Although there are still a few weeks before Christmas Eve, the Christmas lunches and dinners are about to ravage the bars and restaurants of friends, families and families. Colleagues working or working, who come together to celebrate the impending Christmas arrival between pounds of food and more than a drunk alcohol.

Even those who spend the year taking care of their food and avoiding alcohol decide to take a break right now to enjoy with their loved ones these hearty banquets. However, sometimes a simple throat infection or cystitis, even mild, may be symptomatic, alcohol consumption may interfere with the effect of antibiotics or affect dangerously Consumer Health . At least that's what they say, but is this really true? To give a complete explanation of this question, one must go back very far in time, in particular until the Second World War .

The Myths of War

Alcohol taken with antibiotics could damage their liver, keep it from getting drunk and spread the disease

During the Second World War penicillin discovered a little over a decade ago by ] Alexander Fleming was frequently used to treat soldiers with badually transmitted diseases such as syphilis. In these cases, it was not only necessary to resort to pharmacological treatment to fight the bacteria at the origin of the disease, but it was also very important to prevent its spread . And what is the ideal ingredient for a person to decide to make love knowing that she could be infecting her illness? Indeed, the alcohol . For this reason, physicians at the time chose to spread among their patients the godly lie that they mixed alcohol and antibiotics their health could be seriously damaged . In this way, they avoided drinking and their badual desire was maintained.

Another hoax launched at the same time stems from the need to extract penicillin from the urine of patients who were being treated with, in order to reuse it. The problem in this process was that if patients became sick of beer to forget the pain of their wounds, their urine was much more diluted, so it was more complicated to separate from it. . this could be left of the antibiotic. Again, to avoid this setback, they were told that while they drank alcohol at the same time as the drugs, their health could be affected. Hand of Saint

The reality beyond the myths

It is known today that the first warnings against the collective consumption of alcohol and antibiotics were hoaxes intended to avoid secondary problems . However, that does not mean that these doctors were not right. In fact, even without knowing it, they were not liars at all, because, one way or another, the consumption of alcohol with antibiotics can to be harmful to health .

It depends on many people. factors such as the intake of antibiotics or the frequency of alcohol consumption. The most common adverse effect is the antabus effect that occurs mostly during the consumption of antibiotics such as metronidazole, tinidazole, erythromycin or linezolid especially when the intake of alcohol is abundant and continuous . The most characteristic symptoms of the antabus effect are headache, facial redness, excessive sweating, tachycardia, nausea, vomiting and even in some cases hypotension and syncope . In addition, the characteristic symptoms of the hangover are markedly increased.

Now, does that mean we should just avoid these four antibiotics? To answer this question, in Hipertextual we contacted Marián García Doctor of Pharmacy, Professor at the University of Isabel I and author of the blog Boticaria García, who indicated the importance of taking into account the dose of alcohol consumed :

"The consequences of alcohol on antibiotics and drugs in general are variable and depend on the dose On the one hand, moderate consumption of alcohol can promote the absorption of certain drugs (sometimes resulting in toxicity), while excessive consumption decreases its bioavailability (the drug is less absorbed) causing irritation or inflammation of the intestinal lining.

Therefore, the effects vary depending on the antibiotic, but, as Dr. García points out, "what will a more decisive weight is e to know if the consumption of alcohol is carried out of occasional or chronic way . "The latter would be particularly dangerous in the case of the chronic alcoholics to whom the antibiotics could make them" less effective ", which would make it necessary to adjust the dosage of the drugs . ]

Antibiotic Resistance: The Hidden Danger

It could be that more than one person, reading this, thinks that one more absorption Slow drug is not something wrong if the price is to consume alcohol at Christmas in exchange for a little more sore throat. However, the fact that antibiotics are not properly absorbed can be linked to one of the biggest public health problems in the world: antibiotic resistance.

"In the case of antibiotics, a dose reduction available as we have said, this can happen in chronic alcoholics, it may have consequences short and long term ", explains Marián García . "In the short term, more visibly can not properly treat the infection .And in the medium term, by the development of resistance .If the bacteria do not receive the appropriate dose antibiotics for the time needed, they can learn to defend themselves against antibiotics by generating the dreaded resistance.For this reason, during the month of November, the Ministry of Health presented the National Plan for Antibiotic Resistance proposing strategies to curb this problem. "

This may seem like a problem 33,000 people die every year throughout Europe outbreaks of infections caused by resistant bacteria including 3,000 in Spain according to the doctor. AEMPS . Even some experts say the figure is much higher.

Know it, it's good to remember that eating enough, dancing with friends, telling the same jokes from the previous year or making chants of disagreement like it's there. was no tomorrow there is no need to drink alcohol . Just enough to have fun.

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