Ya' know, this would have been useful information to have for my entire life leading up to now. But I guess better late than never, right?
It turns out we might be swallowing pills all wrong, or at least chasing them with the wrong types of drinks.
A new study found you should always take pills with water, never with coffee, juice, or soda. (And maybe not milk either.)
Researchers looked at different types of drinks and the effect they have on different pills. They tested five over-the-counter meds we take for pain, inflammation, and allergies. So, things like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and Zyrtec.
What they found was taking them with anything other than water might affect how your body absorbs the medication.
Coffee, juice, and soda can make pills dissolve faster than they're supposed to. So, your body doesn't have as much time to absorb what's in them and they might not work as well. It also happened with buttermilk, which suggests dairy products could do it too.
It might not affect some types of pills as much. But unless your doctor says otherwise, they say water is the better option in general. Here are links to more on these stories from PubMed and EatThis below.
(PubMed / EatThis.com)