If you’re healthy, drinking 1 or 2 glasses of wine a day isn’t there to be a concern (of course, in the long run, drinking a lot will do the damage) But if you’re on antibiotics, Even just one drink is enough to cause serious side effects.
Antibiotics combined with alcohol can add to, trigger, or complicate the side effects of the drug on the body.
You should not drink alcohol while taking antibiotics because alcohol weakens the immune system. Pharmacist and Honeybee Health co-founder Jessica Nouhavandi says not all antibiotics have a negative interaction with alcohol. But you need to take antibiotics when you have an infection and your immune system is weakened, drinking alcohol is not helping your health and yo l.
Pharmacist Jessica Nouhavandi says there are a number of antibiotics that are almost certain to cause negative and potent side effects when mixed with alcohol, including:
Metronidazole (Flagyl): an antibiotic used to treat bacterial or parasitic infections of the vagina, stomach, liver, or brain.
Tinidazole (Tindamax): an antibiotic used to treat infections in the vagina and intestines.
When taking these antibiotics, pharmacist Nouvhavandi recommends staying away from all alcohol-containing things such as wine, beer, wine, cough syrup, mouthwash.
If you drink alcohol while taking these antibiotics, you may experience strong side effects such as: stomach upset, nausea, vomiting, fasting.
If you just accidentally drink alcohol while on antibiotics, your side effects will usually go away within a few hours. However, if you have a serious reaction, go to the hospital for care.
Other common antibiotics that should also not be taken with alcohol, despite their less serious side effects, include:
Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (Bactrim DS): Commonly used to treat urinary tract infections or skin infections. It has the same side effects as metronidazole.
Cefotetan (Cefotan): used to treat bacterial infections of the lungs, skin, and bones, has the same side effects as metronidazole.
Linezolid (Zyvox): prescribed to treat skin infections and pneumonia, has strong interactions with beer (including non-alcoholic beer) and red wine. Drinking alcohol while taking linezolid can cause your blood pressure to spike.
Isoniazid (Nydrazid): used to treat tuberculosis, can adversely affect the liver, causing toxicity when combined with alcohol.
Even antibiotics that are not contraindicated for direct use with alcohol carry the risk of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Pharmacist Nouhavandi says that doxycycline (Vibramycin, Monodox) and amoxicillin (Amoxil) are two examples of antibiotics that often cause digestive problems.
You can continue to drink alcohol after the antibiotic is cleared from your body, usually 3 days after the last dose.
Drinking makes your recovery take longer
Drinking alcohol does not directly affect the effectiveness of antibiotics, but it does make your recovery take longer. This is partly because when you’re sick, you need to stay hydrated, says Nouhavandi. One of the side effects of drinking alcohol is dehydration, which makes you healthier longer.
Like many antibiotics, the liver breaks down alcohol before it leaves the body. While you’re sick, the liver has to work harder, now it has to deal with alcohol, which causes the liver to overwork. The worst possible outcome is drug-induced liver toxicity (swelling of the liver).
Within 48 hours of taking the medicine, you should feel better. But that doesn’t mean your body is free of infections. If you stop taking antibiotics early enough to drink alcohol, you’re creating a favorable environment for bacteria and fungi (which cause infections) to return.
