# Can You Swallow Pills **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805 "2010-03-25T22:09:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/1 "2010-03-25T22:09:45Z")
I can’t. Yes, I know it’s almost certainly a psychological thing, but I can’t. I recall trying to swallow a pill that was about two times the size of a pin head and I STILL choked on the thing. My brother used to be able to swallow pills, even big ones without water. I had a dog that REFUSED to swallow pills. I shoved an entire pack of hot dogs down his dog throat trying to get him to swallow the pill. He ate the pill and hot dogs and then 5 minutes later spit out the unchewed pill. Errrr. So quesiton is: Can you swallow pills? ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/2 "2010-03-25T22:15:29Z")
I can swallow giant multi vitamins with NO WATER! ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/3 "2010-03-25T22:16:32Z")
I’d better be able to, I’ve been taking a lot lately (antibiotics + birth control). Sometimes I have trouble swallowing the bigger ones, though, especially if they’re chalky on the outside. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/4 "2010-03-25T22:36:50Z")
My morning meds consist of 5 pills, two of them pretty big, and I swallow them in (usually) one gulp with water. (Sometimes the one that’s a capsule floats off to a corner of my mouth and needs a second try.) ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/5 "2010-03-25T22:42:27Z")
I used to easily swallow pills without water, because I was too lazy to go to the kitchen and grab a glass. Then a guy I knew got really sick and they couldn’t figure it out for months and months and he almost died. He finally went to the Cleveland clinic. At that point they found a huge scarred bleeding hole in his esophagus(not sure how the other folks missed it). They figured out it was because he swallowed pills without water, and they caught on a little ridge and sat there eating through the walls, particularly his daily aspirin. Since then I use lots and lots of water with any kind of pill. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/6 "2010-03-25T22:44:01Z")
I can swallow most of them except the big ones without water. Usually I use water anyway. Holy crap, **wolfman** , I’ll never take a pill without a heaping huge glass of water every single time. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/7 "2010-03-25T22:44:11Z")
Yeah, I can swallow pills with or without water. I usually use water, because I have a bottle handy almost all the time anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/8 "2010-03-25T22:50:12Z")
I can, unless I think about it too much. I used to have trouble when I was a kid, because I’d tilt my head back like I saw people do on TV, but they’d never go down right. Once I started swallowing them like anything else, it became easy. If I think about it too much, I remember choking on pills as a kid and sort of psych myself out. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/9 "2010-03-25T22:51:15Z")
I take 3 prescription meds plus a multivitamin every morning. As a kid I had a horribly sensitive gag reflex and could never swallow pills. Nowadays I can always get them down (and always with copious amounts of water) but sometimes I still have to stifle a gag while doing so. As the OP said, I’m sure it’s psychological; they’re not big pills - in fact they’re smaller than most bites of food I eat, and I certainly have no trouble swallowing food! So I don’t know why it’s difficult to overcome that little choking sensation. It seems worse if I’ve just woken up and haven’t had anything to eat or drink yet. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/10 "2010-03-25T22:52:27Z")
I used to be able to swallow most pills. I could swallow three, four even five of those big herbal pills all at once with just a small sip of water, but even at that time, I couldn’t swallow a round pill (think Excederin). Since then my ability to swallow pills has gone down quite a bit. I can swallow two Tylenol caplets (the long ones) at once and that’s the biggest that’ll go down. I know you want to tell me it’s psychological, but it’s not, they actually, physically, get caught in my throat. I can talk and breath, but not swallow anything else. By that I mean, if I were to, for example, take a gulp of water, it’ll go to the back of my mouth, I’ll make the swallowing motion and the water won’t go anywhere and it hurts like hell. The only way to fix it is to go and get myself to puke a little to push them back out. Also, this happens with food from time to time, one of these days I’ll get an endoscopy to see what’s going on and it they can just stretch everything back out. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/11 "2010-03-25T23:00:09Z")
Easily, and I can also drink down whatever vile liquid substance the doctor recommends as well. There is a long-term benefit to having been hazed / spent some time in a fraternity house. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/12 "2010-03-25T23:08:46Z")
Can swallow any pill without water, except an Alka-Seltzer. There are some that _taste_ vile enough that if I’m going to dry-swallow them, I’m first dropping them way back in back of my tongue using my index & middle fingers like tweezers. ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/13 "2010-03-25T23:41:21Z")
Almost always. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/14 "2010-03-26T00:15:42Z")
Handsful, horse-sized, no water. And I’m a really FUN girl. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/15 "2010-03-26T00:21:08Z")
For some reason, my gag reflex is on a hair-trigger in the morning. If it’s not morning, I can dry-swallow any pill I’ve tried to swallow. But in the morning, if I even _think_ about trying to swallow pills I gag. For a while I was taking pills in the morning, and I’d have to suck them down during the “post-gag”. Unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/16 "2010-03-26T00:23:00Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I can’t. > > Yes, I know it’s almost certainly a psychological thing, but I can’t. I recall trying to swallow a pill that was about two times the size of a pin head and I STILL choked on the thing. > > My brother used to be able to swallow pills, even big ones without water. > > I had a dog that REFUSED to swallow pills. I shoved an entire pack of hot dogs down his dog throat trying to get him to swallow the pill. He ate the pill and hot dogs and then 5 minutes later spit out the unchewed pill. > > Errrr. > > So quesiton is: > > Can you swallow pills? Try this: you need a bottle of any kind of soda (NOT a can). Open the soda. Pop the pill(s) in your mouth, take a big, healthy swig of soda\*. Pills gone like magic. \*A big, healthy swig like a man drinks, not like a woman does. Women suck on the bottle for some reason, men do the glugluglug thing. If you suck on it, it may not work. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/17 "2010-03-26T00:47:11Z")
Yes, but I couldn’t until I was fourteen. I had to take eight childrens’ chewable Tylenol at once. Then they came out with an OTC painkiller called Actron (ketoprofen, I think; AFAIK, it’s no longer on the market) that was so incredibly tiny that even I could swallow it, and within a few years, I was dry-swallowing medications. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/18 "2010-03-26T00:52:26Z")
I have a very hard time with anything larger than a Sudafed. If it doesn’t have a slick coating it’s right out. I pay extra to get brand-name Advil because of its nice coating. Caspules are a no-go, as well. Orange juice helps, sometimes. I’m very mad at Bristol-Meyers Squib for discontinuing Excedrin QuickTabs. ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/19 "2010-03-26T01:03:38Z")
Yep. Any size, any amount, no problem. My dog used to need a lot of medication. 27 pills a day, in one dose. It was never a problem. Open mouth, pour pills in, give biscuit, job done. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805/20 "2010-03-26T01:32:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Try this: you need a bottle of any kind of soda (NOT a can). Open the soda. Pop the pill(s) in your mouth, take a big, healthy swig of soda\*. Pills gone like magic. I’ve tried that, I still choke. But in my case I’m 99.9% sure it’s psychological, 'cause I can eat food bigger than pills. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swallow-pills/533805.md?page=2)