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May 23
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Crushing Tablets Can Cause Serious ProblemsHealth Comments Off
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More and more individuals have difficulties swallowing medication when it’s presented to them as tablets or pills. Dysphagia or swallowing difficulties can affect individuals of all ages including young children although it is most common in older people as they tend to be more vulnerable to the causative diseases as well as age associated changes in the functions of the saliva glands. Up to 1/3 of people in care homes experience Dysphagia which makes taking care of their health and well being a much more difficult job.
Dysphagia consequences can be very serious as it can obviously interfere with treatments proscribed by medical professionals if the affected person is unwilling or not able to take treatments in pill form. Furthermore there’s a threat that capsules ingested orally may cause choking or a blockage of the airway and there’s also a danger that pills could become stuck in the throat which might result in the incorrect dispersal of the medicine to the body and also possible harm to the oesophagus.
Up till now the most widespread method of managing the difficulties that Dysphagia presents has been tablet crushing in order to make medication less difficult to swallow. However there are a number of issues associated with crushing tablets that can have significant implications and can affect the efficacy of the medicine. Some drugs are sugar covered to make them taste better and while crushing them may not change the way the tablet works it will make them taste very unpleasant. Pills with an enteric coating must never be crushed before they are taken as the coating is designed to keep the pill together within the stomach to either; protect the stomach from the medication, protect the medicine from the stomach or to release the medicine after it has left the stomach.
Fortunately help is on hand for individuals with Dysphagia and the people who care for them. There is today a wider range than ever before of liquid medicines which can be taken orally and have the exact same effect as pills or tablets. Oral liquid medicine is made to deal with an array of ailments and diseases such as those affecting the cardio-vascular system and endocrine system and more liquid medicines are being created all the time. Liquid medicines are easy to swallow for those with Dysphagia and are available in a number of pleasant flavours.