What will happen if you drink alcohol after losing cephalosporin

Many people know that you cannot drink alcohol when taking ceftriaxone, otherwise it may be life-threatening in serious cases. In fact, the reaction to drinking beer after taking cefuroxime is actually related to the amount of alcohol consumed. Drinking a small amount of alcohol will cause dizziness, which is a drunken reaction. If shock or heart dysfunction occurs due to excessive drinking, just take appropriate countermeasures. This article introduces the detailed situation, let’s take a look.

Drinking alcohol after taking cephalosporins can cause a disulfiram-like reaction, which can be fatal in severe cases.

The disulfiram-like reaction can be explained from the normal alcohol metabolism pathway. Alcohol, whose chemical name is ethanol, enters the body and is first converted into acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver. Acetaldehyde is then converted into acetic acid by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Acetic acid enters the citric acid cycle and is finally converted into water and carbon dioxide and excreted. Two enzymes in this link play an important role in alcohol metabolism.

Cephalosporin antibiotics, especially third-generation cephalosporin antibiotics, contain methylthiotetrazolyl group (MTT) in their molecules, which can inhibit the activity of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, making it impossible to degrade acetaldehyde, resulting in acetaldehyde poisoning, which is the so-called disulfiram-like reaction. This can cause symptoms such as flushed face, rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, and in severe cases can lead to respiratory depression, myocardial infarction, acute heart failure, convulsions and death.

Additional information:

Cephalosporin is a general term for cephalosporin antibiotics. Cephalosporins are a class of antibiotics obtained by semi-synthetically modifying the side chains of natural cephalosporin C obtained by culturing Cephalosporin C as raw materials.

There are about 30 commonly used species, which are divided into one, two, three and four generations according to the time of their invention and their antibacterial properties. Do not use before or after drinking alcohol. Shock and fainting are very likely to occur, and the elderly may even be in danger of death.

Principles of use

Several principles should be followed when using cephalosporins:

Principle 1

Do not abuse

Because cephalosporins have so many advantages, patients and doctors favor them. Whenever a patient is infected and has a fever, no matter what kind of infection it is, cephalosporins will be used immediately. In particular, the third-generation cephalosporin is produced in large quantities in our country and is quite cheap, so its abuse was very common in the past.

In the past five years, many negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae that are difficult to treat with third-generation cephalosporins have appeared in my country. The extended-spectrum β-lactamases produced by these bacteria can destroy cephalosporins and cause drug resistance.

Principle 2

Oral administration, intravenous administration by drip

Nowadays, many patients will actively ask doctors to give them intravenous cephalosporin in order to recover soon. This is inappropriate. Whether to use cephalexin and whether to give it intravenously should be decided by the doctor.

When using cephalosporins, you must make a choice between mild and severe infections. If the infection is relatively mild, choose oral administration. Cephalosporins of all generations have oral preparations.

Principle 3

Do not mix with other medicines

In principle, antibiotics and any other drugs cannot be mixed together and administered at will, even if they are both antibiotics. For example, if a patient is receiving intravenous drips of two antibiotics, cephalosporin and gentamicin, the two drugs cannot be put into the same bottle for drip at the same time.

Because various antimicrobial drugs have different physical and chemical characteristics, when they are added together, to the naked eye, the color does not change, and there may not be any precipitation. But in fact, they may have interacted with each other, reducing their respective antimicrobial effects, and may even produce new compounds that are harmful to the human body. Therefore, when using antibiotics, they must be administered separately and two drugs must never be placed in the same container at the same time.

Principle 4

Do not use it before or after drinking, as it can easily cause shock, fainting, and even life-threatening for the elderly.