Researchers at Johns Hopkins University conducted a study on the effect of posture while taking pills on the time they dissolve in the stomach and release into the intestines, from where they end up in the bloodstream. Their discovery revolutionizes the knowledge of taking, among others, drugs and can be extremely helpful, for example, for patients struggling with pain with this type of measures.
- A team of scientists from Johns Hopkins University created a computer model of the stomach based on scans of an organ in a 34-year-old man
- Researchers investigated how body posture affects the dissolution of tablets and found the ideal position, which may prove extremely important in the treatment of elderly and bedridden people, patients taking painkillers or drugs that stabilize blood pressure
- Scientists have also found that incorrect body posture may take up to five times longer to dissolve the tablets and absorb the substances contained in them, compared to an upright posture, which, contrary to popular belief, is not the best
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Researchers from the American Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have found that the position of the body, in which we take orally, for example drugs in the form of tablets, influences their absorption time, as reported by the “Science Alert” website.
«We were very surprised that your body posture had such a huge influence on the speed of dissolving the pill. I never thought about whether I was doing it right or wrong, but now I will definitely think about it every time I take a pill “, he said in an interview with« EurekAlert! » Rajat Mittal, a fluid dynamics engineer at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
- See: Bowel diseases – how to recognize them and how to treat them?
Mittal and colleagues tested the effects of four different attitudes on the rate of drug absorption and used a computer model of the human stomach for this, which was based on high-resolution scans of a 34-year-old man’s body. The model they called StomachSim simulated the biomechanics of the tablet as it traveled through the digestive tract and how quickly it was released from the stomach into the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine where nutrient absorption begins.
Scientists have found out what the ideal position is for taking medications
The researchers found that the ideal posture for the fastest absorption is not sitting upright, as is commonly believed, but leaning to the right or lying on your right side. After taking this position, the tablets glided into the deepest part of the “computer” stomach and “dissolved” twice as fast as those taken in an upright position.
However, lying or bending to the left side slowed the dissolution, so that it took up to five times longer for the pills to be absorbed in this position compared to standing upright. This discovery could revolutionize the use of oral medications, incl. by the elderly, as Mittal said: “For the elderly, seated or bedridden, whether they turn left or right can make a huge difference.”
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Mittal and his team also simulated how medications from tablets are absorbed in people with gastroparesis, which causes nerve damage or weakness in the stomach muscles, which stops or slows down emptying of the stomach. As it turned out, even a slight reduction in the simulated gastric digestion power led to noticeable differences in both the digestion of the tablet and the ejection of the agents contained therein into the duodenum.
- See: Stomach – location, structure, diseases, functions [WE EXPLAIN]
The Johns Hopkins University researchers’ finding could be extremely important to people who are taking fast-acting painkillers and blood pressure medications, where the speed at which the drugs are absorbed is of utmost importance. Their findings may also be used by other researchers who are working on determining the appropriate doses of drugs for women and men.
For Mittal’s research, however, it should be taken into account that computer simulations, while very useful, are simplified models of complex processes, and digestion can also be affected by the amount of fluid, gas, and food in the stomach. Genes can also affect how the body processes drugs.