# For imodium users, what does imodium do for you?



## nrep

Imodium for me, no matter how many I take, or how regularly, or what time, does not eradicate diarrhea. It postpones it. I can load up on it at night and even take 1 in the am, (mornings are my worst, as are for many of us) and it will just plug me up for half the day, or the day, and then when I have a bowel movement it is diarrhea again. It makes me not go, yes...but when I do go, it is still diarrhea. I'm not interested in dosing ideas, but rather would be interested in hearing if it firms up your stool or not. Curious about its effect on others.Thanks.


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## Kathleen M.

It's effect is to slow the bowel and any change in stool is from it getting some extra time in there to have the water extracted.So it doesn't directly effect stool consistency. For some people slowing the bowel down a bit can give them the time they need to firm up the stool.Fiber can effect stool consistency (absorbs extra water) and Calcium Carbonate seems to help some people with consistency issues.


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## jmc09

It did firm my stools up at first but it has never got rid of my bloating,flatulance,sensitivity,stomach cramps or the feeling of needing to go many times during the day.Depending on the dose you might still get instances of D still though.It does help as a safety net against being 'caught short' while not having toilet access for a short while.


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## petra

at the moment I'm taking 9 per day but it doesn't constipate me. It is also supposed to help with sphincter tone-not sure whether that actually happens though.


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## D :(

Mainly what Imodium does for me is make me not have to go for awhile. The next day I notice some relief as I usually have two bowel movements in the morning, one normal and firm and the other loose, but if I've taken Imodium the day before then the next morning I will either have two firm bowel movements or only have to go once in the morning.


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## cherrypie09

I take 3 imodium every day, one in the morning, one at lunch time and one at the evening meal, they dont realy constipate me, I usually still have 2-3 loose bms a day, but it does help a bit with the urgency side of things.


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## Caterpillar

For me, it stops me going (eventually). It doesn't make me constipated as I don't feel like I need to go. It just stops me needing to go at all. The first I know of it wearing off tends to be that I do need to go. It can sometimes be quite solid and difficult to pass, and so I don't take another Imodium straight away because I think I must have overdone it and constipated myself. Then ten minutes later I am back with the diarrhoea again








I don't often get cramps, but when I do get them, Imodium does not stop them.


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## jmc09

Does it help anybody with cramps,bloating or flatulence as i feel it doesn't help anything other than Diarrhoea and excessive BMs?


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## Kathleen M.

It really isn't a medication that will help much with the other symptoms you have problems with.Some versions have an anti-gas agent, but you can get that in Gas-X (Wind-Eze).


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## jmc09

Wind-eze makes me want to go but when I try to I can't,so it doesn't really help me.Besides,I really don't need any more flatulence as it's bad enough and embarassing enough on a normal day


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## Kathleen M.

Simethicone shouldn't change how much gas you have, but it may break up bubbles in a way that makes it move better for you. But it isn't designed to make you fart more or have more gas volume, it just breaks up the bubbles.I dunno, but most people find the pain and discomfort of trapped gas worse than any embarrassment from farting, but your mileage may vary.To reduce gas volume you either have to stop feeding the bacteria so much, or you have to change the bacteria by taking probiotics that cannot release gas when they digest carbs.General Low flatus diet: http://www.endowsec.com/pated/edtgs12.htm


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## jmc09

Good advice,thanks.


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## nrep

I suppose I should say that I'm taking lomotil now, instead of immodium. I'm still toying with dosages and find I'm taking 1 in the am and either 1 or 2 in the evening. This is all to beat the morning bm. I generally only go in the morning. Let me rephrase, morning for me is usually the first 5-6 hours that I'm up. And it will hit at any time, and for however long it wants. As I'm toying around with dosages I'm trying to make it so that I can have a bowel movement (or 2, etc) in the am, but have it be not such an awful, long experience of diarrhea. When trying to control this, in the am when I feel the need to go, I immediately pop a pill hoping that I'll have a bm and then be okay (perhaps 2 or 3 bms). This usually helps stop me up enough for me to continue with the day after an hour, which is fine. However, i know if I didn't do this, I'd continue to have diarrhea episodes for several more hours. What concerns me is the question of whether or not I'm allowing myself to get out what should get out. I kind of feel like I'm playing god here. Is there danger in controling this, and more specifically since I'm preventing the further diarrhea, am I doing something bad to my system by not letting it come out? Can I get myself backed up even though I'm letting myself have a morning bm. Does my body need to dispose of more stool than I'm allowing?


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## Kathleen M.

Usually the only real "let it out, let it all out" that you should let continue is if you have an acute GI infection and you aren't having so much diarrhea you are dehydrating yourself. If you are having a bug that makes you have lots of osmotic diarrhea (watery diarrhea every 20-60 minutes for 8 hours to 10 days) you may at some point need to slow things down just so you can get enough fluids in (especially if you are also vomiting).The idea there is you want to let your body get the bad bacteria out. The reason your body has that severe watery diarrhea for hours or days on end with an infection is it trying to flush the bad bacteria out (basically your body is in do-it-yourself colonoscopy prep mode)This is VERY DIFFERENT from IBS diarrhea.You do not have IBSD because your stool is way more toxic than usual or you have a pathogenic bacteria. Your body over responds to various signals (like it is morning, time to wake up) so pushes stool that it should be storing for another several hours to a couple of the days to the end before you are done removing the extra water from it. You add a bunch of water to the food from your body at the beginning of the process and you recycle that water out in the colon over the course of a day or three so you maintain a better water balance.It isn't dangerous to let your body finish processing the regular normal just like it should be stool like it would do if you didn't have IBS. When it is pushed out before the processing is done, that is when the stool is soft and loose and when you keep pushing stool to the end before its time that is from the "over-reacting" thing.Stool normally is kept in the colon for up to three days. The colon is designed for this storage and slow removal of water from the stool. It is not dangerous to have some stool in the colon. You do not need to completely flush out the whole colon every day.


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## nrep

Thanks Kathleen. That was very helpful. It's quite logical too, I suppose.I'm hoping I can find a way to manage things with Lomotil, at least enough for me to live my life a little more normally and not be a shut in, as I am so often now. Though trying dozens of meds, supplements, diets, different forms of treatments in the past 10 yers, I hadn't yet tried things with lomotil or experimented with it like I am now. I'm praying that i can some how find some control of this seemingly uncontrollable suffering. I, of course, hope the same for everyone here on this site.


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## katyd1d

If I am having an "episode" of really bad diarrhea (constant cramping and explosive movements every 5 to 10 minutes), I have to take a couple immodium to get it to stop. When they kick in, then it just... stops. Cramps usually continue for a while though.This happens to me every few days. The rest of the time, I have non-explosive diarrhea. UNLESS I have taken a lot of immodium, and then I swing back around to constipation, which is just as uncomfortable, but at least I'm not unable to leave the vicinity of the known bathrooms.So I don't take immodium as a preventative unless I know I'm going to be somewhere with no bathroom, because too much will just cause another problem. It's just something to make the bad episodes of diarrhea stop.


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## tjesspersen

katyd1d said:


> If I am having an "episode" of really bad diarrhea (constant cramping and explosive movements every 5 to 10 minutes), I have to take a couple immodium to get it to stop. When they kick in, then it just... stops. Cramps usually continue for a while though.This happens to me every few days. The rest of the time, I have non-explosive diarrhea. UNLESS I have taken a lot of immodium, and then I swing back around to constipation, which is just as uncomfortable, but at least I'm not unable to leave the vicinity of the known bathrooms.So I don't take immodium as a preventative unless I know I'm going to be somewhere with no bathroom, because too much will just cause another problem. It's just something to make the bad episodes of diarrhea stop.


 I started taking immodium last week on thursday. I took 4 that day and 4 on friday. I only needed 1 on saturday. I was absolutely miserable yesterday. Pain, gas that somtimes I could pass and sometimes couldn't. I been miserable today too. I kept having the feeling of needing to go, but I couldn't. I felt so bad I had my husband go buy an enema. Fortunatley things started moving again while he was out and I didn't have to use it after all. From now on I'm only going to use immodium if I am having an especially "runny" day and need to be away from my house for more than just a few minutes.


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## caputsky

Like some others have said, immodium really only prevents me from going. I take it when I really don't want to, or can't, go to the bathroom constantly. When I do finally go, the stool is always slightly more formed, but that only lasts for one BM. Then I'm back to the constant loose stools. If I happen to take 2, then the day when everything starts moving again is always the worst because it's like 3 days worth of diarrhea shoved into 1 day







I use lomotil the same way, and again have the same result. I personally would rather have to go to the bathroom a couple times with formed BM than not at all, but apparently that's not really possible for me. I hope it helps others in the way of more control -- right now I'm in the middle of one of those days after 3 days of constipation from immodium, and its hell.


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## Thai

This is why so many people take it as a preventative rather than as you need it.Taking small doses on a regular basis alleviates those side effects for many.


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## caputsky

Thanks Thai. I was wondering if I could take smaller doses of some medicine as a preventative. Such as taking a lesser amount of pepto bismol. Or immodium? Has anyone ever done that? Did it firm up things at all? I really would like to find a happy medium between the daily D and overmedicating myself for a few days.


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## Thai

Oh yes, there are many that do it this way.I don't so am no expert but I have read that the best way is to start out slow, like maybe a half tab of Immodium AM and PM for a few days and then go up from there until you find the level that works for you.Maybe someone else who takes it this way will chime in and give you more info.


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## Kathleen M.

One option for starting really low and working up to the right dose of Imodium is get the kids liquid and a kids dosing spoon.Pepto can also be an option as it tends to be less constipating (which is why it can take up to 16 doses a day to control acute diarrhea).


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## Aliandra

I agree. It clogs me up badly and I can be fine (no bowel movements) for a day afterwards... but then the "clogged" feeling passes, becoming unclogged after a meal and forcing me to run to the toliet. It feels like it's just delaying the inevitable.


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## clareuk

I used to take about 4 immodiums a day, 2 first thing, 2 later on. This would eventually after 2/3 hours help to stop the diarrhea continuing all through the rest of the day. It didn't stop me from still having diarrhea the next day and every single morning I would still have to sit on the toilet for hours before work. If it was a particularly bad morning then sometimes I wouldn't have it the next day but I assumed that would be because I had emptied things so much. So they helped control the diarrhea for that day. If I knew I had to go somewhere it also helped me to know that I had taken them and that they would be starting to work.Now the diarrhea isn't as bad as it was, so I take just 1 immodium every morning and this helps to keep things normal for the moment - until it all blows up again and then I'm back to 2 or 3, which still happens quite frequently.


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## caputsky

Thanks for all the info. I tried taking pepto as a preventative measure, and it seemed to work a little bit -- had a formed bm yesterday morning. But today it all went downhill, I've had 3 bouts of diarrhea so far







Guess its not the method that will work for me...sigh


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## Thai

Maybe it won't work all the time BUT is it better than it was?I think that the answer for most of us is to use a combo of things to manage this.If something works a bit then keep at it and maybe try something else.If that helps a bit then you keep on with that and try something else again.I would love it if I could find something that did IT for me but so far no go.I have found SOME improvement with several things however and overall, I am better than I was 2 years ago, when I started on this search.


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## cherrypie09

At the begining of 2009 I was taking 5 imodium a day and still having a bm every day, slowly I managed to get it down to 1 imodium per day. Then february this year, the ibs-d got worse again, cramps and left sided colon pain, trapped wind and bloating ande more urgency, saw the gastro specialist and he said up the imodium to 3 tablets per day, I am doing this but I am still having 2-3 very loose bms a day, I seem to be needing more imodium again.


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## Friday

I'm guessing you'll have already tried this, Cherry Pie, but just in case have you tried taking tricyclics (eg amitryptaline) in the evening (as they're sedating so no good to take them in the morning)? This along with imodium has firmed up my stools a bit (sorry if too much information!). I still have bad days but it's not every day now!


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## cherrypie09

I have tried amitriptyline years ago and they did nothing for me, I have also tried nortiptyline. The trouble with taking too many imodium is that you need something else to help the wind and bloating, so I have windeze capsules, but a side effect listed on the box says diarrhoea. Some times charcoal capsules help with the wind and bloating.


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## GutterButt

For me when things are going "well", which means no actue diareha, I try to take 1/2 tablet of Immodium every other day. This does seem to help firm up my stools a bit. When ever I feel that "twinge" that I no things are going to start acting up I will take a 1/2 tablet every day. However, I found that too much Immodium will constipate me to a point. It also increases my cramping pain as for gas it is hard to tell because I always have that. I take one Gas X when ever it gets too bad or painful, but in general I just let'er rip if you know what I mean. Although, I do try to make sure no one is around when I do







My problem with the Immodium is similar to what others have said in terms that it seems to delay the inevitible. This is frustrating, which I thought by taking a 1/2 tablet every other day would help level things off but I am still worried about taking too much of it. Will my body eventually grow a tolerance for it and it will no longer work at all? How healthy is it to take sooooo much Immodium? I can never seem to find a good answer. I do know that at one point when my IBS-D was WAY OUT OF CONTROL my doctor had me taking like seven different medications a day to get things to stop. Unfortunately, nothing and no combination seemed to work for me. Of course this just put me in a deep depression. So one day, I decided to stop taking all prescribed medications except my Sertraline and just use Immodium to try to find a balance. I found that by getting off so many prescription medications that eventually things slowed down for me. For a while I was getting by with just one mild episode a week, which slowly grew to a not so mild and now we are back up to more often than not. This is why I am searching for more healthy/herabal remedies to assist rather than straight chemical. I can't keep going on like this for much longer because I jeopardize my job. I am going to try this probiotic Align and see what it does. I have tried Phillips Colon Health in the past and calcium, but nothing helped and some seemed to make my symptoms worse. Good luck to everyone and lets hope we can all find a routine that will work for us.


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## Borrellifan

For me Imodium works better then anti-spasmodics and even Lotronex. The anti-spasmodics give me extreme dry-mouth and only last a very short amount of time, I've nearly chocked to death using them in the past. The Lotrnoex worked so faintly that I could barely notice and at a cost of @ $700/month is just not worth it when Imodium works 10x better at a fraction of the cost. It's unfortunate that we have to resort to taking lots of Imodium to stay semi-normal but I've managed to work my way down to 1 or 2 a day along with lots of fiber supplements, probiotics and vitamins.I'm anxiously awaiting the approval of Asimadoline so I can give that a whirl, christ I should be working for Pfizer with all the stuff I've tried.


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## cherrypie09

What is Asimadoline and what does it do. I have never heard of it, I suppose its another drug that can only be got in the states, not for us brits.


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## Miami25

I can't really take Imodium or Pepto cause even though I have D sometimes and I have it all day...i i take them they constipate me and I get the hurting feeling in my tummy like things are all dry in there. I only take them if its an absolute emergency like I get D while I'm out with my BF and we are shopping or something and Iknow I will get to stay home the next day and take care of myself.


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