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Antibiotics and Alcohol

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opi8

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May 21, 2010
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I've heard tales that antibiotics are useless if you drink on them. If true, this is very problematic for, shall I say... what's the euphemism for helplessly useless depressed night-time alcoholic?

Is there any science as to why antibiotics would not work if I was drinking 6 beers a night, for example?

Would they be rendered completely useless, have diminished effects? Cause a fetus to start growing from my lazy eye?
 
I believe that for most anti biotics it's a myth, or rather, that the main problem with alcohol on antibiotics is that the alcohol will impair you from recovering from whatever you're taking the antibiotics for, rather than the two specifically interacting. I found this document, which seems pretty useful, it's got a list of specific drugs and their interactions with alcohol, and some interesting info on the mechanism of these interactions.

Antibiotics.
The package inserts for most antibiotics include a warning for patients to avoid using alcohol with those medications. The rationale for these warnings is not entirely clear, however, because only a few antibiotics appear to interact with alcohol. For example, although some antibiotics induce flushing, most antibiotics do not. The antibiotic erythromycin may increase alcohol absorption in the intestine (and, consequently, increase BALs) by accelerating gastric emptying. Furthermore, people taking the antituberculosis drug isoniazid should abstain from alcohol, because isoniazid can cause liver damage, which may be exacerbated by daily alcohol consumption. Aside from these effects, however, moderate alcohol consumption probably does not interfere with antibiotic effectiveness. Possibly, concerns regarding the con-current use of alcohol and antibiotics grew from research findings indicating that heavy alcohol use can impair the function of certain immune cells and that alcoholics are predisposed to certain infections. These effects, however, are unlikely to occur in moderate drinkers.
Click to expand...
 
Not entirely sure. From what I gather, they still work, but the combination doesent always work well on the stomach.

I think the theory is, they lower your immune system, and drinking doesent help your body recover quick enough. (Edit: foots beat me to it).
 
i know drinking on anti-biotics seems to have a potentiating effect for some (potentiation of the alcohol).
 
Depends on the antibiotic, I know people get away with doing it with some of the easier going type of antibiotic but if you're on something serious then you should really try to avoid drinking on it - antibiotics can have all sorts of nasty side effects and mixing alcohol can definitely contribute.
 
^ Back when I was drinking fairly heavily I wasn't a fan of mixing them, usually end up feeling the sick part of a big night out a lot earlier. Headaches were a certain.

They basically potentiated my hangover. Not fun.

As Quixote mentions, it depends on the antibiotic too.
 
Thanks for the responses, it's kind of what I thought. I've never had a problem with them working whilst I've been a euphemism before, but I thought I'd ask the knowledgeble folks here first in case some kind of growth started appearing.

Sorry footsy, I hate pdf's at the best of times, but my internet suxors and my eyes are in a similar situation to my internets, so I'll check that out another time. Thanks for digging it up for me though,
 
Not supposed to drink with metronidazole or sulfa drugs. Good luck getting sulfa drugs these days anyway, so probably no worries on that one.

Booze itself increases fluid in the lungs anyway, so I wouldn't drink with any sort of respiratory infections.
 
Yeah seems to be a pretty popular misconception with antibiotics. Majority of your everyday antibiotics won't have any reaction with alcohol at all, this idea that alcohol renders antibiotics temporarily useless stems from alcohol (in a decent amount) having a negative impact on your bodies ability to recover; hence drinking whilst on antibiotics may possibly slow down your recovery from.. whatever it is you are trying to rid yourself of, but not because of a bad interaction with the antibiotics, more so alcohol just doing its usual thing and slowing your body down. Should be noted however that there are certain antibiotics that DO have a minor reaction with alcohol, but even in such a situation, it's hardly going to be a reaction to write home about, might mean an extra day feeling like shit though
 
The myth of antibiotics and alcohol = bad started when (i think it was) chlamydia was making the rounds so doctors would prescribe antibiotics. They would tell them not to drink to reduce the risk of unsafe sex or, indeed, sleeping around.

There is 1 or 2 antibiotics that definitely shouldn't be taken with alcohol though:

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/871.aspx?CategoryID=73
 
I've unapproved some off topic posts. Please keep discussion to the matter at hand.
 
Morphling said:
Not supposed to drink with metronidazole or sulfa drugs. Good luck getting sulfa drugs these days anyway, so probably no worries on that one.

Booze itself increases fluid in the lungs anyway, so I wouldn't drink with any sort of respiratory infections.
Click to expand...

I prescribe them quite often. Metronidazole/Flagyl has an Antabuse effect meaning even a single beer will have you chucking your guts up. Most of the others are ok with moderate drinking but you have to also worry about the strain placed on your kidneys and liver. The diuretic effect of alcohol in theory may remove the antibiotics from your system faster.
 
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