Many people believe that antibiotics and alcohol are incompatible and that mixing them is dangerous, or that if you drink while you are under treatment, the pills lose their effect. The reality is not such, but it is true that alcohol increases the hepatic metabolism of these drugs and decreases their concentration in the blood, so its presence in the place where it should be effective is less and so is its effectiveness.
What happens is that once ingested, these drugs can follow several routes in the body : they are either metabolized by the liver or eliminated through urine or feces. Depending on the route of excretion they follow, they will remain active for more or less time, which will determine how often each dose should be administered.
So what alcohol can do is delay or accelerate its absorption and elimination . That is, if you drink a lot, the antibiotic works more slowly. This reduction in effect can occur in a class of antibiotics called macrolides and quinolones, which are used to treat throat, urinary or respiratory infections.
On the other hand, with some cephalosporins , antibiotics of the beta-lactam group, the intake of alcohol precipitates the appearance of a series of symptoms . It is known as the antabús effect or disulfira-type effect and these are clinical manifestations that can be mild or severe, ranging from facial flushing (red face), nausea, vomiting, anxiety, even tachycardia, hypotension, respiratory failure or encephalopathy.
The antabús effect can also appear with the use of metronizadol (anaerobic and antiprotozoal antibiotic), widely used in oral infections or in vaginal ovules to treat certain infections. In any case, the safest thing is to read the leaflet , where incompatibilities are always indicated.
