Basically psychological factor is what makes it difficult for many people to swallow pills, but there are certain physical aspects that make the process more difficult than swallowing. common food.
Taking medication is often an inevitable part of life. However, the feeling of a lumpy pill, like a chalk sliding down the throat, is not a pleasant feeling. Most people will have trouble swallowing them at some point – sometimes every day! Large amounts of small chewed food are often easier to swallow than pills, sometimes causing coughing, choking or even vomiting.
Why do so many people “struggle” with such pills and why are they harder to swallow than food? Let’s find us.
Ironically, the reason that swallowing pills is so difficult is because we do the swallowing mechanism every day of our lives – it’s one of the first things humans do as babies. , besides breathing, blinking and crying. Whether it’s a sizable steak, some popcorn, a piece of bread, or a salad dressing, the throat can easily do the job with instinctive smoothness and people hardly have to let it go. mind it. Before we find out why pills are especially hard to swallow, we need to dig deeper into how swallowing happens. There are three stages to this process, and only one of them is consciously in control.
Taking medication is often an inevitable part of life.
Oral phase – This is the part we control, involved in allowing food or drink to enter the oral cavity. The first is the process of moistening food with saliva, then chewing it with teeth, moving food from side to side of the oral cavity with the help of the tongue. The tongue nerve will sense when the food has reached the right moisture and compact the member, enough to swallow. A depression is then formed on the back of the tongue, the tip of the tongue moves to the anterior top of the nasopharynx, forming a downward slide for food. When the tip of the tongue presses against the nasopharynx, food is transferred to the pharynx.
Pharyngeal phase – All entrances to the throat are closed once food has moved into this place, to prevent vomiting, breathing, chewing, or coughing. Tenderness of the soft palate and folds of the throat increases with food contact. The eustachian tube then opens and the pharynx closes, while the vocal cords (larynx) open. This part of the swallowing process is unconscious and is passively controlled by specialized cranial nerves. When the pharynx undergoes peristalsis (wavy contractions), the food pellets are moved down the esophagus. The cricopharyngeal muscle opens and the terminal phase begins.
Esophageal phase – Another phase that is passively controlled by the brain, in which food moves more slowly than the pharyngeal phase, driven by smooth muscle movement. The esophageal sphincter contracts and relaxes, allowing the food pellets to move down into the stomach. When the food pellet passes out of the esophagus, both the larynx and pharynx relax, returning to a normal state.
Perhaps the brief explanation above has helped you understand how complex the swallowing process is, even if we don’t directly control it. In the process, something can go wrong, leading to discomfort accompanied by a very instinctive feeling of impending doom. Such factors can list as psychological causes, pill size, improper technique or physical problems such as dysphagia.
Of all the problems people often have when taking medication, bad memories of past choking are perhaps the most common. Not being able to breathe or feeling something “huge” stuck in the throat is a terrifying experience for most people. In the past, if you’ve ever vomited from a pill or even a piece of food that hasn’t been properly moistened, your brain will remember the feeling and make you not want to repeat the memory.
The human mind is programmed to swallow crushed food and liquids unconsciously. However, a pill feels very different with its powdery consistency and solid shape; We ask the brain to treat it like food, but some parts of the unconscious defense mechanism are activated, especially if the person has a tendency to hate drugs.
Although swallowing seems instinctive, there are ways to make it easier based on the shape and alignment of the pharynx with the esophagus as swallowing occurs. For people who have difficulty with pills, they may have a relatively small pharynx or narrow passageways for food pellets. You can try different techniques, like the “tu chai” (pop-bottle) method, where you place the pill on your tongue and then squeeze the water from the bottle into your mouth, letting the water and the medicine drop down quickly. throat. Alternatively, you can also try tilting your head forward when swallowing, which, although counterintuitive, can open the pharynx and make swallowing much easier.
Pills that are circular in shape will float down more easily than are cylindrical or rectangular.
If you’ve ever been prescribed the “huge” size pill, you know that some pills are terrifyingly large, making it difficult to swallow. Research has found that pills that are round are more likely to float down than are cylindrical or rectangular. If you always struggle to swallow pills or feel a lump in your chest, you can ask your doctor to change to a different brand, liquid form, or some other style that may make you comfortable.
Many also have dysphagia, which some see as a symptom of a health condition. At its most basic definition, it can involve problems controlling food with the tongue, maintaining an appropriate level of saliva, difficulty getting food pellets into the throat, or getting food stuck as it moves into the stomach. . Dysphagia can affect one or more swallowing stages and make it difficult to use therapy and medication.
Billions of people around the world take their pills every day and millions of them are struggling with the pills. However, if you can grasp the cause, you will be able to find a way to solve your problem more easily.