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The Weird Science Discovery That Makes Your Meds Start Working Faster
By NADEEM SARWAR
For those who need to take medication, the experts over at Johns Hopkins University have a new suggestion based on their groundbreaking discovery published in the journal "Physics of Fluids." Their study finds that your body posture affects how pills are absorbed in the gut and enter the bloodstream.
The research combines the concepts of fluid mechanics with physics and biomechanics, creating a model called StomachSim that offers a realistic understanding of how medicinal pills move inside the gastrointestinal tract. With the StomachSim simulation model, scientists have been able to determine what positions will help the medicine reach the end portion of the stomach to begin working the quickest.
Lying on their right side after ingesting a pill speeds up the process of medicine dissolution and uptake by 2.3 times, as it lands at the deepest part of the stomach and closest to the small intestine's opening. In contrast, lying on your left side results in the slowest medicine dissolution, taking 10 times longer than the right-leaning posture, while standing upright and lying on your back are equally effective.