Suffering from alcoholism is a terrible and dreaded disease. While you may attend meetings and work tirelessly to defeat the disease there is no doubt that occasionally you need more than just a wish and a prayer. Thanks to the wonderful advancements in the world of modern medicine it can be much easier to deal with the alcohol abuse through a wonderful medication called Antabuse.
Antabuse, also known by its chemical name as disulfiram, is one of the smartest and most advanced drugs on the market. The way alcohol works is when you drink alcohol is broken down by your liver which is converted ultimately into acetic acid. So the way antabuse works with the abuse of alcohol is the amount of acetaldehyde is about 10 times higher in the body than if you had consumed the same amount of alcohol and yet hadn’t been on antabuse.
So what does this increased level of acetaldehyde due to you? Produces a dreaded hangover. So let’s say you are on antabuse and you down a beer to get your night started, within a few minutes you will start to experience some severe hangover symptoms and they will last anywhere from several minutes to several hours.
What symptoms do you experience? Your skin might flush, there will be nausea, vomiting, terrible headache, confusion, shortness of breath, and perhaps even fainting or collapse. In short it is the worst hangover you can imagine for the least amount of alcohol you have ever drank. Here is where antabuse works in the longterm: your body cannot build an immunity to it. Some medicines are taken but then you can grow a tolerance with it. However the longer you take Antabuse the worse the effects get for you if you consume alcohol.
While the hangover itself is a side effect, the true side effect of Antabuse is a shortness of breath and a tingling in the lower legs. But there is no doubt that if Antabuse is committed to by the patient it can help keep you clean and sober for many years to come.
