Scientists have found that body posture affects the rate of dissolution of tablets

Employees of the American Physical Institute found that the position of the body affects the rate of dissolution of tablets in the body. StudyComputational modeling of drug dissolution in the human stomach: Effects of posture and gastroparesis on drug bioavailability / Physics of Fluids this was published in the scientific journal Physics of Fluids.

Tablets have many advantages over injections and other forms of drug administration. They are stored longer, do not cause discomfort in patients and do not require the participation of qualified medical staff. These are the main reasons why corporations are investing resources in creating tablet analogues of existing injectables.

However, until recently, scientists could not accurately predict how the tablets would dissolve in the digestive system. To do this, Professor Rajat Mittal developed a computer model together with colleagues that can calculate the rate of drug release as it moves through the esophagus, stomach and intestines. Scientists note that the algorithm takes into account all possible parameters of the dissolution of tablets, including the nature of the movement of fluid in the body.

It turned out that the behavior of drugs in the digestive system is affected not only by the presence of digestible food, but also by the posture in which the person is located. For example, tilting to the right accelerated the movement of a pill in the body, and turning to the left sharply slowed down the process of releasing its molecules. When the body was tilted back by 45 degrees, the dissolution was also accelerated, but not as much as when tilted to the right.

The results of the study showed that body position can slow down or speed up the dissolution rate of the drug by 83%. Scientists believe that these observations will help pharmaceutical companies in the development of tablets that can not withstand ingestion or must be processed by the body in the shortest possible time.