What are the effects of taking Chinese medicine and drinking alcohol?

Drinking alcohol while taking Chinese medicine is actually prohibited, because alcohol will produce metabolic changes in the medicinal properties of the medicine, which will not only eliminate the medicinal properties but may also cause fatal harm to the body. Therefore, friends who take Chinese medicine should never drink alcohol. In addition to traditional Chinese medicine, you cannot drink alcohol when taking Western medicine, so friends must pay attention.

Not only Chinese medicine, but also western medicine is prohibited while taking alcohol. After alcohol enters the human body, it is metabolized and detoxified by the liver. Similarly, most drugs are metabolized in the liver before entering the body's circulation. Drinking alcohol while taking medication will cause changes in the number, type and activity of drug enzymes in the liver, thereby inducing changes in drug metabolism.

What vegetables can't you eat when taking Chinese medicine?

1. It is not advisable to eat radish when taking traditional Chinese medicine (except for taking medicine for regulating qi and resolving phlegm), because radish has the effects of digesting food and breaking up qi. Especially when taking tonic Chinese medicine such as ginseng, eating radish will reduce the effect of the tonic and make it lose its tonic effect and fail to achieve the therapeutic purpose.

2. Patients with digestive tract diseases such as hepatitis and chronic gastroenteritis should avoid taking garlic when taking spleen-strengthening, stomach-warming and stomach-regulating medicines. Garlic contains allicin, which can stimulate the gastrointestinal mucosa and cause congestion of the mucosa. The Chinese medicine they take will not be able to effectively play its therapeutic role.

3. You cannot eat chili peppers when taking Chinese medicine, especially when you have a fever. It is even more inappropriate to eat chili peppers when taking medicines that clear heat and cool blood or nourish yin and reduce inflammation. Chili peppers can reduce the efficacy of the medicine, making the treatment ineffective or weakening the efficacy.

Note: Severe cases may produce toxic metabolites that may cause organ failure and endanger life. If you must drink alcohol under special circumstances during medication (some Chinese medicines are decocted and taken with wine, which are not included), you must drink at least 4 to 6 hours after the medicine passes through the upper digestive tract, and the amount of alcohol you drink must be controlled. Try not to drink alcohol while taking the medicine.

Patients who take antibiotics after drinking alcohol may experience a disulfiram-like reaction

It is understood that cephalosporin antibiotics contain methylthiotetrazolium groups, which are hydrolyzed into methyltetrazolium thiol in neutral solution, and then methyltetrazolium thiol rearranges in a thione form to form molecules similar to the molecular structure of disulfiram, which can compete with the coenzyme for the active center of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and prevent further oxidation of acetaldehyde. It will eventually cause acetaldehyde accumulation, leading to facial flushing, headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, chest tightness, shortness of breath, irritability, hypotension, palpitations, and a sense of impending death. In severe cases, a series of clinical symptoms that can lead to death will occur, including difficulty breathing, confusion, blurred vision, unsteady gait, delirium, impaired consciousness, syncope, shock, etc. The degree and duration of the symptoms vary from individual to individual.