When is the best time to take pills and medications?

While it may not seem like it, the Now in which you take a medicinal it is very important and affects its effectiveness in the body. Perhaps, in the case of analgesics, the time it is taken does not matter much, since its function is to control pain; but in the case of other pills, such as antihypertensives, it could be a determining factor. In fact, until recently it was recommended to take them at night.

There is a branch of pharmacology called chronopharmacology which focuses on the investigation of how, when and what dose of a drug should be consumed. “It is essential for the patient to know why a drug has been prescribed, what dose to take, how to take it, and when to take it,” says nonprofit SEMFYC Drug Use Group Coordinator Maria Always Manuel.

When is the best time to take medicine?

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The answer to the question will be entirely linked to what kind of drug is it, be it a pain reliever, a blood pressure medication, or a better sleeping pill. Some examples that Dr. Sempere shows are: on the one hand, the levothyroxine, a hormone to treat thyroid problems, to be taken in the morning on an empty stomach; and the other, both benzodiazepines As the lormetazepamwhich should be taken between 15 and 30 minutes before bedtime.

Although other drugs, such as antihypertensiveswere considered to be most beneficial when taken at night, a study by the University of Dundee showed that the proper blood pressure control of these pills is not determined by the time of consumption.

Other specialists, such as the head of the Health Education service of the National School of Health of Spain Maria Teresa García Jimenez during the “Food-Drug Interactions” seminar, they ensured that “drugs should not be taken immediately before or immediately after eating, but rather half an hour before and between one an hour and an hour and a half later“.