Medications You Should Never Mix With Alcohol

But in people who drink heavily, there can be a rebound effect in which the bleeding risk increases, even after they’ve stopped drinking. Exceeding the recommended guidelines above is considered heavy drinking. However, even medications that don’t require a prescription can be unsafe when mixed with alcohol.

The process of blood clotting is very complex, with multiple chains of chemical reactions called the “clotting cascade” that must occur to develop a blood clot. Blood thinners slow parts of this process, making blood clots form more slowly. This helps prevent blood clots from lodging in the heart, causing a heart attack; in the brain, causing a stroke; or in the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism. If you’re taking any medication, it’s wise to be careful about alcohol consumption.

Moderate Alcohol Consumption and Heart Health

If you mix any type of anti-nausea drug with alcohol, the side effects of the medication can become more intense. Drinking even a small amount of alcohol while taking an antibiotic called Flagyl can cause a severe reaction, making you extremely sick with nausea and vomiting. You will want to avoid alcohol for three days before you start and after you stop Flagyl. Mixing anti-anxiety and epilepsy medications with alcoholic beverages can cause slowed breathing, impaired motor control, abnormal behavior, and memory loss. Harmful physical effects such as seizures may occur in some cases.

Additionally, if you have an underlying is alcohol a blood thinner condition like heart disease or high blood pressure , mixing alcohol with your medications can put you at risk for complications. However, it’s worth noting that thinning the blood may increase your risk of a different kind of stroke called a hemorrhagic stroke. Blood vessel blockages can also form because of high-cholesterol diets. For some people, the effects of alcohol on the blood clotting process may be more pronounced and may last longer than others.

What is considered as heavy drinking?

If you have thin blood, you may hemorrhage more blood before it’s able to clot. In cases where alcohol or blood thinners are used in excess, ruptures can cause a stroke because not enough blood makes it to the brain. In fact, a BMC study found that the anticoagulant effects of moderate alcohol use could reduce your risk of ischemic stroke. When it comes to the health of your blood vessels, have a conversation with your doctor. But having more than three alcoholic drinks daily could increase your risk for a type of stroke caused by bleeding in the brain . But sometimes, a blood clot can form in — or travel to — an artery that supplies your heart or brain with oxygen-rich blood. Alcohol can thin your blood, because it prevents blood cells from sticking together and forming clots.

Alcohol consumption may decrease the amount of fibrinogen in the blood. The liver produces this protein, which plays an important role in controlling blood flow and promoting blood clotting.

Does Alcohol Thin Your Blood? Know The Risks

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Having an alcoholic drink while you are taking medications to treat prostate conditions can cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and fainting.

• Some drugs used to prevent and treat motion sickness can also be purchased over-the-counter.
• It can also make it more difficult for the body to form a blood clot.
• Your body is able to store water, sugars, and fats, and everything else is processed out.
• It was concluded that caffeine has the capacity to inhibit the metabolism of warfarin and enhance its plasma concentration and hence anticoagulant effects.
• If your brain starts to bleed and your blood has been thinned by too much alcohol, it may not be able to clot before you lose too much blood and hemorrhage.

The effects of Xarelto can be affected by alcohol, and those taking the medication should limit the amount of alcohol used. While some alcohol may be safe, specific situations should be discussed with a doctor. This can help them determine if something is causing an interaction that could lead to serious bleeding. The heart benefits and reduction of the rate of coronary heart disease from alcohol are thought to impact men who are over 40 and women who are post-menopausal most often. The British Heart Foundation publishes that while post-menopausal women who drank alcohol did seem to have a lower rate of CHD, they also had a higher rate of breast cancer. Alcohol can thin your blood or enhance the effects of blood thinners.

It’s probably wise to avoid alcohol with warfarin until approved by your doctor. If you chronically drink alcohol or have active liver disease, let your prescriber know. You should limit your alcohol intake if you are taking blood thinners. One drink on occasion is not likely to cause problems, but moderate to heavy drinking with anticoagulant medications is dangerous.

• Combining these drugs with alcohol can make the risks and side effects worse, especially if you have liver disease.
• For some people, the effects of alcohol on the blood clotting process may be more pronounced and may last longer than others.
• It can make Coumadin more active and increase the risk of bleeding.
• This is why some researchers suggest that the occasional drink can actually lower your risk of ischemic strokes or strokes caused by blocked blood vessels.
• Other drugs that act as blood thinners include warfarin and aspirin.
• There are safer and more reliable ways to manage high blood pressure than regular drinking.