A Technique for Swallowing Pills

Brenda and I suffer from an occasional bout of esophageal spasm. And we have developed various ways to avoid it and/or to relieve it. One event that may set off a bout of this malady is a choking or gagging when taking oral medications in pill form.

During my multiple hospital incarcerations over a period of six months totaling 57 days, I often struggled to swallow pills. Every morning was an agonizing ritual that began when the duty nurse rolled in their computer station. Often, I had to instruct the nurse that, for me, merely tilting up the top half of the bed was inadequate for pill swallowing and that I required being rotated to a right angle with the bed and to be in a fully upright and seated position.

I also required copious volumes of water (at room temperature) to wash down each pill. And every nurse and nursing aide had to be reminded that I could not drink ice, which is what almost entirely filled a pitcher when refilled for me.

My requirements put a nurse behind schedule, although my nurses never divulged this. However, I knew that they had an approximate one-hour window to medicate 3-4 patients, and a nurse is required to confirm that a patient consumes each dose of a medication. I also suspect that my issues with swallowing were not unique.

My swallowing of multiple pills required each one to be placed at the rear of my tongue, but not so far back as to invoke gagging. Once gagging—and perhaps choking—ensued, my medication interval was agonizing and longer. Every morning, I was anxious to get past medication time.

To get each pill properly placed was a virtual crap shoot. I might choose to toss the pill to the rear of my mouth. Then, if my tossing was bad, I would either gag or proceed to maneuver it into place for swallowing with jawing and sucking amidst copious water. Sometimes, I just spit out the pill and restarted the process.

After finally going and staying home in late 2020, I continued with my pill frustration. And I was averse to taking many helpful supplements that prolonged my medication ordeal.

Then, one day it occurred to me that my agonizing was unnecessary. With the following technique, I could swallow pills indefinitely without issue:

1. Place each pill, one-at-a-time, on the center of my tongue.

2. Slowly protract my tongue forward (out of mouth) so that my upper teeth drag the pill to the best location near the rear of my tongue. [This may require some experimentation.]

3. Retract my tongue while keeping the pill in place.

4. As the pill remains on the rear of my tongue, drink some water and swallow.

All of my pill swallowing issues are gone as well as the associated anxiety.

I have not researched this, but I suspect that there is much written about this technique. I am just not aware of it. However, this poses a few questions:

• Why have none of my doctors or nurses offered this advice before?

• Is this technique taught in nursing schools?

• Why did no occupational therapists say anything about this although they were very thorough with screening me for swallowing issues and warning me to maintain the strength of my neck for fear of someday needing a feeding tube.

On 12/25/2025, we enjoyed dinner with our friend, AM. He was my first case study mentioned in Shrink Your Prostate… wherein topical progesterone cream enabled him to double his sleep interval.

AM’s nocturia is further (beyond prostate enlargement) aggravated by the copious volume of water required to swallow numerous pills just before bedtime. AM struggles with his pill swallowing much in the same way that I did before using my pill-dragging-with-tongue-and-teeth technique.

AM also suffers from Zenker’s diverticulum, a kind of esophageal diverticulum. Zenker’s is rare (incidence: ~ 2/100,000); however, approximate 1% of the population suffers from some kind of esophageal diverticulum which hobbles their swallowing.

At dinner, I explained my technique with the prospect that AM would require less water to down the pills, thus augmenting his already improved sleep intervals. The following day, he texted me saying that it’s made a definite improvement.