Can I Drink Alcohol while Taking Antibiotics?

by: Stefan Simonovic

Source: Flickr

These days, we live quite hectic lives that are filled with intensive experiences. Now, we don’t want to imply this is a bad thing by default, as it lets us experience many different things, from learning to skydive to experimenting with transgender dating. On the other hand, we all know that the fast and excessive lifestyle that most of us practice can leave us physically drained, stressed out or with the considerably weakened immune system that is basically a free ticket to numerous infections.

Therefore, we wanted to look into the question that has been known to bother millennials, especially in situations where they’re trying to get over an illness but still want to party with their friends – can one drink alcohol safely while consuming antibiotics?

A Dangerous Mix

As you probably know, medication plus alcohol almost certainly equals a bad time. There’s a pretty good reason why most (if not all) drugs that doctors prescribe us have huge warning labels that say these shouldn’t be mixed with alcoholic beverages as well as with specific types of food.

You see, taking any kind of medication only to drink alcohol afterward pretty much renders the drug irrelevant. Namely, all doctor-prescribed drugs are used to help our organism while booze has a completely opposite effect, which means that the two counter each other with alcohol emerging as victor every time.

However, that’s not all of it. Mixing alcohol with medication also usually leads to negative side effects, some of which you certainly don’t want to experience. The worst part of this lies in the chance that alcohol will worsen the symptoms of the infection you’re trying to cure with antibiotics.

Possible Side Effects May Include…

Now, let’s take a quick look as to exactly which side effects you might experience when you chug down booze after taking a dose of antibiotics.

Most commonly, the side effects of antibiotics revolve around possibly decreased motor skills, but ultimately it all depends on the medication you’re taking. Other most common side effects involve but aren’t reduced to are sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, lightheadedness, and diarrhea.

As far as alcohol goes, the effect it has on an average human is well-known to everyone. However, it can still have side effects. Usually, this involves digestive problems like diarrhea, ulcers, stomach pain, while sometimes it can also lead to tiredness.

Now it's getting really bad. Considering which side effects you can get from these two things separately, just imagine what kind of risk you’re running if you’re mixing alcohol with antibiotics. Some of the most serious side effects include vomiting, severe nausea and, once again, diarrhea.

Still, you might not feel even one of these. Some people never experience any side effects of any medication, but if you do need to mix infection meds with booze and you feel too warm, your skin becomes red for no reason, you get a massive headache or your heart rate suddenly goes through the roof, you’re probably experiencing a negative reaction to antibiotics mixed with alcohol.

So, to answer the titular question: yes, yes you can drink alcohol while taking antibiotics. Perhaps you won’t have any issues and you won’t experience any side effects, but it’s still not something that any doctor ever would recommend – unless they want you to have a really bad time.


About the author:

Stefan is a writer and a blogger in his spare time. He also works for First Beat Media, a company that mainly focuses on the online dating niche and similar services.