Stop swallowing pills! These pills can also be chewed

Author: Huang Yanhong Duan Yuechu

In daily life, when we are sick and take medicine, the most common way is to swallow it directly, which is simple and convenient. But do you know? In fact, there are three ways to take oral medicine: swallowing, holding it in the mouth, and chewing it. For some medicines, chewing can make the medicine work better. Today, let's take a deeper look at the medicines that are suitable for chewing.

First of all, there is a category of digestive aids, such as lactobacillus tablets and yeast tablets. After chewing these drugs, they can be fully mixed with the saliva in the mouth to form a paste. When they enter the gastrointestinal tract, they can be quickly decomposed, thereby speeding up the speed at which the drugs take effect. Imagine that food in the gastrointestinal tract is like "cargo" to be processed, and digestive aids are "porters". Chewed drugs can start working faster and help us digest food better. Generally speaking, these digestive aids are most effective when taken half an hour before meals, so that they can prepare in advance for the upcoming food digestion.

Antacids are also an important type of drug suitable for chewing, such as compound aluminum hydroxide and aluminum carbonate magnesium chewable tablets. This type of drug has a heavier texture and contains more sticky substances. If swallowed directly, it is easy to form sticky lumps in the stomach, just like "making trouble" in the stomach, affecting the absorption of the drug. Chewing can disperse them into tiny particles. These small particles are like "little guards" that cover the mucosa of the digestive tract to form a protective film that can promote the healing of inflamed or ulcerated mucosa. It should be noted that you should not drink too much water when taking this type of drug, because water will dilute the drug solution, just like weakening the power of the "little guards", and may also wash away the protective film that has been formed with great difficulty, so the effect of the drug is greatly reduced. Usually chewing and taking it when stomach pain occurs can quickly relieve discomfort.

For some friends who need to supplement calcium, calcium carbonate chewable tablets, calcium gluconate chewable tablets and other calcium supplements must be familiar. If these drugs are swallowed directly, they will disintegrate slowly, which is not conducive to the absorption of calcium ions. Chewing can not only make calcium ions better absorbed, but also reduce the number of gastric peristalsis. Just like calcium ions are precious materials that need to enter the body's "treasure house", chewing opens up a smoother channel for them, allowing them to enter the body faster and more smoothly to play a role. When taking calcium supplements, you might as well chew each tablet for 5 minutes as much as possible, so that the drug can fully contact with the mouth and gastrointestinal tract, and the absorption effect is better.

There are also some hypoglycemic drugs, such as acarbose in α-glucosidase inhibitors, which mainly slow down the intestinal absorption of glucose to achieve the purpose of lowering patients' postprandial blood sugar. They need to be chewed at the same time as the first bite of food. Only in this way can they play a role in time when food enters the intestine, just like installing a "control valve" for the "gate" of intestinal glucose absorption, accurately controlling the absorption rate of glucose, thus achieving a good hypoglycemic effect.

In addition to the above-mentioned types of drugs that are clearly recommended to be chewed, there are some drugs whose names clearly indicate that they need to be chewed, such as Vitamin C chewable tablets and Montelukast sodium chewable tablets; some will be marked "chewed" in the "Usage and Dosage" of the instructions. Before taking the medicine, everyone must read the instructions carefully and do not ignore these important information just because you are used to swallowing.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that no matter what kind of chewable medicine you take, don't be lazy. Each pill should be chewed thoroughly so that the effect of the medicine can be maximized. Different medicines have different ways of taking them. Only by mastering the correct method can the medicine better protect our health. I hope everyone can learn more about medication knowledge, take medicine correctly when they are sick, and recover health as soon as possible.