It’s worth the effort of getting a glass every time.
, shared the story of “a friend of a friend of a friend” who popped an over-the-counter pain reliever without water during the night, went back to bed, woke up with it lodged in their throat—and then had to be rushed to the hospital. The reason? The pill had “burned a hole” in their throat because “it was just sitting there.” “It really stuck with me,” Fink said in the video, which has garnered more than 459,000 views.
You should also avoid crawling into bed, heading to the couch for a nap, or lying down at all right after taking any pills or tablets. That’s because “certain medications can cause irritation or damage” to the esophagus or your intestines if you don’t take them with a full glass of water and remain upright, sitting or standing, for at least 30 minutes after you swallow the drug, Britt says.
In “extreme cases,” Britt explains, dry swallowing pills can sometimes lead to ulcers—which are crater-like sores that form when a layer of skin or tissue is removed—in any part of the digestive system. When this happens in the throat, it is called pill- or drug-induced esophagitis, and a 2014 paper published in the