During the application of antibiotics, especially cephalosporins and metronidazole, absolutely no alcohol should be consumed! You can’t drink alcohol or you may have a disulfiram-like reaction, cardiac arrest and high risk of sudden death! We must be familiar with the words cardiac arrest and sudden death, but for the “disulfiram-like reaction”, is not feeling unaware of? In fact, disulfiram is a drug that is used to stop drinking alcohol. After taking this drug, even if you drink a small amount of alcohol, your body will produce serious discomfort, that is, to achieve the purpose of quitting alcohol. These serious discomforts, known as disulfiram-like reactions, include facial flushing, conjunctival congestion, blurred vision, severe throbbing of the blood vessels in the head and neck or throbbing headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, sweating, dry mouth, chest pain, myocardial infarction, acute heart failure, respiratory distress, acute liver injury, convulsions and death. However, many drugs such as cephalosporin antibiotics, nitroimidazoles and other antibacterial drugs such as furazolidone (dysentery), chloramphenicol, ketoconazole, ashwagandha, sulfonamides (sulfamethoxazole), etc. have similar effects to disulfiram, and the above disulfiram-like reactions will also occur if alcohol is consumed after the drug is used. According to the relevant literature, cephalosporin antibiotics cause disulfiram-like reactions and alcohol consumption up to 99% of the closely related. Among them, cefoperazone causes the most reported disulfiram-like reactions. For example, some patients have had disulfiram-like reactions after taking cefoperazone followed by eating chocolate with wine hearts, taking patchouli, or even treating the skin with alcohol alone. The severity of disulfiram-like reactions is proportional to the dose of medication and the amount of alcohol consumed, and is more serious in the elderly, children, people with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and those sensitive to ethanol. Experts suggest that in order to prevent disulfiram-like reactions, all patients applying cephalosporin antibacterial drugs should be routinely asked whether they have a history of drug allergy, alcohol allergy and recent history of alcohol consumption, and if they have a history of alcohol consumption within 7 d, cephalosporin should be prohibited; for patients applying cephalosporin antibiotics, they should be instructed to abstain from alcohol for no less than 7 d after stopping the drug.