If you have trouble swallowing vitamins and supplements, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that nearly 40 percent of Americans have that same difficulty. For most, this difficulty stems from an oversensitive gag reflex.
The key to making your supplements easier to swallow is to fool that reflex—here’s how…
1. The next time you take your vitamins, try drinking from a water bottle. Keep your lips pursed and attached to the bottle at all times and use a sucking action to drink. This will trigger an automatic opening of the throat and the natural urge to swallow, allowing the pills to go down smoothly.
2. Here’s another technique that sounds a bit odd, but it really works. Since most supplements are in capsule form, they are light and buoyant in liquids. Put one or more capsules in your mouth along with a mouthful of water and bend your head forward. (Your instinct is to tilt your head back, but that constricts your throat.) More often than not, the pills will float to the back of your throat and swallowing them will be a breeze.
3. I also suggest taking several sips of water prior to taking your pills to moisten your throat. Swish the water along with your supplements around in your mouth. Be sure to the water is room temperature or cold. Washing pills down with a warm beverage can dissolve the capsules before they leave your mouth which can impact the potency of the nutrients.
4. Still having trouble? I don’t normally recommend crushing tablets or opening capsules because they can quickly lose their potency, but if that’s the only way you can take your supplements, please do so. If you find the taste disagreeable, mix the capsule contents or crushed tablet with a cold food, such as yogurt or mashed banana.
Now it’s your turn: Do you have a pill swallowing tip you can share?
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