How to take your Medicine
Most people dislike taking their medicine. The taste can be bad, we forget the time and then complain when we don’t get better. But what are the rules for taking your medicine?
1.You need to take the medicine at the same time everyday. This will help to ensure that your body has a constant level of whatever drug is required. If you have trouble swallowing the medicines, you need to use a swallowing gel to make the task easier. Make sure that you are not using aerated drinks or food items to help you take the medicine.
2. Do not crush the pills as a lot of them will have a special coating for a reason. For instance the coating might be designed to ensure that the pill stays together until it reaches your lower gut. Also some pills are designed to be slow release pills so crushing them would negate these plans.
3. Do not swallow with a hot drink. Hot drinks can make it harder to swallow your pills and sometimes the milk which you add to tea or coffee might prevent some of the medicine being absorbed. Best to take a glass of cold clear water.
4. Do not take an aspirin at the same time as an antacid. Because aspirin can damage the stomach wall it is covered with a special coating to ensure that the pill breaks up further down the gut. If you take antacid at the same time then the acidity of your stomach will be reduced and the aspirin will dissolve in the wrong place.
5. You need to check whether or not your medication should be taken on an empty stomach. Ibuprofen, for instance, increases the acidity of the stomach and can lead to bleeding or gastric irritation.
1. Ask your chemist to place the pills in a blister pack. Each blister is marked with morning, mid day or evening as well as the name of the day.
2. Build it into your routine. For instance take the pills after cleaning your teeth in the morning.
3. Write it down on a post it note and leave it somewhere noticeable like the refrigerator.
Additional note on aspirin: Acidity of aspirin. Long held up as adverse affect there have been various attempts to reduce the impact of aspirin on stomach acidity. the most common solution is to use enteric coated formulations which are often advertised as being “gentle on the stomach”. Another approach is to use “buffering”. This is supposed to prevent the aspirin concentrating on the walls of the stomach. A more recent approach has been to take aspirin with vitamin C.
