How Does Alcohol Affect Antibiotics?

There are a lot of contraversial opinions regarding the compatibility of antibiotics and alcoholic beverages. One this is apparent: mixing alcohol and antibiotics is generally not very good for the human body, although from here everyone's thoughts diverse. Some say that alcohol simply increases the side effects of the drugs, although if the effects in question are not significant initially, alcohol will hardly add a lot to them. Others argue that taking antibiotics along with alcohol is very nearly suicide. Where is the truth, then?

Let us review various opinions on this subject briefly. For example, alcohol is often thought to decrease the antibiotics' medical effect. This one is highly unlikely, although in cases of certain antibiotics (e.g. Doxycycline) the recovery period really may increase because of alcohol consumption. Different antibiotics have, accordingly, different mechanism of action, including their ways of leaving the body systems. Some are broken down by the liver segments and washed out through urine, others are excreted directly through feces, etc. Depending on this, the duration of antibiotic activity varies, also. Alcohol may increase the excretion rate, delaying the drug's effect, or, on the other hand, decrease the rate at which the active ingredients of a medications are broken down by the liver, demanding higher doses. However, some antibiotics can work their magic even in patients who drink occasionally, so the opinion we are talking about should not be generalized so much.

Now, onwards to the side effects question. Once again, here the effect of alcohol depends greatly on the antibiotic being used. Everyone must now that alcohol in large amounts produces dizzy or drowsy sensations, upset stomach, nausea, vomiting and other similar reactions, which are also included in the list of side effects for the majority of antibiotic meds. In a nutshell, when you ingest two substances that cause the same effect, the effect is, logically enough, twice stronger. With some antibiotics, such as Bactrim, Flagyl, or Tindamax, the result can be quite severe.

From this statement we can easily pass on to the mechanism of action shared by alcohol and some antibiotics. One can say that alcoholic substances enter a competition with the drugs for the same selection of metabolic enzymes. Exactly because of this chemical interaction, the antibiotic's stay in the bloodstreamed is prolonged for a term proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed, which in turn may increase the side effects of the antibiotic if the patient is prone to them. While we are on this subject, let us take a look at the other side: long term alcohol consumption actually stimulates the production of these enzymes, which reduces the amount of antibiotic in the blood, hence bringing forward the need to increases the dosage. Sometimes certain enzymes are activated that can form harmful substances when joining forces with antibiotic preparations.

As you can see, while the extent of damage that can be caused by combining alcohol and antibiotics is still up to debate, there is a possibility of highly negative effects, so it is better to exclude alcoholic beverages from your daily menu while you are on antibiotics.