Levofloxacin Interaction with Food, Herbs, Alcohol & Caffeine

23 Oct Levofloxacin Interaction with Food, Herbs, Alcohol & Caffeine

Disulfiram-like reaction which may include abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, headaches, flushing, sweating, fast heart rate or more severe reactions. Excessive alcohol use is well-known to cause liver damage like cirrhosis. Taking antibiotics that can also damage the liver may worsen these types of problems. If you need to avoid alcohol, check all of your food and medicine labels to be sure they don’t contain alcohol. There are several antibiotics that people should not mix alcohol with. Not only can they interfere with the way the antibiotics work, but they can also cause a number of harmful side effects.

Avoid Taking Levaquin and Supplements

This can include some over the counter medications such as ibuprofen. Alcohol may also make it harder for your body to absorb Levaquin. If your body does not absorb enough of the antibiotic, you will have a harder time fighting off the infection. To our knowledge, there are no data available on the PK/PD or efficacy of pyrazinamide. To our knowledge, there are no data available on the PK/PD or efficacy of ethionamide.

Should I avoid anything else while taking doxycycline?

It is important to tell your doctor about all the medications you use, including over-the-counter drugs, vitamins and herbs. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if your antibiotic has an interaction with any liver enzymes. It’s important to know if there are concerns about how effective the antibiotic might be for your infection based on any drug interactions, including alcohol.

Levaquin (Levofloxacin) and Alcohol

You should refer to the prescribing information for levofloxacin for a complete list of interactions. Mixing doxycycline and alcohol won’t cause any serious health issues. But drinking enough alcohol to get to the point of feeling drunk can affect your recovery. Doxycycline is an antibiotic that’s used to treat 9 common myths about substance addiction all you need to know a variety of bacterial infections, including respiratory and skin infections. It’s also used to prevent malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that’s caused by a parasite. An occasional drink or two while taking doxycycline is usually fine, but people who drink heavily may want to choose a different antibiotic.

Will alcohol cancel out antibiotics?

While attending Muhlenberg College for her Bachelor of the Arts, she was selected to present several academic papers in national conferences. These days, Jenna writes mainly about home decor, what are whippits and how can they be abused lifestyles, crafts, food, and fitness on her blog, SensationallySeasonal.com. Similar to supplements, Levaquin has the potential to negatively interact with a number of different medications.

More about Levaquin (levofloxacin)

People who regularly drink alcohol may have lower levels of folic acid and should use trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole with caution. Linezolid belongs to the oxazolidinone class of antibiotics. Doctors use oxazolidinones to treat abdominal, skin, lung, and urinary tract infections.

1. Avoiding alcohol will likely help you get over your infection more quickly anyway.
2. Levofloxacin may cause some people to become dizzy, lightheaded, drowsy, or less alert than they are normally.
3. Symptoms may include facial flushing, nausea, headache, vomiting, chest pain, vertigo, sweating, thirst, blurred vision, weakness, confusion, and hypotension (8).
4. When alcohol is combined with antibiotics that also have a CNS depressant effect, additive effects may occur.

Combination with alcohol may increase risk for additive sedation, drowsiness, dizziness, confusion and trouble concentrating. Metronidazole is a nitroimidazole antibiotic that doctors prescribe to treat abdominal infections, sexually transmitted infections, and other anaerobic bacteria-related infections. In rare cases, people may experience seizures with fluoroquinolone treatment. In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published updated safety warnings on all fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Before you have any medical tests, tell the medical doctor in charge that you are using this medicine.

The evidence behind these beliefs is poor and controversial (Tables 2 to ​to4).4). The purpose of this review was to present the available literature on clinically significant interactions between oral antibiotics and alcohol to help guide prescribing and patient education in this area. Many prescription bottles come labeled with a sticker that warns against alcohol use with the antimicrobial (1). Understanding the evidence behind this warning is important, given the commonality of prescribing and the diverse classes and various properties of antimicrobials (2). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that approximately 270 million antibiotics were prescribed for outpatients in 2016 (3). In its report on harmful interactions with alcohol, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) listed nitrofurantoin, metronidazole, griseofulvin, ketoconazole, isoniazid, cycloserine, and azithromycin (4).

The National Consumers League and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have also warned consumers to avoid alcohol with linezolid, metronidazole, griseofulvin, and antimycobacterials (5). Alcohol warnings between pharmacy chains also differ, potentially leading to confusion for both patients and providers (Table 1). A surveillance study of 13,838 patients on isoniazid by 21 health departments found that consuming at least one drink daily appeared to increase the risk of developing hepatitis (105). Probable isoniazid-induced hepatitis was twice as common in alcoholics than in nondrinkers and four times more likely if they consumed alcohol daily (105). Conversely, a smaller retrospective study of patients on isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide found that alcohol intake did not significantly impact hepatotoxicity (103). The package labeling recommends against the use of metronidazole and alcohol within 48 h due to the risk of a disulfiram-like reaction (46).

A more recent rat study found that metronidazole and alcohol increased intracolonic acetaldehyde levels, without altering blood levels (70). Alcohol and acetaldehyde levels were measured every 20 min over a 4-h period. LevoFLOXacin and multivitamin with minerals should not be taken orally at the same time. Products that contain magnesium, aluminum, calcium, iron, and/or other minerals may interfere with the absorption of levoFLOXacin into the bloodstream and reduce its effectiveness. If possible, it may be best to avoid taking multivitamin with minerals while you are being treated with levoFLOXacin.

Two authors observed higher rates of side effects in patients treated with metronidazole than with placebo (64, 65). Other authors described different degrees of reactions attributed to a disulfiram-like effect within the alcohol and anxiety study populations (50, 58, 60, 62, 66). Ethionamide package labeling recommends against excessive alcohol consumption (113). Ethionamide, often used in combination with pyrazinamide, is known to cause hepatotoxicity (113).