Some pills are – or seem – too big to swallow easily. The pharmacist Diana Helfrich explains how it still works – and why you can’t just share every medicine, even those with a notch in the middle.
The biggest thing I ever swallowed was a magnesium supplement. A long, huge lump that consisted of several layers because it had a depot effect and all that. Voluminous tablets are generally compressed in an elongated shape. Because round preparations make swallowing more difficult. And the thicker they are, the more so. This may not come as a surprise, but it has now been scientifically investigated, including a few years ago by a working group at the University of Heidelberg led by Prof. Walter Haefeli.