A doctor once told me that to make painkillers like paracetamol work more quickly you can use sparkling water instead of still water to take them. The sparkling water dissolves the tablet much faster. Try dropping a paracetamol into a half glass of sparkling water and watch the results. I doubt it'd work on capsules, but tabs or caplets should.

I don't know whether it's an approved method these days but I use it when I need a quick blast of pain relief.

My GP is not keen on the soluble forms because the dissolving agent tends to sodium based and so it can lead to raised sodium levels.

Well I don't know for sure but I suppose enough to be concerned about if you take them a lot