Taking Tablets by Jane Thurnell-Read

Because we sell nutritional supplements on this site, people email me with various queries. A surprisingly common one is a query about how big a particular tablet is. It seems that a lot of people have problems swallowing large tablets.

Some tablets can be broken in half, although this is quite difficult with many tablets. Some supplements, (e.g.  our calcium extra supplement, our devils claw for arthritis, gout and rheumatism) come in capsules. The capsules can be taken apart and the contents mixed with food such as honey. If you want to do this, it’s a good idea to check if this will interfere with the absorption of the contents – sometimes the capsule is there to protect the contents from being broken down to early in the digestive process.

Some supplements come as liquids. For example, our Zincatest is designed to be used to test if you are short of zinc, but it can also be taken as a supplement - one teaspoonsful per day.

One trick that seems to help many people is to re-think the situation. Everyone I’ve ever met who has difficulty swallowing tablets has agreed that they can swallow quite a large piece of pizza crust or a similar piece of food without any problem. I suggest they spend a few days likening the tablet to the pizza crust in their mind and seeing that if they can do one they can do the other.

Another way of dealing with this is using the emotional stress release from Touch For Health. In this technique you hold the bumps on your forehead while you think about something that stresses you – in this case swallowing tablets. These are bumps on your forehead that many people hold instinctively when they're stressed. To find them  feel from the middle of your eyebrows going towards your hairline. You will feel a bump on either side about 3cms (1.25 inches) above the middle of each eyebrow. Just hold these points gently with your fingers while you think about swallowing tablets. Gradually you wil almost certainly  find that the stress lessens.

If the imagining makes you feel very panicky. Imagine watching yourself on a black and white television swallowing tablets. When that’s comfortable, use a colour television. Then imagine yourself doing it rather than watching yourself doing it. This is a great technique and can be used for all sorts of stresses not just swallowing tablets.

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