Tablets/pills/medication stating “swallow whole” – is this absolutely necessary? I can swallow capsules, caplets, and small round (i.e. antihistimine) tablets, but anything the size of a paracetemol tab and I can’t swallow them without breaking them up first (having choked a number of times).

As far as I can tell, it’s simply to delay or time release the drug once in the stomach – if it’s broken, and therefore a faster release, does this really make much difference?

I’m on antibiotics at the moment and just assuming that they will work regardless of whether I break them up or not.

some tablets are designed not to be released in the stomach but in the intestine where the drug isn’t broken down by acid and is more easily absorbed – breakign the capsules up reduces the effective dose.

Ask your doctor to prescribe a single dose of MTFU?

You need to follow the instructions. Not doing so can be either dangerous or mean the drug won’t work.

Capsules (generally) aren’t a problem – usually small and streamlined! But it’s the big round ones which don’t have a plasticky coating that I can’t deal with (or the massive ibuprofen for that matter).

Ask your doctor to prescribe a single dose of MTFU?

Ever been on your own and started choking on a pill or food? **** scary, and not something I want to repeat.

what are they – brand, strength etc (plus anything like MR/XL in the description) ?
sometimes it matters, often it doesn’t

hold your thumb within a clenched fist and you disable the gag reflex and therefore you won’t choke

Metronidazole, 400mg. Just checked the instructions and they do say “do not chew” 🙁 Back to the pharmacy I think…

hold your thumb within a clenched fist and you disable the gag reflex and therefore you won’t choke

But that takes 2 hands. How’s he going to put the pill in his mouth?

the thumb of the hand that’s making a fist, but then you knew that…..

Check with the pharmacist. some it matters a lot, some not much, some at all.

Most pills are available in a variety of forms, no?

Ask if you can get the suppository version, much easier to swallow

DO NOT TAKE ANY ALCOHOL while taking metronidazole. It will floor you.

Best to avoid mouthwashes that contain alcohol too – even rum truffles!

Give it at least 48 hours after your last dose before indulging too.

hold your thumb within a clenched fist and you disable the gag reflex and therefore you won’t choke

<snigger>

gawd I must be bored this morning.

Kev

Can’t you chew a mouthful of, I don’t know… Snickers, and then pop in the tab before you swallow?

metronidazole – well known for causing nausea & vomiting plus tates nasty (& often causes metallic taste disturbance even when swallowed whole or given iv/rectally. Hence “after food” etc.

standard tabs are “only” film-coated which will allow rapid dispersal in the stomach anyway and there’s no sustained release product (breaking would have minor effect on absorption rates that’s clinically unimportant). Metronidazole is not especially iritant to your oesophagus.

However, product licenses state “swallow whole” and so that’s the advice imparted – you’ll be lucky to get anyone to divert from that formally, especially as there’s a liquid (still tastes orrible but taken on empty stomach), ‘shovers and also smaller (200mg) tabs.

(for the above reasons, and because I don’t know anything about you, the above are observations and not recommendations 😉 )

Not trying to be harsh but it’s definitely a MTFU moment here, it’s all in the mind – just get on with it and stop building it up into an “oh I’m going to choke I can’t take large tablets help me please” moment.

Perfectly easy to swallow 6 or 7 such tablets in one go with a little bit of water.

I believe (I was told, may be wrong) that some tablets are harmful to the enamel on your teeth and so should not be chewed or broken down.

scaredypants – thanks, I’ll take your observations into consideration 🙂

Take it with some water or juice, it’ll go down no probs….

DrRSwank – Member
You need to follow the instructions. Not doing so can be either dangerous or mean the drug won’t work

Wot he said.

Try to pavlovian your head – get a chewy sweet and chew, then instead of swallowing the sweet (once you think it’s chewed enough) swallow the medication.

pop the pill in a spoon full of cold custard, bit of lubrication.

:picard: no one makes pills anymore, too slow to manufacture.

Not trying to be harsh but it’s definitely a MTFU moment here, it’s all in the mind – just get on with it and stop building it up into an “oh I’m going to choke I can’t take large tablets help me please” moment.

I agree with this somewhat. I used to gladly swallow a number of tablets in one no problem without water.

However I now have an issue where tablets and food can become stuck in my oesophagus. It’s not a choking issue because I can breathe fine. It’s to do with acid reflux damaging the lining of the food tube and IIRC affecting peristalsis, for which I have had treatment, but the problem still seems to happen with tablets.

It is extremely uncomfortable. I usually try to HTFU until it passes but sometimes the urge to vomit is uncontrollable. My record is about 20 minutes with a multi-vitamin until it decided to move again.

You don’t want to be chewing metronidazole – for no other reason than it’s the worst tasting of all pills I’ve ever taken!!

As has been said here – barring severe oesophageal disease (which from what you said, you may have an element of), if you can swallow ‘normal’ food without it getting stuck, you should be able to swallow tabs.
Jab the tab into a spoon of yoghurt, and ‘forget’ there’s a pill there…..

DrP

Same as i tell the mrs….close your eyes think of England and down it goes!!!

I used to have trouble with this – I found having a mouth full of water into which I’d drop the pill and then swallow the lot generally worked. Doing the usual pill first, then glug water routine usually resulted in me failing to swallow it. After about a decade of that working reliably I can now swallow most pills dry.

hold your thumb within a clenched fist and you disable the gag reflex and therefore you won’t choke

you learn something everyday 😀

Oggles are you/were you on Nexium?

Interesting about oesophagus damage. I do actually struggle sometimes with normal foods. I’m a pretty slow eater because I have to chew everything really carefully/completely. I’ve had stuff get stuff before, and I have problems if I eat too many chips/tatties – like it’s all backing up 🙁 I’m terrified of getting an endoscopy and I sometimes think about choking on stuff for no good reason so clearly a big fear for me!

Anyway, rang up NHS24 and the nurse I spoke to said there was no problem breaking it up before swallowing. And it doesn’t taste that bad (compared to Viagra, which, er, allegedly, is absolutely foul!).

Try chewing the pill which will taste like crap then swallowing with liquid should be easier worked for me anyway.

Same as i tell the mrs….close your eyes think of England and down it goes!!!

I wondered how long it would be before that one came up 😆

You have a phobia, take it with yogurt at a medical convention, you won’t die, probably.

Oggles are you/were you on Nexium?

Nope, I was on Zoton. Just checked on Wikipedia, it’s a different formulation but works the same way – proton pump inhibition.

Sorry couldn’t resist but lets be honest how many ppl looked at the post because of the header swallow whole do i have to? and thought of pills???

I’m glad the thread hasn’t descended into the usual smut (waits for TSY to turn up 😕 )

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5IW9wK_HNg[/video]