# imodium and lomotil



## bibi123 (Nov 28, 2009)

ive been suffering from ibs-d for years. although the doctors wernt sure what it was.. ive had endoscopy, colonoscopy , barium meal follow thru all results were normal. have been taking loperamide for yrs now on and off.... but have recently been back to the doctors on numerous occasions tryin to get to the bottom of this problem ... to no satisfaction... i might add...to be perfectly honest i seem to have gone full circle and im back where i first started.. at the end of my wits.Its no joke tryin to explain to the doctors that ure scared to go out incase you have an accident...4 immodium it takes just to get into the car to go to town.And as for going out for meals... well thats non existant..The doctor has now prescribed me lomotil which i have taken for the last couple of days, but its hard to tell whether its working as well as it should...I was wondering whether anyone could advise me as to how long it could take to see an improvement if any and whetther it would be safe enough to combine the lomotil and loperamide together..I would be very gratefull for any advice given at least so i dont feel like its all in my head


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## pewpewlasers (Dec 1, 2009)

As long as you don't take more than the recommended daily dosage you will be okay. That's what my GI doc told me.


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

In all of your explorations about what might have set this off, have you ever come up with a possible reason? (In my case, as an example, it was smoking. There are lots of other things that presumably have aided and abetted the development of it; but smoking was the first trigger.) If there can be any linkage between your first cause and inflammation--try Googling the two terms together to see what may come up--then I may have a solution for you. I have used a flavonoid (grape seed and skin, gingko biloba, bilberry, quercetin, and bromelain) combo which has anti-inflammatory uses, some of which may be specific to the colon. It is not a quick treatment--it took over a year to completely remove my D--but it has lasted for over 10 years which makes it pretty remarkable, all in all.Mark


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## Yukie (Feb 13, 2009)

My first flare up came some time after a gastric flu. I guess it was the trigger for me. I had been treated for a bacteria but nothing happened. My GI prescribed lomotil and my regular docteur prescribed buscopan. I haven't really tried because they make my drowsy and dizzy.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

The main concern with combining them is since they cause constipation the same way you may get too constipated. Lomotil does have an antispasmodic in it, which can cause a lot of dry mouth and other side effects that can be bothersome. So if the full daily dose you can take of it isn't enough to stop the diarrhea I would probably add some Imodium to that rather than just keep upping the dose of Lomotil.


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## ISDExecutor71 (Aug 12, 2009)

That is exactly what I do. I take one Lomotil, its good for about 12 hours. And then back it up with a couple Imodium. I find the Imodium works a bit faster than the Lomotil, but the Lomotil lasts longer.


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## TheHobbes (Dec 25, 2009)

The way it was always explained to me is that Lomotil is the same thing as Imodium, just stronger. I can't see how it would hurt to take both in the same day, but personally I think that's kind of pointless. I stick with one drug and just up the dosage if I need to.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Hobbes if you read above here in Kathleen response, she told us that Lomotil has Loperamide (the main ingredient in imodium) in it as well as an Antispasmodic. So it isn't just "stronger". It contains an antispasmodic. So it has an antidiarheal in it AND an antispasmodic. Imodium is only an an antidiarrheal. And, as she also stated, for some people taking the lomotil isn't stopping the D, then supplementing with a bit more imodium is fine.


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## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

How many lomotil do you taKe? does it make you sleepy?


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## mrae (Apr 28, 2009)

I take 2 lomotil 20 minutes apart and it lasts me all day and only takes about 20minutes to kick in. The only time I have had to add an immodium to that was after I ate something I shouldn't of and it didn't seem to hurt any by combining the two.


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## jmc09 (Oct 5, 2009)

I took lomotil for a few days as I wanted to stop taking loperamide.Unfortunately after a couple of days it was of no use at all and I'm back on loperamide again.I was unaware that lomotil has an antispasmodic in it and maybe this is the main reason for it's failure.I have never had any success at all with antispasmodics and I'm pretty sure I've tried them all over the years.Is it unusual for no antispasmodics to work at all or is it quite common?Does that give any clues on my particular type or trigger for IBS do you think?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Sometimes antispasmodics work and sometimes they don't and it doesn't as far as I know say anything about what kind of IBS you have or what triggers you.


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## jmc09 (Oct 5, 2009)

It's amazing with IBS as it always seems to be a case of the more you learn about it the less you know.Or an enigma wrapped in a riddle.


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