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postureIt’s that easy to make your painkillers work faster
Posture is important: If you want to relieve your pain as quickly as possible, you should lie down on your right side for a moment after swallowing painkillers.
- von
- Fee Anabelle Riebeling
For example painkillers. These are usually offered in tablet form.
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How quickly these take effect after ingestion also depends on you.
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According to US researchers, you can control how long it takes for pain medication to work.
According to their study, posture after ingestion makes a significant difference.
If painkillers are used, it is because you want to do something about the pain. And preferably quickly. US researchers have found the best way to achieve this. They report the results of their study in the specialist journal «Physics of Fluids».
Accordingly, the tempo can be significantly influenced by a small trick. By simply changing position, according to the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland: Those who quickly lie down on their right side after taking the drug experience the quickest relief.
Stomach model
Rajat Mittal’s team used a specially developed computer model called “StomachSim”, which realistically simulates the shape of the stomach, but also its contractions and the flow of gastric juice and imitates what happens inside during the digestion of food – or in this specific case of medication of the stomach is going on.
“We were very surprised that posture has such a large impact on how quickly a pill dissolves.”
The reason why the stomach is so important in this question is that most pills do not start working until they have passed through the stomach and are released into the intestines. The faster the tablet gets to this point, the faster it can dissolve and do what it’s designed to do.
Clear result
Mittal and his colleagues tested various postures in their study. Of these, taking it while lying down on the right side performed best. In this posture, stomach contractions, currents of gastric juice and gravity work together optimally to bring the tablet quickly to the stomach outlet and release it, according to the researchers. In the computer simulations, it often took only ten minutes for the painkiller to reach the duodenum – about two or three times faster than in the upright position or lying on the back, where it took an average of 23 minutes.
It takes the longest time to take effect when lying on the left side. Then tablets need over 100 minutes. This is because they have to go up to the stomach outlet against gravity.
“We were very surprised that posture has such a large impact on the dissolution rate of a pill,” quotes the Hochschule Mittal. “I’ve never thought about whether I’m doing it right or wrong, but now I’ll definitely think about it every time I take a pill.”
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