The Effects Of Taking Drug Pill With Drinks Such As Soft Drinks

Soft Drink

Drug absorption in the body is a very complex topic. This is because drug manufacturers focus their research on the effects of drug absorption on certain medical conditions. 

They hardly carry out experiments on what happens to drug absorption when the drug physical structure is altered like when it is crushed before swallowing or dissolved in a liquid. However, it is a very common method designed by Nigerians to mask the taste and odour of drugs by hiding it in a ball of eba or using liquids other than water such as sweet drinks to achieve this. Some of these methods may have negative consequences unknown to the user since there is no such prohibition by the drug manufacturer.

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Since the manufacturers have not come out to say what happens when a drug physical structure is altered or changed by certain man-made actions, we can base our conclusion on some proven theory overtime.

Medicines come with several instructions such as when and how the drug should be taken. Some even go as far as stating certain foods or drinks that should be avoided to achieve maximum therapeutic benefits to the patient. However, drug manufacturers have not come out to explain the potential effects of taking drugs with soft drinks.

There are two general methods of using soft drinks to take medicines: drinking it to swallow the drug in the mouth or dissolving the drug in the drink before drinking. Let us look at both methods and the likely medical implications.

Dissolving Drugs In Drinks

This action can be a bad idea depending on the drink and the nature of the drug. Some drugs are meant to reach the stomach in the whole form. This can lead to serious side effects if the drug has been mixed with a liquid, prevent the drug from working and eventually slow down recovery from the illness.

Drugs Or Medication

Drugs That Are Not To Be Crush

Drugs With Coating: These drugs are coated with certain compounds. Dissolving it in a liquid will destroy the coating. The coating has different functions. They include:

1. Prevent The Bitter Taste Of The Drug: These drugs do not have effect if it was crush and added to a liquid. However, if the reason for using a sweet drink to take the drug is to mask the bitter task, it has been solved by this. Examples are sugar coated tablets.
2. Protect The Stomach Lining Or The Drug: Other drugs with the coating may be designed to protect the stomach lining from the negative effects of the drug. Such drugs are meant to go to the small intestine whereby they will exhibit their therapeutic effects. In the small intestine, the effect of the drug is not negative unlike when it is in the stomach. On the other hand, the stomach acid may destroy some drugs. Some coating is designed to protect the drug from the stomach acid. In such a case, crushing the drug will only expose the drug to the stomach acid, which will eventually lead to either loss of activity or even produce a toxic compound from the drug. Examples of drugs in these categories are enteric coated.
3. Modified Or Sustained Release: These drugs are meant to stay in the stomach for a long time releasing medication after some time. Dissolving these drugs in a liquid drink will only lead to an instant release of all of the drug at once, which can be potentially harmful. A dose that is supposed to be release over a period being release instantly.
4. Capsules: There are two types of capsules. Both are coated. They all contain medicaments that may be either solid or liquid. Breaking the capsule with liquid may lead to loss of some of the liquid with a little mistake. Adding such liquid medications to another liquid may produce some undesirable effects such as a reaction with some contents of the liquid. Also, the solid medicaments in some capsules if mixed with a liquid such as soft drink may cause reactions also with some of the chemical constituents of the liquid.
5. Solid Dosage Forms: Tablets, caplets, etc. contain both Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (A.P.I) and excipients. If the API does not react negatively with the drink, the probability that one or more of the excipients in the drug will is very high. Such reactions may not produce good results.

Using Soft Drinks To Take Medications

There are certain things that can happen when a drug is taken with drinks instead of water. They are:
Cause medications to be ineffective by breaking it down. For example, tannic acid in tea will reduce the absorption of iron in drugs. In addition, milk contains calcium that reacts with some drugs to form calcium salts which are insoluble. This leads to reducing effect of the drug. Caffeine increase effects of the drug, which is very common in many soft drinks like Coca-Cola. In addition, it causes high blood pressure, which is bad when certain medications are taken with soft drinks with caffeine.
Acidic soft drinks like Coca-Cola can decrease antibacterial actions of certain medications. Soft drinks containing some fruit addictive can be problematic when taken with certain medications also. Example, grapefruit is known to cause low blood pressure. Taking certain medicines such as drugs to reduce blood pressure with drinks containing grapefruit is very dangerous.

In both methods, the temperature of the liquid is very important. Hot liquids can damage the drug medicament. Cold liquids can reduce the effectiveness of the drug. Conclusively, extreme of temperatures is very bad for drugs.

Other Reason Why Drugs Should Not Be Taken With Soft Drinks

Taking drugs on an empty stomach is very good for some drugs. Such drugs are more likely effective when they are exposed to the acidic content of the stomach. Therefore, when you combine certain soft drinks containing compounds that will reduce the acidic content with such a drug, you end up reducing the effectiveness of such drugs. In other cases, the acidic content of the stomach may be increased with soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. This increase may not altogether favour the drug since the drug manufacturer may have calculated a maximum amount of acid that will be in the stomach when the drug is taken which may have exceeded the value due to the drink.
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In addition, soft drinks when consumed with the drug may act as a form of liquid food, a drug that is meant to be taken on empty stomach. It should be noted that most soft drinks would delay gastric emptying just as food does and hence delayed the onset of action.

However, a little problem must be explained here. Soft drinks easily dissolve medications than water in the mouth. Some soft drink contents can compete with a drug target site of action to the detriment of the drug. This can delay effects of the drug or even prevent it.

However, the only good news here is that calcium supplements are best absorbed when taken with acidic drinks.

From all the foregoing, water has been the best choice of liquid to take medicines. Cold water may make many persons throw up (vomit) while hot water may dissolve the drug in the mouth.

Soft drinks come with carbonated water. Carbonated water is a combination of carbonic acid and water. Such acid can destroy the drug or erode the digestive tract.

The sugar in soft drinks increases blood sugar level thereby working against antidiabetics agents. Sugar is also known to cause inflammation of tissues and organs which counter the effect of non steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).

Let's look at caffeine in some drinks. Caffeine has negative effects on sleep patterns working against hypnotics and sedatives. Its effect on anxiety makes it an agonist against anxiolytics. It also increases blood pressure making it work against antihypertensive drugs.

That is not all. Caffeine can interfere with muscle thereby leading to muscle breakdown. Such effects work against muscle relaxants. It is also addictive even though they claim the quantity in drinks is not large enough to elicit this response. Taking two additive agents like caffeine and tramadol or codeine can make the effect worse.

And do you know that soft drinks induce frequent urination? Yes it does. Maybe she is content. And using soft drink to take drugs like diuretic can make the side effect worse.

Note: The word drug and medications used in this post is referring to tablets, caplets, capsules, or any solid dosage form.