When metronidazole inhibits the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase, the levels of acetaldehyde accumulate in the blood. An occasional drink with fluoroquinolone can be safe, but regularly drinking alcohol may cause central nervous system side effects. In rare cases, people may experience seizures with fluoroquinolone treatment.

Since having alcohol in your system can also cause these symptoms on its own, using both antibiotics and alcohol together increases your risk of these side effects. Nitroimidazoles, including metronidazole, tinidazole, and secnidazole, are often used for parasitic or anaerobic bacterial infections. How antibiotics react with alcohol can differ by type of drug.

Is it Safe to Drink While Taking Levofloxacin?

The interaction between metronidazole and alcohol is widely discussed as the cause of unpleasant disulfiram-like side effects. Various classes of antibiotics are prescribed to treat bacterial infections. One of the most common concerns when taking antibiotics is whether alcohol can still sober house be consumed during treatment. While not all antibiotics interact with alcohol, some do, and the potential side effects can range from mild to severe. Generally, it’s best to practice caution and speak with a healthcare provider about drinking alcohol while on these antibiotics.

• Lauren aims to connect people with the information and resources to live their healthiest, fullest life.
• First, both have addictive substances that can harm your body.

Unlike other treatment programs, we know that everyone who comes to us has a unique life experience. About 70 percent of American adults drink alcohol at least once in a while, and research suggests that 10 percent drink daily. About twice as many men as women have had at least one adverse life event related to alcohol. An event may not amount to more than an argument with a family member, but many results in more serious outcomes. Package labels warn you not to use either drug with alcohol, and you take a risk when you ignore them.

Levofloxacin – Uses, Side Effects, and More

Ask your healthcare professional how you should dispose of any medicine you do not use. Keep using this medicine for the full treatment time, even if you feel better after the first few doses. Your infection may not clear up if you stop using the medicine too soon.

The most common example is metronidazole; however, tinidazole and secnidazole are also members of this class. Recent data do not support that nitrofurantoin and alcohol causes a disulfiram-like reaction or other adverse reactions/toxicities. Historical studies have suggested that alcohol use with nitrofurantoin resulted in a disulfiram-like reaction (40,–42). Newer reports have shown this reaction to be erroneous (43). Likewise, a study found that alcohol did not cause a disulfiram-like reaction with nitrofurantoin in volunteers (44). To our knowledge, there are no data available of the efficacy/toxicity or ADR of tetracycline.

Guarding Against Alcohol-Drug Interactions

Although nausea is a common side effect of both antibiotics and alcohol, not all people will experience this when using both at the same time. Nausea is a common side effect of antibiotics, and drinking alcohol may worsen this symptom in some people. Although the risks of consuming alcohol may be lower with some types of antibiotics than others, it is still advisable to avoid alcohol intake while taking any antibiotics. Drinking too much makes your body subject to attack by disease. Chronic drinkers face a greater risk of getting pneumonia or tuberculosis than those who drink less. However, as you try to recover from a UTI attack, alcohol makes it more difficult.