November 1, 2016 PDI Newsletter
Greetings to all PDI and DCI Warriors,
Welcome to this November 2016 PD Institute newsletter. Won’t it be great to finally have this election behind us? Heaven help us with the huge changes that will be coming over the horizon.
This month we will be discussing a topic that affects everyone who uses Alternative Medicine while using the PDI or DCI concepts: the problem of difficulty swallowing many supplement pills while treating Peyronie’s disease and Dupuytren’s contracture.
Can’t easily follow Peyronie’s or Dupuytren’s plan
As many readers of this monthly newsletter know, the therapeutic dosages of some of the enzymes and vitamins that help eliminate PD or DC can be rather high in some cases. For this reason, even people who can swallow a few pills with no problem can have difficulty swallowing a larger quantity at a time. This discussion will be helpful if this describes what you are going through.
It’s sometimes difficult to swallow a solid substance without first chewing it; you feel like you are working against a protective instinct. It is not a normal or natural thing to pop something into your mouth and swallow it without first chewing it – it is how food should be consumed. This difficulty is made worse when there are many such small solids to swallow without the benefit of first chewing. Nonetheless, it is often necessary to swallow 4-18 pills several times a day as part of a therapy plan you have created to assist your body get over your PD or DC.
There is no cure-all when you can’t easily take many pills at once because you hesitate or gag. Different people use different strategies to get over this hurdle. However, after dealing with many different people who say they can’t swallow pills or can’t swallow as many as they need to, I have never met anyone who cannot get over this problem if they work at it.
Since pill swallowing will likely remain a required skill until you correct your Peyronie’s disease or Dupuytren’s contracture, I have found it is best to approach a pill swallowing problem from several angles using old and new tricks. If you work with a few of these different strategies you should be able to find something that will make it easier to take your different supplements:
1. Put 1-4 pills in your mouth and carefully go through the motions of pretending you are chewing them. Do not actually chew on the pills to avoid a nasty taste. With all the pills in your mouth go through the motions of chewing while using small and careful mouth and jaw movement. Keep the pills away from your teeth as you move your jaws just a little. After a few moments you will have satisfied the need to “chew before swallowing.” Then immediately drink some water as you swallow the pills already in your mouth. You will thus fool yourself into the idea that you have chewed what you want to swallow.
2. Simulate pill taking by practicing with common food. Swallow mini candies or small bites of food of soft foods, without chewing it first. Deliberately think about and feel the sensation of having chunks of solid food sliding down your throat; get comfortable with that feeling; focus on how easy it is to be relaxed when you swallow pieces of cooked vegetables or meat that are actually larger than the pills that make you uncomfortable.
3. Take 1-2 pills at a time to avoid overloading your gag reflex, rather than taking them all at once or in large groups of 4-6 pills.
4. Drink a large glass of warm water BEFORE taking any of your internal therapy plan. Using warm water will relax your throat muscles and make taking the actual pills easier.
5. Sip a flavored carbonated beverage (Coke, Pepsi, or something with a flavor) straight from the bottle when swallowing a pill. The idea here is that the unique muscle movements used to sip from a bottle and the fact that there is a flavor involved will help the brain believe that what is in the mouth is safe and easy to swallow.
6. Don’t use ice water to wash the pills down; use room temperature water instead. Very cold water will cause the throat muscles to tighten and make it difficult to swallow your pills. Use warm water when you wash down the pills you have to take. You will immediately feel your throat behaving differently when you use warm water, compared to ice cold water.
7. Spray or gargle with an over-the-counter topical anesthetic (normally used for sore throats) before swallowing.
8. Take a deep breath and hold it in, before putting the tablet in your mouth; some say that this can suppress gag reflexes.
9. Place the pill on the back of your tongue, drink some water, tilt your chin down toward your chest, and swallow.
10. Put the pill on the tip of your tongue, drink some water, tilt your head back, and swallow. These last two ideas (9. and 10.) are the opposite of each other, but when one approach doesn’t work the opposite will often be successful.
Combining some of the above ideas could yield a remedy for you, but if none of them help you should really consider some larger issues.
The fact is your throat operates as part of a complex system. While it may seem you have an extraordinarily strong gag reflex or odd throat mannerisms, consider that it may actually be the power of your mind, not the power of your throat. Try to psych yourself out with this pill swallowing mantra — “I can do this…I can see the pill going down.”
Or, perhaps not being able to swallow pills has something to do with a past event. If you are unusually tense about pill swallowing that started with something that happened in your childhood, it makes sense for it to surface when you try to swallow a pill again. Did you choke on a raisin many years ago? Did a mean school nurse with dirty hands force you to take a pill? You may be subconsciously dealing with issues such as these every time you swallow an aspirin or vitamin. Fear of choking, fear of medicine, or general anxiety may be preventing you from swallowing pills. If you think these mental factors are to blame, you might consider talking with a counselor.
While it usually not very likely, the possibility of a greater medical issue does exist as the reason you cannot swallow pills. The medical term for difficulty swallowing is dysphagia, and the term is often used with regard to a disorder of the esophagus. Keep in mind, though, that if you can swallow your food while you are eating without trouble your esophagus is probably fine.
This is an important issue to address because you cannot allow trouble swallowing your enzyme and vitamin pills to prevent you from achieving ultimate success over your Peyronie’s disease or Dupuytren’s contracture. Hopefully using a few of the above techniques will allow you to follow the kind of plan you need to reach the therapeutic dosage you need to be successful.
This concludes our discussion for this issue of the newsletter. I hope everyone found this issue of the PDI Newsletter interesting and informative so you can do a better job of helping your own PD or DC condition.
See you next month. Stay in touch and send your treatment questions to me so I can give you some ideas to work with, at info@peyronies-disease-help.com TRH
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