Unfortunately, non -drinker disease stereotypes have grown. If you refuse a glass of vodka during a party, surely some people will ask - "Is it sick? " But some people understand that alcohol is very harmful to the body, and especially during treatment for other diseases. In this article, we will talk about the compatibility of alcoholic beverages and antibiotic therapy. Is it possible to drink during treatment, let's try to figure it out.
Consequences of taking antibiotics in combination with alcohol
Antibiotics are one of the most powerful, effective and efficient groups of drugs that have completely changed science and medicine. A few centuries ago, a person’s average life expectancy was about forty years, and with the introduction of antibiotics into a broad mass, a person began to live longer. Today antibiotics are so controversial, many young mothers talk about the horrors and consequences of frequent and long-term use of these drugs by children. Indeed, like any panacea, antibiotics require careful attention and special admission rules. And one of them is alcohol rejection during treatment. Otherwise, it can lead to serious consequences.
- Decreased drug concentration.As you know, antibiotics do not begin to act immediately, but only after the accumulation of a certain amount of drug in the body. And alcohol significantly reduces the absorption of drugs into the walls of the stomach and intestines. This means that alcoholic beverages only cancel out the effects of antibiotic therapy by reducing the concentration of the drug in the body. Therefore, taking the drug becomes useless, and sometimes dangerous, because the absence of therapeutic effect leads to the fact that the disease progresses, the number of bacteria increases. In addition, small doses of antibiotics lead to the fact that harmful microorganisms build up resistance to these antibiotics, in turn it becomes ineffective.
- Burden on the heart.Another negative consequence of combining alcohol with antibiotics is a very high burden on the liver. These organs are involved in the processing of ethyl alcohol and the neutralization of the intermediate metabolic products of drugs. That is, during the period of taking antibiotics, the liver functions as actively as possible, in combination with alcohol intake, the load on the organs is high, sometimes the liver can push.
- Disulfiram -like reactions.Sometimes taking alcohol with antibiotics ends in 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 this reaction is used to encode a person from drinking alcohol. Special tablets with the material are sewn into the subcutaneous space, which in the same dose enters the body for a long time - several months. If alcohol enters the human body during this period, all the above symptoms appear. A person develops a persistent dislike of alcohol.
In addition, alcoholic beverages thicken the blood very strongly, causing dehydration of the body. How antibiotics will behave in such a situation is a mystery, as each 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 beverages.
How to take antibiotics correctly
To benefit from a drug, it must be taken according to certain rules. As mentioned, it is impossible to combine it with alcohol, you have to wait until the drug is completely removed from the body. This can take from a few hours to a few days after the last dose of the drug. Here are some more guidelines to follow while treating antibiotics.
Antibiotics need to be taken regularly, this is very important. If the doctor prescribes an injection or pill twice a day, it must be taken strictly after 12 hours. If a triple dose is prescribed, then you need to take antibiotics every 8 hours - for example, at 6. 00, 14. 00 and 22. 00.
Antibiotics may not work if the bacteria are highly resistant to this group of drugs. Before starting treatment, preferably, you should pass a bacteriological culture to identify the most sensitive drug in a particular case for a particular organism.
Any antibiotics can only be taken as directed by a doctor - not even worth discussing. Some diseases, for all the severity of symptoms, may be insensitive to antibiotic therapy, for example, viral diseases.
Before giving a prescription, be sure to inform your doctor that you have had any allergic reactions to medications before. You should also inform your doctor about the medications you are taking all the time - hormonal contraceptives, blood thinners, antihistamines, etc. Combining some medications with antibiotics can cause unwanted consequences.
Antibiotics should not be taken for less than 5 days, usually the course is about 7-10 days. Even if on the third day of taking the medicine you feel better, you should not cancel it, otherwise the bacteria, which are not completely suppressed, will start to multiply and invade the body. Another consequence of early withdrawal of antibiotics is that these bacterial strains will gain resistance to the antibiotics taken. Next time with the same disease, this drug will become ineffective.
Take antibiotics exactly as directed, especially when combined with food. As a rule, most drugs in this group should be taken after meals with plenty of water. The drug is not washed down with juice, coffee and milk, its effectiveness may be reduced from this.
Antibiotics must be combined with the intake of beneficial bacteria, as antibiotic therapy can kill the intestinal microflora completely, leading to dysbiosis, diarrhea or diarrhea. To avoid this, you need to drink probiotics and prebiotics in parallel.
These are the basic rules for taking antibiotics, which must be strictly adhered to, regardless of the drug group. Sometimes doctors may not talk about this simple rule, because it should be known by everyone.
When can antibiotics be combined with alcohol?
There are several antibiotics, the combination of which with alcohol is strongly contraindicated. These are fluoroquinolones, nitroimidazoles, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, erythromycin and drugs for tuberculosis. In any case, they should not be combined with alcohol, otherwise a complex disulfiram -like reaction will develop. If you plan to consume alcohol, which is unavoidable in any way, you should try to drink alcohol so that it does not intersect with the medication in the body. For example, some types of antibiotics are cleared of blood within 2-3 hours. Through this interval, you can drink a glass of beer, which a medium -bodied man will hatch in a few hours. That is, with the intake of new medications, the body will return healthy and clean. There are many nuances in such a theory, you need to take into account the rate of elimination of drugs and alcohol from the body, to know the time interval between taking drugs. Therefore, it is better to reject alcohol during treatment for your own health.
The first mention of the dangers of alcohol during antibiotic treatment dates back to the 40s of last century. During World War II, doctors began actively using penicillin, which was introduced for the first time, in the treatment of the masses. Then the patient was a European soldier who loved to drink beer. And beer, as you know, has a significant diuretic effect and just flushes the drug out of the body. Then the doctor decided to "scare" the soldiers and told them about the serious consequences of the combination of treatment and alcohol. People in white coats are intuitively right and at the same time they are protecting their patients from trouble. Take care of yourself, do not drink alcohol during the treatment period!