The Best Time To Take Your Meds

Popping your daily pills at the right time can help you maximize their benefits—and avoid dangerous interactions

By Stephanie Eckelkamp  

There's more to taking your pills than simply remembering to take them. Here are the best times to pop your pills to to get the most benefits out of them and to avoid serious drug interactions.

When you wake:
Medications for thyroid (Synthroid) and osteoporosis (Boniva, Fosamax). Take these about half an hour before breakfast, says Prevention advisory board member Jennifer Reinhold, PharmD, and wait 2 hours before taking supplements, which make these drugs less effective.

With lunch:
Calcium and magnesium. Break up calcium intake into doses of 500 mg or less, because that's all your body can use at once, says Heather Mangieri, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. If your first dose is at lunch, you can take the next (if needed) at dinner. It's good to take vitamin D at the same time, since it aids absorption of the minerals.

Before bed:
Aspirin for heart health; also statins. People with prehypertension who took aspirin at bedtime had lower blood pressure readings than those who took it in the morning, found a 2009 study at the University of Vigo in Spain. Because you produce most of your cholesterol at night, you should also take cholesterol-lowering simvastatin (Zocor) at bedtime, Dr. Reinhold says.