It is said that “after drinking do not take medicine, take medicine do not drink”, but often people do not take it seriously. Strictly speaking, as long as you have taken medicine, it is no longer appropriate to drink alcohol. Regardless of whether it is wine beer or liquor, as long as you take the medicine, it is not appropriate to drink within one to two days of stopping the medicine. There are several types of drugs that are particularly deadly to alcohol, and taking these types of drugs and then drinking alcohol can cause a series of medical discomfort called disulfiram reactions, which can be life-threatening. What is a disulfiram reaction A reaction caused by taking a drug and then drinking alcohol is called a disulfiram reaction. Disulfiram itself is a drug for alcohol withdrawal. When combined with ethanol, disulfiram can inhibit the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the liver, which prevents the oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde in the body, leading to a series of reactions caused by the accumulation of acetaldehyde in the body. Many drugs have similar effects to disulfiram. If alcohol is consumed after the drug, facial flushing, conjunctival congestion, blurred vision, violent pulsation of the blood vessels in the head and neck or pulsating headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, sweating, dry mouth, chest pain, myocardial infarction, acute heart failure, inspiration difficulties, acute liver injury, convulsions and death will occur. The first category: cephalosporin antibiotics including cefoperazone, cefoperazone sulbactam, ceftriaxone, cefazolin (Pioneer V), cefaladin (Pioneer VI), cefmetazole, cefminox, laxative cephalosporin, cefmenoxime, cefamandole, cefadroxil (Pioneer IV), cefaclor, etc.), dysentery, chloramphenicol, furantoin, metronidazole, etc. Cephalosporins + wine = poison After taking cephalosporins or taking anti-inflammatory injections of cephalosporins, and then drinking alcohol, there will be a “disulfiram-like reaction”! So what exactly is it? It is also known as withdrawal sulfur-like reaction, mainly due to the consumption of alcohol after taking oral cephalosporins, resulting in the accumulation of acetaldehyde in the body to produce a toxic reaction. The main manifestations are chest tightness, shortness of breath, laryngeal edema, cyanosis of the lips and mouth, inhalation difficulties, increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, hallucinations, trance, and even anaphylactic shock. In addition, the severity of disulfiram-like reactions is directly proportional to the dose of applied drugs and the amount of alcohol consumed. Drinking liquor is more severe than beer and alcoholic beverages, and drinking alcohol during the drug administration is more severe than drinking alcohol after stopping the drug. People who already have underlying cardiovascular disease may be so severe as to cause whistling depression, heart failure or even death. So, how long is it safe to drink alcohol and take medication? A survey analysis shows that: people within 5 days after drinking alcohol, eating cephalosporin antibiotics may occur disulfiram-like reactions. After 6 days of drinking, it is safe to take the medicine again. The second category: sedative-hypnotic drugs Ambien + alcohol = a human life such as phenobarbital, chloral hydrate, Valium, Librium these brain inhibitors, under the action of ethanol, will be accelerated by the body to absorb, but also slow down its metabolic rate, so that the concentration of drug components in the blood in a short period of time rapidly increased. After drinking alcohol, alcohol excites and then inhibits the central nervous system of the brain. Together with these brain depressants, the normal activities of the central nervous system are severely inhibited, which can lead to coma, shock, whistle failure and death. It is said that the comedian Chaplin died from taking sleeping pills after drinking. The combination of sleeping pills (Xanax or Ambien) with alcohol can have dangerous consequences because alcohol can aggravate the sedative effect of sleeping pills and have an inhibitory effect on brain activity, causing severe sleepiness and dizziness. It also increases the risk of falls, injuries and car accidents if the person taking it is in an active state. Drinking large amounts of alcohol while taking sleeping pills can lower blood pressure to extremely low levels and cause difficulty in breathing. The third category: antipyretic analgesics Painkillers + alcohol = gastrointestinal bleeding Such as aspirin, paracetamol, etc.. These drugs themselves have an irritating and damaging effect on the gastric mucosa, and alcohol also hurts the stomach, both of which can lead to gastritis, gastric ulcers, gastric bleeding, etc. The fourth category: blood pressure medicine, anti-cancer agents, “isoniazid” (anti-tuberculosis drugs) and other drugs antihypertensive drugs + wine = hypotensive shock There are many kinds of wine, if you take such drugs after drinking wine, it is easy to accident. For those taking antihypertensive drugs, including lisdexamfetamine, captopril, and nifedipine, drinking wine may cause vasodilation, hypotension, and even shock, which can be life-threatening. This is because wine contains tyramine, which, if accumulated in large quantities, can cause significant damage to the body, resulting in dizziness and headache, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, cardiac arrhythmia, increased blood pressure, and even cerebral hemorrhage. When drinking normally, the tyramine can be destroyed by the body naturally, but if you take such drugs, the body can not successfully destroy the tyramine, it is inevitably easy to accident, the consequences are quite serious. The fifth category: glucose-lowering drugs glucose-lowering drugs + wine = hypoglycemic shock Diabetics should also pay extra attention to the injection of insulin or oral hypoglycemic drugs, drinking alcohol on an empty stomach, then prone to hypoglycemic reaction. Alcohol will stimulate insulin secretion, and if the patient has just finished taking hypoglycemic drugs, blood sugar has dropped to the standard value, then alcohol will increase insulin secretion, which will inevitably cause hypoglycemia. Especially if you drink alcohol after taking gliphenylurea or insulin injection, the chances of hypoglycemia are higher. In addition, glucose-lowering drugs like metformin may have a rare but very serious side effect when mixed with alcohol – it increases the risk of lactic acidosis, where lactic acid builds up in the blood, causing symptoms such as nausea and weakness. Further, while chronic alcohol use causes liver damage, it also increases the probability of ketosis. This is because alcohol counteracts the body’s insulin and inhibits the liver’s sugar metabolism. Therefore, if a diabetic patient drinks a lot of alcohol, there is a risk of inducing ketosis. It is important to be alert to the fact that such hypoglycemic symptoms manifest as panic, sweating, fatigue, and even irritability, confusion, and multilingualism. These symptoms are often masked by the intoxication response and are not easily distinguished from intoxication. This results in patients often being oblivious to severe and persistent hypoglycemia even when it occurs, and eventually hypoglycemic shock occurs. If left untreated, it may lead to irreversible damage to brain tissue and even cause death. Category 6: Antidepressants Antidepressants + alcohol = aggravation and increased blood pressure Both antidepressants and alcohol consumption slow down the rhythm of the central nervous system, affecting the brain’s function and thinking ability and weakening alertness. The combination of the two can make people feel sleepy, reduce their judgment, physical coordination and reaction time, and can even lead to worsening symptoms of depression. For depressed patients taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors, alcohol can also interact with these drugs to raise blood pressure, which can be dangerous, so doctors may recommend that such patients avoid alcohol altogether. For depressed patients taking selective 5-hydroxytryptamine reuptake inhibitors (such as sertraline, Prozac and paroxetine), although there is insufficient evidence that the drugs react adversely with alcohol, it is advisable to avoid alcohol because it can make patients dizzy, drowsy and inattentive. Category 7: Drugs for arthritis Drugs for arthritis + alcohol = stomach ulcers, liver damage, such as Cilpro, Naproxen, Fotarol, etc. These drugs can cause ulcers, stomach bleeding, liver damage and other side effects when taken in combination with alcohol. When taking Cilpro, you should not drink alcohol, especially since the drugs already cause a higher risk of cardiovascular side effects, such as heart attack and stroke, and alcohol increases this risk. Life is good, and while we enjoy it, we should never joke with our lives and health and make such life bets with ourselves.