Part 1: Are you allowed to take caffeine pills or slow-release caffeine before or during a fast?

Regarding taking caffeine pills and  slow-release pills before the fast.   obviously before a fast a person could eat  or drink. they can take pills. However, some   of the poskim. including Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky,  they question whether it's the proper hashkafa,   it's the proper outlook, to try to dull the fast  day. The fast day is supposed to have a certain   level of discomfort to it. That brings us closer  to doing teshuva, and that only comes about if a   person has a certain level of discomfort, which is  normal and should not be avoided. However, there   are people who will get sick. They will have a  pounding headache. They won't be able to function.   They'll have to lay down. And of course, sleeping  away a fast day is also not the proper thing to   do. So if the only way a person can function is by  taking one of these slow-release pills, then that   is proper to do before the fast. Now what about on  the fast day itself? If a person has a patch, one   of these caffeine patches that they could put on  their arm, that's acceptable. If a person needs to   swallow pills, if they're inedible type of pills,  not chewables, just the type that have no taste   to them, you swallow it, that is not considered  food, and a person is allowed to swallow those   on a fast day. However, a person shouldn't just do  it for fun. So, again, a caffeine pill, the person   just wants to be able to study more or things  like that, that's incorrect. If they're taking   it because of a medical condition, a headache  and things like that, then it's acceptable. Ok,   of course, it's always worthwhile to speak to a  rabbi. Especially a person who's not sure, they're   not sure what level of their of discomfort they're  up to, it's best to check in with the rabbi.