I’ve been prescribed an iron supplement pill which I’m supposed to take three times daily with meals. The “eat with food” part was drilled pretty hard into me because not only can they cause gastric discomfort (something that’s certainly an issue these days) but also they need food to get absorbed properly.
Questions:
How much food counts as a meal? Lately I’ve been unable to eat more than a small amount of food at a time, like a single muffin or a cup of yogurt. Is that enough food to count as “food” for the pill’s sake?
Biggest issue I have is just plain straight up forgetting to take the damn pill. How big a problem is it to take a pill one or two hours after a meal? (Presumably, larger meals would make more sense than smaller ones…) And what if I only eat a large meal once or twice a day, which is my normal routine?
I don’t know about what nutrients are required to process your pill, but the discomfort issue is very easy to solve: experiment. If you take this pill on an empty stomach and always feel perfectly fine, then that cancels out some of this recommendation of taking the pill with food. I’ve been on tons of medication; some make you nauseated or even vomit if you don’t have some food in you, and some can be taken on an empty stomach. It can differ from person to person, so no one can be sure if you personally will feel nauseated on X medication. Just try and see, and figure out what works best for you (at least for the discomfort part of it).
I’d suggest doing some research on what SPECIFICALLY helps absorb the pill; it can’t just be “food”. E.g. maybe it needs calcium or fat or something; what is it specifically that it needs to be absorbed, and take more of that particular thing.
Remembering shouldn’t be that hard in the digital age. Get a watch that has multiple alarms on it, and set them for times to take the pills and just wear the watch all day! If you’re REALLY, SUPER-FORGETFUL about stuff then you should consider you might have ADHD, and that solution is to take ADHD medication (more pills!) which may or may not require you eating even more food! (Actually food is great with ADHD/stimulant medication because it gives you physical energy and makes it easier to do tasks that require energy.)
It’s no doubt going to vary from drug to drug, but on days when even the thought of food is too much I can get away with a smoothy or an apple with my food requiring meds.
I think Iron supplements are generally considered stomach upsetters. Put the pill bottle on the table by the salt shaker and maybe you will remember it that way. I found that a banana is enough to make my supplements stay down. YMMV.
The “eat with food” is because they commonly cause stomach upsets but iron is actually absorbed better on an empty stomach. It used to be recommended that they be taken two hours before meals. However there are plenty of foods that inhibit absorption:
This is, of course, a completely personal experience that isn’t all that relevant to you, but this is IMHO. I take 5-HTP and if I’ve not eaten a decent meal within the last hour or so I feel terrible and have to lie down. For a decent meal, I mean fruit and toast for breakfast, whereas just coffee and a small croissant will make me regret everything for a good 3 hours.
I don’t get that from an iron supplement. Strangely, I don’t get it from anything else that I’ve been told to take with food because it could cause gastric problems. Just 5-HTP. Three hours would be too long, I’ll have digested the food. But if i’ve eaten decently, then eat an apple, wait 5 minutes and then take the 5-HTP, then I’ll be fine. So I think it only goes badly after fasting all night. If I take the 5-HTP on an empty stomach by accident and then try to quickly eat, it’s too late.
Again, this isn’t super relevant to you, just personal experience with my particular body. I’d just go for a decent breakfast and then eat something just before taking your supplement every time. Then see how you feel.
These are things that have not been “enough” food to take with pills for me, as evidenced by throwing the pills up later after eating each of these things alone:
[ul]
[li]toast[/li][li]yogurt[/li][li]cereal[/li][li]Slimfast shake[/li][/ul]
YMMV, and I have digestive issues in general (GERD), so other people might fare better with some of these.
So basically, it’s “whatever works best for you”? Well, that’s helpful. :dubious: But I guess I should’ve expected that.
Normally I’ve got a cast-iron stomach, and even now I haven’t noticed any noticeable problems with the iron supplements. The gastric issues I have these days are due to mitigating issues (i.e. chemotherapy) so it’s hard to tell what’s causing what to be a problem.
The Mayo link says to avoid cheese, yogurt, eggs, milk, bread, cereals, tea & coffee…consarn it all, I don’t think any meal I’ve had in the last six months hasn’t included at least one of those things!!! :eek:
Yeah, that’s great, isn’t it? Mornings I’m supposed to take one pill, not eat for an hour after, take the other morning pills with food, but not anything with dairy, caffeine, high sodium, any significant potassium, too much fiber or any gluten. This makes breakfast a bit of a challenge, even on days when I can eat, and puts my first cup of coffee two hours after I’ve gotten to work. There are also noon, evening, and pre-bed pills. I made a flow chart.
I try to plan meals, I pack my meds for the week all at once, and make a note of when I take them so if I throw up I know whether to retake a pill or just hit my next scheduled dose. It helps some.
What my doctor has given as a rule-of-thumb is a single slice of bread with a thin coat of peanut butter or maybe jelly. Some stuff you have to be careful with juices and/or fruits; especially grapefruit IIRC.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it but maybe when the prescription uses the language, “should be taken with meals”, the medication is meant to be taken with a more substantial amount of food. Versus the language, “should be taken with food”, which could mean as little as a small snack?
Actually that was the thought that brought on the conversation I had with my BP/GS/PCP. Also what constitutes a meal for me differed greatly from my 80+ year old MIL and what I called “food” was a far cry from her pack of Saltines. That was when she gave me the answer I passed along to ya’ll above and have lived by ever since. Her opinion is that a minimum of a slice of bread with something on it qualified as food or a light meal.
I also think that the “with meals” could/can relate to timing and spreading out the doses. In the case of my doctor she will either say “three times a day with meals” or “three times a day by the clock”. But that one very well could be just her habit and not something generally practiced.
Aside from stomach discomfort, I think the main reason people are told to take some pills with food is because they’re fat-soluble rather than water-soluble. So, eating something with very little fat might not be much use but eating a small amount of something very fatty might. Fish oil supplements or peanut butter, for example.
I’ve had those too. For me it was intense nausea and cold sweats.
5-HTP acts upon your serotonin receptors. The ones you aim at with the 5-HTP supplements are the serotonin receptors in your brain. But there are also serotonin receptors in your digestive track. When activated, they cause your digestive track to squeeze itself (that’s how food travels). When lightly activated, it just cuts hunger. When strongly activated, you’re taking a tube that’s open at both ends and squeezing it hard in the middle.
I’ve found that spreading out the doses and taking green tea before and while I take 5-HTP helps.
Diluting the 5-HTP by making it accompany a proper full English rather than something as treasonously French as a coffee and croissant should also decrease the probability and intensity of side effects.
I question this because if this is true, why do no medications ever specify beyond mentioning food or meals? That is sure leaving a lot of inferring to be done on the part of the patient. “Take with food” could mean many things that don’t contain much, if any, fat: Cereal with skim, fruit, popcorn, etc.