# Questions about Imodium



## 15132 (Mar 1, 2006)

Greetings!I know some people have found that taking Imodium have helped them out. I currently take an Imodium every few days either when I feel like an attack is brewing or after one.If I just take one, I find that I get constipated for a day or so at most. Any more and I then can't go for up to 3 or 4 days. At that point I'm able to go but it turns into D before I'm done.Has anyone had any experience with using Imodium on a more regular basis, perhaps with a lower dosage (half tablet a day/every two days)?Also, is it better to take Imodium Advanced over the regular Imodium? I get so confused from time to time with everything that I can take.Thanks for the help!


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## 23170 (Jan 8, 2006)

Hi Sean, My friend takes the Imodium capsules everyday yes everyday! I told him this is a big mistake your body will not be used to have a natural bowel movement and I think could reverese the symptoms from the diahorea that he is treating maybe to constipation but I am no doctor. He tells me he cannot go out anywhere without imodium capsules he takes them everyday and I personally think it is a mistake to regularly take them. I suffer really bad diahorea but there is only so much that can come out of your body before there is nothing left. My advice Sean is to take it when you need to not as a neccesity like my friend. I would use the regular imodium


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## Screamer (Aug 16, 2005)

Hi. I used to live off Immodium. I found that one would constipate me for a couple of days but as soon as it wore off I was straight back to violent D. I stopped taking it in the end because it started to cause me pain when I took it. According to a lot of doctors (my own and others that have said this on the boards) it is safe to take Immodium long term. Why don't you try just taking 1/2 a tablet a day (what I used to do, it didn't clog me up but stopped the D). You can also take it as a preventative before you go anywhere if you like (but again only take 1/2). Some people I'm in contact with via email take as little as 1/4 of a tablet a day(you need to buy a pill cutter from the chemist though). I believe that in the US it is also available in liquid form which gives you greater control over how much you take.The 2 differences between Immodium and Immodium Advance are that the advance is chewable and it also contains simethicone which the normal one doesn't. Simethicone helps to stop the build up of wind that the regular immodium can cause in some people therefore lessens the pain you get from taking it.Hope this helps


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## Twocups424 (Mar 26, 2002)

I take immodium most everyday. One or two as a precautionary measure. It HELPS ME IMMENSELY WITH LESS SIDE EFFECTS THAN MOST OTHER THINGS. everyone is different though.


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## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

> quote:Simethicone helps to stop the build up of wind


No, that's impossible. It just prevents bubbles.


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## Talissa (Apr 10, 2004)

The FDA recommends not taking imodium for more than 2 days in a row. If you do, you should "consult w/ your doctor."


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## Guest (May 19, 2006)

There are times when I have to take Imodium for more than a few days in a row. And at times it can constipate me, but I find that if I also take Metamucil or Citrucel, that helps with the constipation (and it also helps with diarrhea).~Renee


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## 20250 (Jul 14, 2005)

simethicone doesn't prevent bubbles either. It just allows little bubbles to join together and make big bubbles, which in theory allows you pass gas and burp easier. Now we know our bubbles


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## SLBEL3 (Jun 1, 2000)

wow, I wish I could get away with only 1 tablet. In order for me to be able to leave my house I have to take anywhere from 9 to 15 tablets of immodium. Some weeks it's pretty much every day. Other times it's only most of the days but not every. Depends on what I have to do. Right now my daughter is playing softball so she has either a game or a practice 5 nights a week. I still have D the next day after taking it though so i don't take it until I have gone to the bathroom a few times, unless I have to go out really early, like tomorrow. Daughter has a game at 8:30am and I have to have her at the field at 7:45am. So in order for the immodium to kick in I will have to get up at 5am and take it immediately so that by the time I have to leave hopefully it will work.


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## JudithB (Mar 29, 2005)

SandiHow long have you been taking the Imodium at this level? My GP prescribes me Imodium but I try desperately not to take it as I am on so many other meds for hypertension & diabetes. However, these past couple of months my ibs.d has gradually got worse and I am becoming a recluse again. I am wondering about taking the Imodium every day now - but I am concerned incase the ibs.d is actually being triggered by all my pills and then I will be taking the Imodium to stop the side effects from other pills.So sorry this sounds a bit of a mess - well, that is how I feel I am at the moment!!Any advice appreciated. (I am 53, ibs.d for over 30 years)Many thanks.


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## 15132 (Mar 1, 2006)

Thanks for all of the advice!I was worried that my body might get 'hooked' on them even though my doctor had told me to use them when I needed to. I think I will try using it more regularly now but make sure to keep taking my fibre supplements.


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## SLBEL3 (Jun 1, 2000)

Judith, I've been taking that amount for about 8 years now. However, because I've had to take that amount for so long. And I've been taking immodium regularly for 11 years now that when I don't take it for a couple days the cramps and D are really bad. Also there are no longer any days that I can leave to go somewhere for any period of time without taking it. I'd still be careful of it though, I think as things are now, for me it doesn't work all day anymore. It sometimes doesn't even work at all for me, depends on how bad that the day is.


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## 13540 (Aug 18, 2005)

> quote:Imodium


i tried it it dont work for me and i dont like it because imodium is tuff on your liver!!


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## Twocups424 (Mar 26, 2002)

what drugs aren't tough on your liver???????????Cholesterol drugs are horrible on your liver yet drs. prescribe them like candy anymore.


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## 16858 (Apr 10, 2006)

You know, I hadn't tried taking Imodium because the specialist I saw as Sloan in NY said to be mindful this is lifelong and do you really want to be on immodium for the rest of your life (alluding to putting a drug into your body). But this past weekend.. was like a miracle and I have no idea where to credit it.My stomach was like my old stomach and made of steel! But the following factors were in play:1. I was IN SAN FRANCISCO staying at an old hotel all by myself with my school books (I go to Psych classes there)with comfy quilts and pretty room - completely relaxed.2. Took immodium all weekend3. Two days prior had a barium xray (someone told me the chalkiness binds you).All I know was I was a human for the weekend an I tolerated coffee again for the first time! I landed in JFK on the redeye, walked in the door, started talking to my boyfriend and the pain came!! I was so disappointed.. I almost thought I had a miraculous cure!







J


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## Twocups424 (Mar 26, 2002)

my opinion is that IF IT WORKS AND ITS GIVING YOU SOME KIND OF A LIFE BACK, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!


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## 19120 (May 4, 2006)

To be honest I don't trust imodium, I got the big d with it. It can not stop my attacks when they are too severe.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It doesn't work for everybody, but sometimes it works better when taken regularly rather than taken after the attack starts. Kinda like antihistamines are best taken before you go to the house with the cats that set off your allergies rather than wait until you are miserable. However, using it like that may mean you need to be able to predict attacks. A fair number of people who can do that (like it is riding on the subway or fatty meals that set them off) find that taking it 30 minutes before the thing that will set them off prevents the attack even if it does little good once the attack starts. Like most drugs it takes time between when you take it and when it is effective and a lot of times the duration of an attack is short enough that they drug only gets up to effective dose after everything is all over.One study that showed it was OK for longterm use in IBSers found that 2X a day regular dosing seemed to give the most control. I can understand a doctor would rather you control IBS only with lifestyle changes and never use any drug ever, but that isn't going to happen for a lot of IBSers.I don't know where the it is hard on your liver comes from it wasn't on the rxlist of side effects of being particularly liver damaging, but many drugs have a do not take if you have liver disease for reasons OTHER THAN they hurt the liver more. Once you have liver disease you cannot process drugs as effectively so you may have dosage issues that people with normal livers do not have. It is that the diseased liver cannot activate or eliminate the drug properly, not that the drug damages the liver more that is the reason for the warning.K.


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## JudithB (Mar 29, 2005)

KathleenI am taking a total of 10 different meds for hypertension, diabetes & depression and they ALL have diarrhea as a side effect. I am beginning to think that it is the combination of the pills which is causing my current instability. I am still taking the Acacia fiber & acidopholus daily but that is not keeping me stable anymore.My main concern about taking the Imodium regularly is that I will be taking Imodium to counteract the side effects of my prescribed medication. Do you know if this happens with some people?I do agree with you about taking it daily but have been trying to "handle it" without the Imodium - guess its not working though else I wouldn't be on here looking to you for advice.I am seeing my GP this Friday but would still appreciate your advice.many thanks.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I think doing a medication review with the doctor makes a lot of sense. There may be a set of pills that could do the same job with less cumulative side effects. I would bring all the pills, or the list of all the pills, and ask the doctor to do a review to see if there might be a way to reduce the diarrhea.Unfortunately sometimes people do end up in a situation where they have to take a drug to counteract the side effects of the other drugs. You do want to be careful of that because that can set you into a mode where you take more drugs with more cummulative side effects and it can be a vicious cycle. Especially if you have a few different doctors treating different things, sometimes you get one doctor treating the side effects of the drugs given by another doctor without them realizing they are treating a side effect rather than a condition.Imodium probably wouldn't add much to that because it is fairly limited in the body to the GI tract, so it might not be as bad as other situations.I'm getting a lot of migraines and I don't want to go on meds that reduce the frequency because I'm on high blood pressure meds and most of the ones that work really well for me can increase my blood pressure and I when I went off them I had lost some tolerance for them (I'm one that can do fine on a drug for a few years then get side effects which is really annoying) so I'm not sure I should go back on them.Good luck! Medication issues are not much fun.One other thought, a friend of mine in a similar situation just recently had some major breakthoughts in her health from her blood work and the doctor can't explain how things got that much better that fast because it shouln't happen like that. She has been doing a lot of Qi Gong and walking and maybe something like Qi Gong could help, there are some good tapes out there that you could do at home. I don't think the set she has been doing is out there on tape, but there are lots of other titles.


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## 16923 (Mar 25, 2006)

I was given a Loperamide prescription a few years ago from my doctor (Imodium).I started taking one when I had to go out, as a preventative measure. Over time as recommended by the doctor, I increased them to one every two days. This helped greatly for the first week - then I found I was becoming constipated!! I had the same problems as sbrennan so I went back to just taking them if I was going out somewhere.I think my script was about 2 years ago, for 100 tablets. I still have some left! Or did I throw them out... I'll have to go have a look now!


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## 15884 (Jun 4, 2006)

I take 2 Immodium a day for 5 days out of 7 because of side-effects (diahrrea) of internal pelvic radiation. My oncologist said take 2 days off to let the body rest. He said that I could continue to do this indefinitely. Should my body habituate to Immodium and become less effective the next step would be "tincture of opium".


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## 16199 (Feb 15, 2006)

Annakarenina: I had radiation also and suffer with the side effects of diarrhea now. When did you have your radiation? Are you also very sensitive to many foods like dairy, grain, fats, etc.?


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## SLBEL3 (Jun 1, 2000)

I was on tincture of opium for 4 years. loved it. my new docs here in Maine decided to take me off it because they don't believe in IBS they think it's all anxiety. I've been going through some pretty bad withdrawl from it too. I have an appt with my doc on Monday and am hoping to convince him to send me to a gastro doc which he seems to not want to do. This will probably be my last visit with my new doc because he's an idiot who thinks all my medical problems are from anxiety. He thinks the nerve damage I have is from it, my ibs, my multiple sclerosis, my fibromyalgia, my arthritis in my knees, my kneecap that pops out of place because there's no ligaments or cartilage left, my bone fragment that is floating in my neck, my heart problem, etc, he feels is all from anxiety, so he's taken me off all my medications turning me into a hermit.But I will tell you, tincture of opium will not stop the D like immodium does. It slows it down and makes your bms more formed, you will still have frequency, just not as much. Before I started on it I had watery D up to 20 times a day with severe cramping, when I started it, it took about 2 months for the full effect of it to work and I went down to about having more formed but not completely formed bm's between 5-10 times a day and the cramping was only maybe 4 days a week, some weeks only once a week. But the pain was always there no matter what, just different degrees of it. so it slowed things down, just didnt' get rid of it. I still had to take immodium with it. I am up to 15 immodium if I need to go out somewhere. Thankfully I don't go out everyday so i don't have to take it everyday, but the weeks that I do have to go out each day when I finally have a day I don't have to go out I get severely constipated. It's a vicious cycle. Especially now that I don't have the opium.If you get it, don't think it's going to be a miracle, it most likely will help you, but you won't be cured.


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## 18275 (Jun 1, 2006)

I know Imodium helps me, but I've never taken it more then 4x per day for a couple days. I tend to schedule everything for 1 day per week (ex: my errands, doc appts. etc). Then the night before my busy day I take 1 imodium at bed time, wake up and take another one, and take one every hour until I am leaving the house. Sometimes I think just the thought of having it in my imodium on board is a huge help.Good LuckGina


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## 17879 (Jun 11, 2006)

I have been taking Immodium under Dr's supervision for many years. Somedays it maybe 2 or 3, normally about 6 per day. I have not found constipation to be a problem ever when using it only as needed and never additional dose of 1 pill never less than 2 hours after the last(no matter what). I have found having a cup of brown rice before heading out for an "off the IB diet" meal helps, and take the first 2 pill dose 30 minutes prior to eating off diet.For me, I have found I have made life adjustments to cope with the chronic diarrhea and have a harder time dealing with the total exhaustion afterward, especially as I get older.


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## 22504 (Jun 12, 2006)

I use to drag around a bottle of liquid kaopectate with me for years..man that became a pain until a few years ago I remembered seeing the Imodium AD commercials on tv and decided to give it a shot. All I can say is what a life saver!! Since all my symptoms are morning ones and if I do have a problem thats when I'm usually using the bathroom but I'm safe if I can make it past noon. So anyway if I sense a problem in the morn I usually take 2-3 pills and after a few movements I can manage the day. If I only sense a minor problem or I'm nervous I usually take only one pill and it keeps me regular without any constipation.Sometimes if it's bad the 3 pills will take a while to kick in and I might even take a 4th but if I can get away with two I'm happy since 3 or more will stop me going the bathroom for 1-2 days







which I'm ok with because I never get the pain associated with constipation.Being a carpenter with IBS-D can have its problems since driving to jobs far away or without bathrooms freak me out big time! But I keep one of the nitro stainless steel pill tubes on my key chain and it fits two I-AD perfectly.


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## Lumanog (Feb 14, 2005)

My habit is to have a 2 hour preparation before going to school and i go to the bathroom 3x above a day, my normal is 3x a day. Then i take 1 tablet of imodium and then my whole day is d free. The only problem is the leaky gas. And i watch what i eat to prevent my d to get worse. I alter taking imodium w/ caltrate. Just take imodium when needed!! i seldom drink imodium every weekends!!


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## 21723 (Aug 19, 2005)

> quote:Originally posted by Bane:I use to drag around a bottle of liquid kaopectate with me for years..man that became a pain until a few years ago I remembered seeing the Imodium AD commercials on tv and decided to give it a shot. All I can say is what a life saver!! Since all my symptoms are morning ones and if I do have a problem thats when I'm usually using the bathroom but I'm safe if I can make it past noon. So anyway if I sense a problem in the morn I usually take 2-3 pills and after a few movements I can manage the day. If I only sense a minor problem or I'm nervous I usually take only one pill and it keeps me regular without any constipation.Sometimes if it's bad the 3 pills will take a while to kick in and I might even take a 4th but if I can get away with two I'm happy since 3 or more will stop me going the bathroom for 1-2 days
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Hi Bane, I do maintenance work and have the same problems. I drive a van and keep a 5 gal bucket lined with a plastic bag and a roll of toilet paper. Just don't mix up the buckets!







Oh, BTW 2-4 Imodiums daily for 10 years.


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## 22504 (Jun 12, 2006)

> quote:Originally posted by pooman:Hi Bane, I do maintenance work and have the same problems. I drive a van and keep a 5 gal bucket lined with a plastic bag and a roll of toilet paper. Just don't mix up the buckets!
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Hey pooman .I'm glad someone understands me lol. I always keep toilet paper in the trucks..just incase but I've been lucky enough to get to bathrooms first, I always try to get the boss to bring in a portapotty for jobs where bathroom access is difficult or not available. I'm lucky enough to get a few weeks to a month or so without having to use imodium but then there are months were I think I use it almost every day.


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## Twocups424 (Mar 26, 2002)

> quote:When all else fails, play dead


This is excellent EponaII. I feel my husband does this all the time.


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## AllStrZ (May 6, 2006)

I went to my specialist last week, and he told me that Immodium makes IBS worse, i used to take it when i had D. Has anyone else heard that?


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## Twocups424 (Mar 26, 2002)

actually , I just went to my gastro and he didn't say anything negative about immodium to me. I find it has helped me better than any medicine the dr. prescribesm, with hardly any side effects. The Questran and immodium together are my hero's


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## SLBEL3 (Jun 1, 2000)

I saw a new gastro doc yesterday and he told me that he didn't care that I had been taking 15+ immodium to go out and that I had to just live with it.


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