If you are taking beta-blockers, your doctor would not recommend you to drink alcohol. Beta-blockers can make your blood pressure low by slowing down your heartbeat, as well as by decreasing the force of every beat. On the other hand, alcohol can also make your blood pressure low.
It could be life-threatening if these two occurs, especially that your blood pressure level will be at its lowest. This condition is called hypotension.
What Happens to Your Body When You Drink Alcohol While Taking Beta Blockers?
Drinking alcohol when taking beta-blockers can result in a sudden drop in your blood pressure. If this happens, you will experience dizziness, fainting, nausea, headache, rapid heart rate, lightheadedness, and inability to concentrate.
What Are Beta-blockers?
Beta-blockers are drugs that are used to slow down your heartbeat and pump it with lesser force. If this happens, your heart no longer needs to exert more effort, making it more efficient, thereby lowering your blood pressure.
Your blood vessels tend to be relaxed if you take beta-blockers. If your blood is being pumped efficiently into these blood vessels, your heart works well even if it is affected by a certain health condition.
Aside from high blood pressure, beta-blockers can treat various heart problems such as chest pain, irregular heart rate, congestive heart failure, and heart attacks. Other conditions, including migraine, tremors, anxiety, overactive thyroid, and glaucoma, are also treated with beta-blockers.
Effects of Alcohol When Taking Beta-Blockers
Drinking alcohol can have detrimental effects on your health. If you drink excessive alcohol, you might experience an irregular heart rate, usually called cardiomyopathy. If you use beta-blockers to treat migraines, drinking alcohol can reverse its effects such that it triggers such to happen.
If alcohol is consumed in moderation, it might help crucial tremors. But too much alcohol can make tremors severe, and these are a usual part of alcohol withdrawal. Furthermore, even if these drugs can be used to treat anxiety, drinking alcohol can worsen your condition. And if you have glaucoma, drinking alcohol can cause pressure in your eyes, which also worsens your condition.
If you drink excessive alcohol, you will also experience the following:
- Your norepinephrine levels will increase
- Your heart rate will elevate
- Your heart increasingly pumps out blood
Can I Drink Alcohol While Taking Beta-blockers?
Too much is not okay. That is why there are cases when you are allowed to drink alcohol even if you are taking beta-blockers, given that it is consumed in moderation. Alcohol may have good effects on certain conditions such as for Grave’s disease.
Grave’s disease is the usual type of hyperthyroidism. This autoimmune problem causes your thyroid gland to yield excess hormones. Alcohol can also help in protecting you from various heart diseases. It can also improve alcohol withdrawal symptoms. But then, drinking alcohol is still not a remedy, and it should not serve as a medication for health problems.
Beta-blockers, Other Medications, and Alcohol
If you take other medications aside from beta-blockers, and if you drink alcohol, your risk of very low blood pressure is greater. These are the two classes of drugs which can lower your blood pressure:
Alpha-blockers
These drugs block the effects of norepinephrine, which causes vasodilation, meaning the dilation of the blood vessels, which lowers your blood pressure. Alpha-blockers such as doxazosin, prazosin, and terazosin can treat benign prostatic hypertrophy.
Calcium channel blockers
These drugs, such as amlodipine, diltiazem, nifedipine, and verapamil, cause vasodilation because calcium is being blocked from entering cells found in your blood vessels.
You need to seek immediate medical attention if you experience the following:
- Faint
- Dizziness
- Very fast heart rate
Dosage to Combine Beta-blockers and Alcohol
Some beta-blockers can quickly metabolize. If there is a long lapse between taking beta-blockers and drinking alcohol, chances of overlap are low. If you are taking a low dosage of beta-blockers, such that if these drugs are prescribed for anxiety, these will most likely leave your system quickly and the risk of side effects is low.
Since beta-blockers, such as propranolol, can be metabolized by your body quickly, you are often required to take it twice a day. If you drink while taking these drugs, the propranolol levels in your blood will be increased.
If you just cannot quit drinking, you can ask your doctor to give you an alternative for propranolol, such as nadolol. These drugs are usually taken once a day. And this might lessen the side effect of alcohol even if you combine this with this kind of beta-blocker.
Moreover, a glass of wine has been generally defined as 1.5 ounces of 80 proof liquor, 12 ounce of beer, and 5 ounces of wine. According to experts, alcohol can be healthy for your heart if you drink it with moderation. Moderation may be two alcoholic drinks a day for men and one alcoholic drink a day for women.
If you drink more than what is prescribed, it can be unhealthy and detrimental to your heart. That is the reason why before you should consume alcoholic drinks, you need to take note of the prescribed dosage as not to hinder the purpose of the beta-blockers.
Conclusion
Drinking alcohol is not advisable if you are taking beta-blockers. Combining the two can worsen your condition, and you will experience dizziness, fainting, nausea, headache, rapid heart rate, lightheadedness, and inability to concentrate. Although drinking alcohol may sometimes have positive effects on your health, especially your heart, it is best to seek advice from your doctor first.
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