If you are like me and have a really bad gag reflex and don’t know how to swallow pills without retching and bringing the thing back up (assuming it actually gets anywhere in the first place beyond your tongue) then it seems like we are not alone!

Many people struggle to swallow pills, even if they are smaller than what seems like normal bite sized pieces of food. Even to myself I think it must be some kind of psychological thing together with the gag reflex as a lot of the pills we have to swallow are not really that big in theory.

Anyway, I have found a way to swallow pills that works for me in most cases (I still struggle with the really big capsules).

What you need to do is to take a chunk of biscuit/cookie (you can use many other foodstuffs but I find biscuits/cookies are the best and also easiest just to grab on the go) and chew it up to the point where you are almost ready to swallow it. Keep it maybe a little bit more chunky than you otherwise might do before swallowing.

Once you are just about to swallow the biscuit/cookie, pop the pill in your mouth among the biscuit bits and swallow the whole lot together. If you have a pill that will break into 2 then if might be worth doing it in 2 goes. It may be harder to do with those big plastic capsules but for others it should be OK.

I have to say this works for me 90% of the time and I am one of the worst for taking tablets and pills. I hope that it works for you but I guess it is not going to work for everyone.

Give it a try and let me know if it does work!