Alcohol can enhance the effects of some drugs – according to Swedish research reported by Molecular Pharmaceutics. ”In the case of at least several dozen pharmaceuticals, this effect may even be threefold!
Alcohol in combination with medications is dangerous to health, incl. due to the risk of liver damage or gastrointestinal bleeding. The latest Swedish research indicates that it may also be related to the fact that it intensifies the effects of some medications.
A group of researchers led by Dr. Christel Bergström has shown that alcoholic beverages or pure ethanol can multiply the potency of drugs – both prescription and generally available. Alcohol affects the way they react with enzymes produced in the body.
There are about 5 available on the market. such. drugs. Some of them under normal conditions do not dissolve in the digestive tract – especially in the stomach and intestines. Swedish researchers decided to check whether ethanol changes this state of affairs. It is known that a drug that dissolves easily works faster. A positive answer to this question would prove that in combination with alcohol, the effect of some drugs may be stronger.
To verify their assumptions, specialists used a simulated environment of the small intestine in which they compared the dissolution times of selected drugs in the presence of alcohol and without it.
It turned out that almost 60 percent. of the 22 drugs tested dissolved much faster when alcohol was present. In addition, the researchers found that for some pharmaceuticals – the ones that are acidic – the dissolution rate varies greatly, and so the enhancing effect of alcohol is much stronger.
Such substances include, for example: warfarin (used as an anticoagulant), tamoxifen (used to treat certain forms of cancer, e.g. breast cancer) and naproxen (a medicine with analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties). (PAP)
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