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Short answer Drinking alcohol while taking Amiloride and Hydrochlorothiazide: what to do Common questions Related questions Sources**An occasional drink is usually acceptable with amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide, but alcohol makes the lightheadedness, dehydration, and blood pressure drops from this combination more likely.**
Hydrochlorothiazide moves salt and water out through your kidneys, and alcohol does something similar while also relaxing your blood vessels, so the two together can leave you dizzy when you stand up. The size of that effect depends on how much you drink at once, how hot the day is, whether you have eaten, and what other blood pressure medicines you take. Heavy or binge drinking is the real problem, because it shifts sodium and potassium levels that this pill combination is already adjusting, and amiloride holds potassium in rather than letting it go. Drinking with food, keeping to light amounts, spacing drinks with water, and standing up slowly cover most of the risk. Talk with your clinician before drinking at all if you have liver disease, low sodium, heart failure, or a history of fainting.
Drinking alcohol while taking Amiloride and Hydrochlorothiazide: what to do
Common questions
Can you drink alcohol while taking Amiloride and Hydrochlorothiazide?
Alcohol is not forbidden with amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide, but it stacks onto the same effects. Both the medicine and the drink lower blood pressure and pull fluid out through the kidneys, so even a drink or two can leave you lightheaded when you stand, and can add to dehydration and leg cramps. Heavy or binge drinking also disturbs sodium and potassium, which this combination already shifts. If you drink, keep it light, have it with food and a glass of water, skip alcohol on hot days or after hard exercise, and rise slowly from bed or a chair. Call your clinician about fainting, confusion, muscle weakness, or an irregular heartbeat.