Every day, doctor Jimmy Mohamed, doctor and health specialist on Europe 1, answers the questions you ask yourself in the program "Without appointment" with Mélanie Gomez.
On Friday, a listener asked him if it was possible to crush several drugs to swallow them in one take.
Following a treatment with several capsules to be taken per day is often a headache, in addition to being restrictive.
Hence, for some perhaps, the temptation to take everything in one take.
However, this is necessarily not recommended, as explained by doctor Jimmy Mohamed in "Without an appointment", on Europe 1. It is indeed necessary to take the drugs at specific times, it is therefore impossible to mix everything to be able to take its treatment in one go.
Why do we have to respect the schedule for taking a medication?
Whether it is the doctor when prescribing a treatment or what can be read on the package leaflet, it is always necessary to respect the times of taking the drugs.
This is for three reasons.
First, some treatments are more effective when they are taken at certain times of the day.
This is the case, according to doctor Jimmy Mohamed, with treatments for the thyroid: "you must take medications containing levothyroxine on an empty stomach, at least half an hour before a meal."
>> Find all of Sans rendez-vous in replay and podcast here
Sticking to the schedule is also essential with "extended-release" medications.
"If you take morphine, for example, you will have one tablet at 8 am and one at 8 pm, because the treatment will act for 12 hours and therefore these intervals must be respected", explains the doctor.
Finally, taking schedules are sometimes imposed to limit the side effect.
This is the case, for example, with antibiotics which can "give little complications in the stomach".
According to Jimmy Mohamed, taking them with a meal would limit these digestive problems.
Can you crush your medicine?
"Especially not", replies Doctor Jimmy Mohamed.
"When you do that, you change the dosage form of the drug on both the active ingredient and the dosage form, that is, the coating of the drug," he explains.
He continues: "The capsules, for example, are designed to resist the acidity of the stomach. If you open the capsule and swallow the product directly, there is a risk that the active substance will be broken down in the stomach. stomach and does not reach the entire digestive tract for absorption ".
What should I do if I have trouble swallowing the tablets?
In this case, Doctor Jimmy Mohamed has a tip which, according to a study, "works 90% of the time".
He explains that you have to put the tablet on your tongue and take a sip of water without swallowing it.
You must then tilt your head forward and then, in this position, swallow the pill.
"The medicine is going to be on the surface, so it will go straight back and you will swallow it much easier," he says.
For the most refractory, especially children, there are other solutions such as "suppositories, effervescent, syrups or even Lyoc forms which melt under the tongue".