Before prescribing antibiotics for treatment, the doctor strictly warns that it is absolutely impossible to drink alcohol during therapy. But now the necessary course of treatment has been completed and the question arises as to how long after antibiotics you can drink alcohol.
How many days, or maybe hours, should be spent on freeing the body from the remnants of aggressive drugs? Or can you immediately celebrate the successful completion of treatment? The problem is urgent and needs to be addressed.
The essence of the action of antibiotics
Antibiotics are used to treat a number of infectious and inflammatory pathologies. In such diseases, when aggressive bacteria attack the internal organs, and the body's immune system is sometimes unable to cope with them on its own.
The action of antibiotics lies in their action on the cellular structure of bacteria.. This reduces the ability of pathogenic microflora to multiply at a tremendous rate and gradually kills an entire colony of pathogenic bacteria.
Antibiotics improve the patient's condition and help him get rid of bacterial diseases quickly.
But antibiotics also have another side of the coin: the main burden of removing them from the body falls on the liver. It is the organ of the liver that cleanses the internal organs from the remnants of drug breakdown.
The organ of the liver, which receives the main blow, is no longer able to cope with the additional load. If you burden your body with alcohol at the same time (during antibiotic treatment), you can expect the following:
- Complete disappearance of the expected effect of therapy.
- Occurrence of unpleasant symptoms in the form of nausea, profuse vomiting, general weakness. This is intoxication of the body with antibiotics mixed with alcohol.
- Liver disease (especially if the liver is already weakened). This option is fraught with the development of additional and sometimes life-threatening pathologies.
How exactly the body will react depends on the degree of aggressiveness of the antibiotic. This nuance will be better explained by a doctor who prescribes one or another antibiotic.
Which drugs are forbidden to combine with alcohol
But many particularly frivolous individuals, despite medical prohibitions, still take risks and take alcohol on their chest during antibiotic therapy. People do not even think about the possible negative consequences of such neglect of their own health.
Even if everything went well, and the simultaneous intake of alcohol and antibiotics did not affect your well-being, for the body, the use of such a cocktail never goes unnoticed.
Ethanol components, reacting with antibiotic ingredients, can react at a "slow" rate. Such effects can suddenly "float" years after treatment.
There are antibiotics that are absolutely incompatible with ethanol. They are the ones who cause the most depressing and saddest consequences after meeting in the process of alcohol treatment.. These are the following tools:
- Tetracyclines. It is used for the treatment of diagnosed infectious diseases.
- Chloramphenicol. Aggressive antibiotics are characterized by their own "rich" list of all kinds of side effects. Alcohol greatly enhances the manifestation of side effects and worsens the intoxication of the body.
- Lincosamides. If you combine antibiotics of this series with alcohol, you can pay for the health of the liver and central nervous system.
- Aminoglycosides. They are considered the most powerful drugs. Not only do they not combine with alcohol, but they also do not tolerate the presence of other drugs in the body. The influence of alcohol during treatment with such drugs causes the most serious health consequences, and in special cases can cause cardiac arrest.
- Cephalosporins. Even bad alcoholic beverages in combination with such drugs cause a disulfiram-like reaction. A patient who dares to diversify cephalosporin treatment by drinking is guaranteed to face severe intoxication.
- Macrolides. The combination of drugs from this series of antibiotics and drinking has a particularly strong and destructive effect on the state of brain receptors and hepatocides (liver cells).
Antibiotics used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis are also banned. All strict prohibitions are mandatory prescribed in the notes to the medication. But manufacturers don’t always write about such a taboo. For example, the instructions for the following medications do not say that you cannot drink alcohol:
- an antibiotic from the ansamycin group;
- tricyclic glycopeptide antibiotic;
- an antibiotic for external use that produces a shiny fungus;
- antifungal drugs;
- antibiotics from the penicillin series.
To the astonishment of those who suffer from drinking, the absence of a ban does not mean that it is possible to combine alcohol and this drug. Keep in mind that man is a unique creation. Someone's body really does not "notice" external disturbances of alcohol, while in others it will react with severe poisoning.
When can you drink alcohol after taking antibiotics?
Usually, the period in which drinking alcohol is allowed after taking antibiotics is prescribed in the instructions that come with the medicine.. On average, this time is 10-14 days. The doctor may change this time, taking into account the following factors:
- Weight, build and age of the person.
- Aggression of the drug and duration of its course of administration.
- The initial health condition of the patient, the presence of additional chronic diseases.
The rate of excretion of antibiotic residues from the body and, consequently, the amount of time you are not allowed to drink after antibiotics depends on these data. If the instructions say nothing about this shade, you shouldn’t rush with intoxicating libations either. In that case, you should wait at least 2-3 days after the end of the therapeutic course.
Consequences of frivolity
Even if the patient is familiar with the instructions and knows when to drink alcohol after taking antibiotics, sometimes he may not pay attention to the ban. Or don’t wait for the marked "quarantine" time. Residues of antibiotics, which have not had time to leave the body safely, will begin to actively block the absorption of ethyl alcohol.
What to expect from a situation in which ethanol will accumulate in all internal tissues and organs? Intoxication, which manifests itself in varying degrees of severity - it all depends on the state of health. The following unpleasant symptoms will surely occur in a person:
- profuse vomiting;
- increased sweating;
- attacks of severe nausea;
- shortness of breath, shortness of breath;
- blood pressure spikes;
- dizziness and disorientation;
- allergic reactions (urticaria, itching, swelling);
- pressure pain (squeezing) in the sternum;
- a migraine-type headache of such intensity that it cannot be stopped with pain medication.
And this is not a complete list of troubles that fall on a person who neglects common sense. Wait until you can really drink alcohol after taking antibiotics. Otherwise, the person simply risks being in a hospital bed with symptoms of severe poisoning.
It should be borne in mind that not all antibiotic agents have been subjected to specific clinical trials.It has not yet been shown that all modern antibiotics are incompatible with alcohol.. But that doesn’t mean you should be a respondent.
Don't risk your health! Alcohol does not go anywhere, but frivolity can significantly and irreversibly worsen health. Wait for all appointments after the end of antibiotic therapy and it is better not to take a glass at all.Health to you!