Why you can not combine alcohol and antibiotics and how long you have to wait

It’s impossible to say for sure whether or not you can drink alcohol with antibiotics. This is because antibiotics are different. Each one with its own combination. If you do not know for sure that alcohol is safe with your drug, do not drink. Now let's take a closer look at what's what.

What are antibiotics

Antibiotics are a large group of drugs that helpAntibiotics / Medline Plus fight bacterial infections. They either kill microbes or prevent their reproduction. For many diseases, antibiotics can save lives.

The group of antibiotics includes many substances with their own chemical formulas, indications, contraindications and side effects. It is impossible to give general recommendations for their reception. Some should be taken before meals, some after. Some need to be drunk for weeks, others just a few days. Therefore, the main rule is: take only doctor's prescription and in accordance with his recommendations. If in doubt, read the instructions.

Why you shouldn't drink alcohol with antibiotics

In the body, antibiotics interact with acids, enzymes, hormones, and so on. If antibiotics react with incompatible substances, the effect of taking them will not be the one they expected. For example, some drugs will becomeCan You Drink Alcohol With Antibiotics? /drugs.com more pronounced side effects: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, flushing (redness of the skin) and liver damage.

Many have heard that one of the complications of alcoholism is cirrhosis of the liver. It appears because for the breakdown and processing of ethyl alcohol in the body meetR. Weatherman, D. W. Crabb. Alcohol and Medication Interactions / The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism enzymes that are secreted by the liver. But the story is similar with many drugs. When enzymes are busy with alcohol, they cannot break down the antibiotic, so it is not completely eliminated from the body. In this case, an additional load is placed on the liver. This is maybeMixing Antibiotics and Alcohol / American Addiction Centers lead to an exacerbation of chronic diseases or simply disruption of the body.

Go to the hospital immediately if you have a fever, chills, pain after mixing alcohol and antibiotics in the joints or swelling, bruising, skin rash, itching, nausea or vomiting, severe pain in the abdomen, or if the whites of the eyes and skin turn yellow. This indicates liver damage.

There is another side to this process. If the enzymes do not break down the antibiotic, then it works worse and does not get rid of the infection. Then it turns out that you are being treated in vain. Failure to follow instructions when taking antibiotics maybeAntibiotic Do's & Don'ts / CDC lead to problems ranging from exacerbation of infection to drug resistance.

In addition, when consuming alcohol and drugs, undesirable reactions from the nervous system may appear: drowsiness, dizziness, confusion. In this case, it is better not to drive and not operate complex mechanisms. Another consequence of a drug-alcoholic cocktail is severe hangover.

What are the exceptions

As we have said, antibiotics are a very large group of drugs. Far from all of them fit together1. K. A. Mergenhagen, B. A. Wattagel, M. K. Skelly, C. M. Clark, T. A. Russo. Fact versus Fiction: a Review of the Evidence behind Alcohol and Antibiotic Interactions / Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy American Society for Microbiology
2. Can You Drink Alcohol With Antibiotics? /drugs.com with alcohol, if consumed in moderate doses - up to 14 g of pure ethanol per day. This is about 40 ml of strong alcohol, 330 ml of beer or 150 ml of wine. Often allowedantibiotics. Interactions/NHS antibiotics, which are prescribed for relatively mild infections.

This is a very approximate list that does not take into account many factors: dose, duration of use, health status and compatibility with other drugs. If your doctor has prescribed an antibiotic, be sure to consult with him. You may not be able to drink alcohol.

If you can’t talk to the doctor, look for information in the instructions for the drug. If there is no special paragraph about alcohol, see the section "compatibility with other drugs and substances" or "special recommendations". But whenever you are in doubt whether it is worth drinking or not, do not drink.

How long can you drink alcohol after antibiotics

Antibiotics are not excreted from the body immediately. Medicinal substances can act for several days after the last dose. This period depends on the characteristics of the drug.

As a rule, the time of withdrawal from the body is indicated in the instructions in the "pharmacokinetics" section. But if it's too hard to understand, just addCan You Drink Alcohol With Antibiotics? /drugs.com 72 hours by the time of the last antibiotic intake - this should be enough so that the substances from the drugs do not mix with ethanol.