Trouble swallowing vitamins?

Question

Anyone suggest another method to get large vitamins down? Can I crush them and put them on food? Any suggestions?

Answer 1

There are several things you can try. Do not ever cut or crush a pill without carefully reading the bottle. Many medications cannot be cut or crushed since it affects their potency or how they are absorbed. Some vitamins and medications are also coated to prevent stomach distress...if you crush or cut them in half, the coating is destroyed so you may end up with stomach distress. Here are some methods you can try:

1. If the vitamin can't be altered, put it as far back on your tongue as you can, take a large sip of a beverage, tilt your head/chin down to your chest and swallow.
2. Take a sip of water but don't swallow, add the pill to your mouth and take another sip of water, then swallow.
3. Buy a "pill cup". This provides a shelf for the pill and, as you drink, the pill enters your mouth and gets washed down with the beverage. Here is a link for one:
http://mileskimball.resultspage.com/search?p=Q&ts=custom&w=pill%20cup
4. Put the vitamin in whole into a spoon of jello or ice cream and then swallow the spoonful in one gulp. The jello or ice cream will help the pill slide right down.
5. Take the vitamin with cold soda from a bottle...not a can or glass.
6. Take a deep breath, then put pill on back of tongue and take a quick drink. The deep breath inactivates the gag reflex temporarily for some people.

Try all methods to see which works best for you. Many, many people have trouble swallowing pills (I was one too) and it take practice. Even when you find the right method, there are times you will have trouble until you have become adept at it.

Answer 2

Some vitamins come in liquid form or powders that you can mix with water. If you eat a well balanced diet you may also want to consider taking fewer vitamins. Although there is good evidence that certain vitamins are important for certain people (for example, folate is very important for women of reproductive age; calcium and vitamin D are important for women who are at risk for osteoporosis), many vitamin supplements have not been shown to be helpful; and some have been shown to be harmful. And they can be, as you have found, hard to swallow and expensive too.

Answer 3

I often suggest to my clients and customers (because we sell herbal supplements in fairly large capsules) to take a mouthful of food, chew until ready to swallow, pop the capsule in your mouth with the chewed food and swallow all together. I have found this not only helps with swallowing larger pills but also avoids indigestion or the pill getting stuck on the way down to the stomach!

Answer 4

You can cut them in half. Some types of vitamins are not supposed to be crushed. Potassium is one of them.