# Imodium with or without a meal?



## Siea (Jun 21, 2010)

Anyone know how I get the most effect from the imodium?I thinking if I take it with a meal the stomach acid may kill some of the med, but I also think it could possibly be the straight opposite and it helps the intake of the med.Anyone know?


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## peaches41 (Nov 26, 2008)

I'm not sure. I take the Instant pill as and when I need it, regardless of whether I take it with food or without. Works ok either way, I think.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Typically if you need to prevent post-eating diarrhea I would take it 20-30 minutes before the meal. Let the drug get a chance to be in place before the diarrhea hits. The dosing information I saw that had the brief version says take on an empty stomach but can take with food if you find it irritating to the stomach. In one clinical study with IBSers they did find 2X a day dosing seems to be better than once a day, it has a half-life of about 10 hours.Let me see if I can find out if food effects the absorption or not. ETA: since there isn't much information on the main drug info sites, sounds like whatever data was done during the early testing of the drug showed food vs empty stomach didn't make much difference.


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## nonentity (Dec 31, 2010)

I suffer quite badly from gastrocolic reflex most of the time but I only use Immodium when absolutely necessary. I find that 20-30 minutes before eating isn't long enough for me and tend to go for one hour before eating then another dose immediately before. No particularly firm evidence for the second dose working but it seems to do the trick. However as I only use it sporadically the effect might be magnified compared to someone who uses it regularly.Good luck!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It does take awhile to get to peak concentration in the blood so the 30 minutes may not be enough time for some people.


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