Before prescribing antibiotics for treatment, doctors seriously warn absolutely not to drink alcohol during treatment. 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 freeing the body from the remnants of addictive drugs? Or can you immediately celebrate the successful completion of the treatment? The problem is urgent and needs to be dealt with.
The nature of the action of antibiotics
Antibiotics are used to treat many infections and inflammations. With such diseases, when bacteria attack the internal organs, and the body's immune system sometimes cannot cope with them on its own.
The work of antibiotics lies in their effect on the bacterial cell structure.. This reduces the ability of pathogenic microflora to multiply at a terrible rate and gradually destroys the entire colony of pathogenic bacteria.
Antibiotics improve the patient's condition and help him quickly get rid of diseases caused by bacteria.
However, antibiotics have another side to the problem: the main burden to remove them from the body rests with the liver. It's the liver organ that cleans the internal organs from the remnants of drug breakdown.
The liver organ, taking the main blow, is no longer able to cope with the additional load. If you also consume alcohol (during antibiotic treatment), you may experience the following:
- Complete disappearance of the expected effect of therapy.
- The appearance of unpleasant symptoms in the form of nausea, vomiting, general weakness. This is a phenomenon in which the body is intoxicated with antibiotics mixed with alcohol.
- Diseases of the liver organs (especially if the liver is already in a weakened state). This option is fraught with the development of additional and sometimes life-threatening pathologies.
How exactly the body reacts depends on how strong the antibiotic is. This nuance will be further explained by the attending physician, prescribing one or another antibiotic.
Prohibited drugs combined with alcohol
But many particularly frivolous people, despite medical bans, still take risks and drink alcohol to the chest during antibiotic treatment. People don't even think about the possible negative consequences of such disregard for their own health.
Even if everything goes well and the simultaneous intake of alcohol and an antibiotic does not affect your health, the use of such a cocktail will never pass without leaving a mark. marks on the body.
Components of ethanol, which react with components of antibiotics, can react at a "slow" rate. Such effects can suddenly "emerge" years after treatment.
There are antibiotics that are completely incompatible with ethanol. It is they who cause the most painful and painful consequences after they meet during alcohol withdrawal.. These are the following tools:
- Tetracyclines. Used for treatment in diagnosed infectious diseases.
- Levomycetins. Aggressive antibiotics are marked by their own "rich" list of all sorts of side effects. Alcohol significantly increases the manifestation of side effects and aggravates the intoxication of the body.
- Lincosamides. If you combine antibiotics of this series with alcohol, you may be paying a price for the health of your liver and central nervous system.
- Aminoglycosides. They are considered the most powerful drugs. Not only do they not mix with alcohol, but they also do not tolerate the presence of other drugs in the body. The effects of alcohol during treatment with these drugs have the most serious health consequences and in special cases can cause cardiac arrest.
- Cephalosporins. Even low-level alcoholic beverages combined with these drugs cause a disulfiram-like reaction. A patient who dares to diversify treatment with oral cephalosporins will inevitably face severe intoxication.
- Macrolite. The combination of drugs of this series of antibiotics and oral administration has a particularly strong effect and destroys the state of brain receptors and liver killers (hepatocytes).
Antibiotics, used in the treatment of leprosy and tuberculosis, are also banned. All strict prohibitions are necessarily specified in the footnotes to drugs. But manufacturers do not always write about such taboos. For example, there is nothing about the fact that you must not drink alcohol in the instructions for the following drugs:
- antibiotics from the ansamycin group;
- tricyclic glycopeptide antibiotics;
- an antibiotic for external use released by a fungus;
- antifungal drugs;
- antibiotics of the penicillin series.
To the chagrin of alcoholics, the absence of a ban does not mean that alcohol and drugs can be combined. Remember that man is a unique creation. One person's body actually doesn't even "notice" the foreign alcohol interference, while for others it will react with severe poisoning.
When can you drink alcohol after taking antibiotics?
Usually, the period of time allowed to drink alcohol after taking antibiotics is specified in the instructions that come with the medicine.. On average, this period is 10-14 days. Your doctor may change this time, taking into account the following factors:
- A person's weight, body shape, and age.
- The strength of the drug and the duration of its use.
- The patient's baseline health status, the presence of additional chronic diseases.
The rate at which antibiotic residues are eliminated from the body and, accordingly, how many times you can't take them after taking antibiotics depends on these data. If the guide doesn't say anything about this nuance, you shouldn't be in a hurry with drunken statements either. In this case, you should wait at least 2-3 days after finishing the course of treatment.
Consequences of vanity
Even if patients are familiar with the instructions and know when to drink alcohol after taking antibiotics, they may sometimes not heed the ban. Or don't wait for the "quarantine" period to be marked. The rest of the antibiotic, without having time to safely leave the body, will begin to actively block the absorption of ethyl alcohol.
What would happen to a situation where ethanol would accumulate in all internal tissues and organs? Intoxication, manifesting in varying degrees of severity - it all depends on the state of health. The following unpleasant symptoms are guaranteed to come to a person:
- vomiting a lot;
- increased sweating;
- intermittent nausea;
- shortness of breath, difficulty breathing;
- hypertension;
- dizziness and disorientation;
- allergic reactions (urticaria, itching, swelling);
- pressing (squeezing) pain in the sternum;
- Migraine-type headaches are so intense that they cannot be stopped with pain relievers.
And this is not the whole list of troubles that fall on a person who neglects common sense. Wait until you can actually drink alcohol after taking antibiotics. Otherwise, a person is at risk of lying on a hospital bed with symptoms of severe poisoning.
It should be noted that not all antibiotics have been subjected to specific clinical trials.Not all modern antibiotics have been shown to be incompatible with alcohol.. But this doesn't mean you have to be a test subject.
Don't risk your own health! Alcohol will get you nowhere, but health can be significantly and irreparably deteriorated by vanity. Wait for all due days after the end of antibiotic treatment and it is better not to drink a glass at all.Wish you health!