Taking your daily medications may make you feel uneasy especially if you don’t like taking pills a lot. There are certain tablets that come in bigger sizes and might get stuck in your throat. Most often than not, swallowing pills happen to be the common concern to both adult and children.
However, it might be a simple problem for all ages, but it is good to know that there are tips and trick that one must follow to make swallowing a lot easier. While most people find this routine complicated, swallowing a pill can also be a lot simple and less complicated.
The problem with the medication only happens when a person is instructed to swallow about 50 tablets all at once. With this process, our body has certain muscles which are working together to move the pill from the mouth down to the stomach. The only thing that you need to learn is on how you’re going to do it easily.
Here are some of the highly-suggested ways to swallow a pill effectively.
1. Make Sure to Drink Plenty of Water
This is basically one of the tricks that you shouldn’t forget when taking loads of tablets for medications. It is the number one tip that doctors have been teaching their patients every now and then. When swallowing something, it is important to make sure those foods and or medications are moist enough before it gets down to the stomach.
It has been advised for a person to drink plenty of water prior to swallowing pills. It is one of the first things that need to be done in order to lubricate the throat; thus, when tablets pass through, it won’t hurt anymore. Secondly, pills must be swallowed with the aid of water.
Drinking lots of water will help you make sure that what you’ve swallowed will go directly down to your stomach. Doing this procedure is very important especially for the elderly as saliva production is getting limited on the old age.
2. Follow the German Bottle Method
This is another trick to follow to make pill swallowing a lot easier. Over the years, the bottle method has been remarkably effective and has been practiced by the German people. According to research, whenever having trouble taking your medications, this simple trick is really a must do.
In the recent study conducted in Germany, this bottle method has helped lots of people in taking their pills. All you need to do is to fill in a good plastic bottle with water, place the tablet in your mouth while locking it tightly through the bottle.
Through the sucking method, take a sip from the water inside the plastic bottle. By doing so, swallowing your pills will be easier and it will go down directly to your stomach!
3. Try Using a Lubricant
There is another option that you can follow and that is with the use of lubricants. This product has been made available in the market today to help people who are having troubles in taking their medications. All you need to do is to spray the lubricant to your mouth to make pills go down easier after swallowing.
This has been one of the most notable techniques that you can also opt to follow if you think drinking water will not work best for you.
4. Follow the Lean Forward Method
When it comes to an effective trick to swallowing a pill, make sure to consider lean forward method as one of your options. According to the studies conducted by Germans, this method is very effective especially when you are taking capsulated medications.
All you need to do is to place the pill on your tongue, sip a good amount of water before you swallow down your medicine, and eventually, raise your chin a little bit forward. After doing the procedure, swallow the capsule with water while having your head being bent forward.
5. Swallow your Pill together with Soft Foods
Apart from drinking plenty of water and making use of lubricants, pill swallowing can also be done easily if you swallow it together with your soft foods. There are certain food choices to consider just like fruits where you can chew a few of your foods and place the pill together inside your mouth.
By doing so, your pill will go down a lot easier without hurting your throat. However, you also need to be careful when swallowing your pill since some other medications are designed to dissolve slowly within a particular period of time to ensure its positive effects.
6. Practice Different Head Positions
Whenever having problems with pill swallowing, this problem can also be dealt with through practicing several head postures. There had been studies which pointed out that the difficulty in swallowing certain tablets may be due to the head position.
Perhaps, the best thing that a person can do is to look for different head positions as it may directly affect a person’s swallowing dynamics. There are varied head positions to choose from just like lifting your head in order to make it easier for you to swallow the pills. You can practice some of these postures and see the changes for yourself.
7. Seek for the Doctor’s Advice
When all these tips are really not working for you, especially for children, the very best thing that you can do is to seek your doctor’s advice. There are certain instances where a person finds it hard to swallow a pill due to underlying problems like acid reflux.
By visiting your doctor, he or she will know what other things that you need to do in order to address your concern with your medications.
Some medicines come in chewable and liquid form. Thus, learning the tips in swallowing pills is important to continue taking your medication more effectively. May you find the above-mentioned tips and tricks helpful as you get away in trouble with your daily pill medication!
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