Sensitive gag reflex? These tricks can make swallowing pills easier

Gulp!

dry mouth or a hypersensitive gag reflex.

The throat condition, estimated to affect 10% to 15% of the population, causes people to gag easily when eating, swallowing pills, undergoing dental procedures or just laying eyes on certain triggering objects.

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If you have trouble taking pills and you’ve been prescribed one, check with your doctor to see if the medication is available in liquid form or if it can be crushed and mixed with applesauce or yogurt to make it go down easier.

For those with a hypersensitive gag reflex, Mount Sinai speech and language pathologist Leanne Goldberg has a special trick.

She recommends inhaling deeply and, while holding the breath, placing the pill in the middle of your tongue, taking a sip of a beverage and swallowing firmly.

There are other approaches to try as well. German researchers identified two ways to make swallowing pills easier — the pop-bottle method and the lean-forward technique.

Pop-bottle method

• Fill a soda bottle with water.
• Put the pill on your tongue and close your lips tightly around the bottle opening.
• Take a swig from the bottle, making sure to maintain contact between the bottle and your lips through a sucking motion.
• Swallow the water and pill without letting air into the bottle.

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Lean-forward technique

• Put the pill on your tongue.
• Take a medium sip of water but don’t swallow.
• Tilt your chin slightly toward your chest.
• Swallow the pill and water while your head is bent forward.

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Learning how to swallow pills is an important life skill that should be taught at a young age, three UK physicians wrote recently in the BMJ.

“Pills are safer, cheaper, and — with less packaging and wasted doses — are more environmentally sustainable than liquid preparations,” the study authors said.