Lying down, sitting, leaning over? What science says about the best way to take your medicine (45 deg. to the right seems best)

Medical Xpress / The Conversation / The Physics of Fluids ^ | August 18, 2022 | Elise Schubert, Nial Wheate and Tina Hinton / J.H. Lee et al

[ConservativeMind]

When pharmacists dispense tablets or capsules they commonly advise when and how often to take them, and if this needs to be with or without food.

You generally don't hear them tell you to lean to one side when swallowing. But preliminary research from Johns Hopkins University in the United States suggests this might improve how fast your medicine is absorbed and gets to work.

The results are based on a computer simulation, rather than in actual patients, and may not equate to the real world. So it's too early to suggest you strike a yoga pose when taking your medicine.

But your posture can be important when taking pills or capsules, for comfort or safety.

The US researchers used computer simulations to investigate how posture affects how drugs are absorbed.

The researchers used software they developed to simulate several ways of taking a pill: staying upright, leaning to the left or right, or leaning backwards.

They showed leaning 45 degrees to the right favored a faster movement of stomach contents into the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). This would allow the pill to be absorbed more quickly and start to take effect.

The results could be important for medicines that you'd want to act quickly, such as pain medicines, or ones used to treat a heart attack.

There is already some earlier evidence from real patients suggesting posture may influence how medicines are absorbed. This includes the option of leaning to the right. But the authors acknowledge many factors influence absorption, not just posture.

[ConservativeMind]

May be worth a try, as long as it doesn’t run counter to what your doctor suggests.

[ConservativeMind]

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[ProtectOurFreedom]

All this time I’ve been taking mine while doing handstands. I’ve been doing it wrong.

[NWFree]

This is ridiculous - most people who take meds on a regular basis are doing good to remember to take the darn things don’t screw with people

[moovova]

I generally take mine by mouth. Occasionally by needle. Every few decades...suppositorily.

[bigbob]

In some circles, taking your medicine involves bending over

[noiseman]

So “leaning right” is good for you? I think we already knew that.

[algore]

GIGO

[trebb]

I hear the idiots who came up with this studied drunks in bars and noticed the drunkest ones were generally listing to the right...😎

[tet68]

The important thing is that pills are solid, capsules are hollow.
Pills sink and capsules float.
Tilt your Head back for pills.
Lean forward for capsules.
Suppositories bend over...

[sauropod]

.

[cp124]

Bending over like everything else today.

[Sirius Lee]

I think the entire nation would be restored to health if it took its medicine and leaned to the right.

[Magic Fingers]

I don’t think most meds move into the intestine until they dissolve, so I wonder how long one would have to maintain the 45 degree posture for it to help?