol. In any case, the ethanol gets inside you and all your defenses will launch into the fight against it. And in the case of, for example, a persistent illness, these forces may be the last. Immunity will be further weakened and recovery will be postponed for an unlimited future. And in some cases he describedbelow, even death is possible.
Myths about the compatibility of antibiotics and alcohol
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 packed with soldiers and officers, bearing all the hardships of military life on their shoulders.
Then doctors categorically forbade their patients to drink alcohol during antibiotic therapy, but not because of the harm to health of mixing the latter, but for a very banal reason: after drinking a glass, a soldier could "do everything as possible "and get a new one. Genital infection
According to another version, the prohibition was born due to the high labor costs when receiving penicillin, curiously it evaporated from the urine of the treated military personnel. Therefore, in order to obtain a medically pure drug, they were forbidden to drink beer for the entire period of 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. But what is the opinion on this subject of evidence-based medicine?
Research facts
It is known that in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, several studies were carried out on the effect of ethanol on various types of antibacterial drugs. The experiments were carried out in both laboratory animals and human volunteers. The results clearly showed that most types of antibiotics are not affected by alcohol consumption.
All the investigated antibiotics were effective in both the control and the experimental groups, no global deviations were found in the physicochemical reactions (distribution of the drug throughout 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, the cases in which situations of this type are described are quite rare (up to 10 cases per 100, 000) and no special studies have been carried out in this area.
There are antibiotics incompatible with alcohol
There are some types of antibacterial drugs that interact with alcohol and produce very unpleasant symptoms, called disulfiram-like reactions in medical practice.
This reaction occurs during the chemical interaction of ethanol and some specific antibiotic molecules, so there is a change in the metabolism of ethyl alcohol in the body and the accumulation of acetaldehyde is observed.
Signs of acetaldehyde poisoning:
- Vomiting, nausea
- Strong headache.
- Cramps in arms and legs.
- Incrise of cardiac frecuency.
- Heavy and intermittent breathing.
- Fever and redness in the chest, face and neck.
In such cases, when drinking large doses of alcohol, a fatal outcome is possible!
All of the above symptoms are very difficult for a person, therefore in many medical clinics a reaction similar to disulfiram is used in the treatment of alcoholism (the so-called "coding").