Each week, OMRF Vice President of Research Dr. Rod McEver opens “Adam’s Journal” to answer a medical question from Adam Cohen, OMRF’s senior vice president & general counsel.
Adam’s journal
I read there may be a ‘right’ way to swallow a pill, or at least a more efficient method. Is that true?
Dr. McEver prescribes
You probably aren’t thinking about your posture when you take medication. But a recent study found that the position of your body may significantly affect how quickly your body absorbs pills.
When you swallow a pill, it travels through the stomach and small intestine into the liver, which breaks it down and releases the medication into the bloodstream. The faster the drug reaches the bottom of the stomach, where gastric juices dissolve it, the faster the body can absorb it.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University used a computer simulation of the human stomach to mimic what happens as we digest medicine. They studied four positions: standing upright, leaning back, and leaning to the right and left sides.
The scientists found swallowing a pill while leaning right was best, resulting in a simulated pill reaching the deepest part of the stomach and dissolving in about 10 minutes, more than twice as fast as in an upright position. Leaning left was the worst, taking more than an hour and a half to dissolve in their model.
The study does not mean we should all start tilting to a 45-degree angle when taking a pain reliever. Some medications have instructions to remain upright after ingesting them. And a computer model can’t consider the contents of your stomach, full of whatever food and liquid you’ve recently consumed, which impacts digestion. Nevertheless, the findings could someday help speed medication delivery to people who are bedridden or have a disability that prevents them from standing upright.
Whatever position you take, when you’re swallowing pills, do so with water. Research has shown that milk, caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea and soda, certain fruit juices, and alcohol can impact how much of a drug your body absorbs. And if you swallow pills with saliva only, reconsider the practice; it increases the chances of a pill getting stuck in your esophagus.
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Do you have a health query for Dr. McEver? Email contact@omrf.org and your question may be answered in a future column!
