# When do you take imodium



## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

I take Imodium or lomotil every day ..not working too good no matter ow much intake...do you take it with meals, before or after meals? And how many pills? Thanks


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## SteveInAustin (Aug 22, 2007)

I take it immediately after meals. You can take it soon before, during, or after. The timing doesn't really change the results for me.

I don't recommend taking it when symptoms first occur. That's already too late. You probably won't have much success that way.

My dosage is 2 pills (each 2mg Loperamide). And I take each dose immediately after each of 3 main meals and right before bed. So 8 pills total per day. But your dosage may be different.


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## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

You are so right, once it starts too late for anything! My dose is the same, eight pills a day fore times a day, I used to take one four times a day, well that quit working for sure, now I am worried I may have to increase it again ....this is getting expensive!!


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## Colt (May 5, 2011)

Half before bed.....one in the morning and sometimes one at noon if it will be a late day.

I find the half before bed to be the most important. It has cut my 'morning torture' down by a lot.

Oh, and Knot.....Imodium is over a dollar per pill here in Canada. I make trips to the US just for Imodium.


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## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

Yes I guess it is more expensive in Canada!!! Here if you can get a dr. To write a script. And now for the biggie, IF your darn ins company will cover it, some people can gt it pretty cheap....but more ins co. Say. Get it over the counter.


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## SteveInAustin (Aug 22, 2007)

Loperamide is the generic drug that's equivalent to Immodium. On Amazon.com, you can pick up 800 pills for about $15-$18 (US Dollars). That's about 2 to 3 cents per pill. Cheap! And it's the same exact drug as you get from the super expensive Immodium. Really, nobody here should bother with the expensive stuff. Go for the generic.


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## Colt (May 5, 2011)

Thanks guys....the generics are about 85 cents a pill. The only option for me is the run to the US. Even with the hotel stay, it is still a lot cheaper to buy it there.

Knothappy.....what have you decided about your Imodium schedule? Did you try the 'before bed' option? That really, really helped me. Made the morning much more bearable.


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## Patricia Branch Hall (Nov 13, 2014)

My IBS-D is very sensitive to anything that tries to stop it. If I take Imodium or Welchol, the next day I will have the opposite - can't go but will have pain as if I'm going to have diarrhea. Bentyl helps some.


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## PD85 (Aug 19, 2010)

Imodium works at least 10x more effectively for me when taken on an empty stomach. Try taking it at least 30 minutes before a meal.


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## Colt (May 5, 2011)

Patricia Branch Hall said:


> My IBS-D is very sensitive to anything that tries to stop it. If I take Imodium or Welchol, the next day I will have the opposite - can't go but will have pain as if I'm going to have diarrhea. Bentyl helps some.


Try breaking the Loperamide pill into two or even three pieces.


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## SteveInAustin (Aug 22, 2007)

Colt, for CDN$ 12.95, Amazon.ca (Canada) has 400 count pills of Loperamide. That comes to just CDN$ 0.03 per pill. Am I missing something? I don't think it requires a prescription, either. Do they not deliver to where you are?

<http://www.amazon.ca/Kirkland-Signature-Anti-Diarrheal-400-Count-Caplets/dp/B0030GYRQY>

By the way, I use Kirkland Signature's Loperamide. It works as well as Immodium brand.


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## Colt (May 5, 2011)

SteveInAustin said:


> Colt, for CDN$ 12.95, Amazon.ca (Canada) has 400 count pills of Loperamide. That comes to just CDN$ 0.03 per pill. Am I missing something? I don't think it requires a prescription, either. Do they not deliver to where you are?
> 
> <http://www.amazon.ca/Kirkland-Signature-Anti-Diarrheal-400-Count-Caplets/dp/B0030GYRQY>
> 
> By the way, I use Kirkland Signature's Loperamide. It works as well as Immodium brand.


Thanks Steven....I will check that out. I use generic anyway. The only issue may be if it comes from the US, the duties and taxes may double or triple the price. Worth a try though. I will order a box next time I need it and see what happens. Really appreciate this. When I first got IBS, it cost me over a $1000 per year in loperamide alone.


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## SteveInAustin (Aug 22, 2007)

Yeah, you can get great deals if you just do a little online shopping. And I think the fact that it's the Canadian Amazon site means you'll have no problems with getting it shipped to you. Paying the 85 cents per pill you said that you pay is just robbery. That's over 25 times the price you should be paying per pill.

And what that means for you, by the way, is that you no longer have to do the mental math in your head: Oh, should I take this pill now, or wait a little bit until I start to feel bad? If it costs so much, that's what you're going to be doing. At a few cents per pill, it's no longer going to cause you anxiety.


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## Patricia Branch Hall (Nov 13, 2014)

PD85 said:


> Imodium works at least 10x more effectively for me when taken on an empty stomach. Try taking it at least 30 minutes before a meal.


Thanks I will try that.


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## peaches41 (Nov 26, 2008)

1loperamide plus 2 Buscopan after the morning rush. Both drugs free thanks to National Health Service! On an unusual day like last Thursday when I had a medical procedure on my eye and had to be awake the whole time I took 2 lopamide 3 hours before the operation and 1 Immodium Instant 1 hour before. I tend to stick with 1 a day though. My gp told me our bodies can get accustomed to loperamide.


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## nzim (Mar 26, 2014)

I like to the it preventively. Usually just before I go to bed if I know my morning is going to be stressfull. Otherwise I take it at least an hour before a meal I am not sure I will bear appropriately.

Btw I though Immodium was expencive here, but after you said that a pill can cost up to a dollar... Wow. Here the expencive variation called Immodium is 0.25 euros per pill and the generic one is even 0.15 euros. I don't think I will complain about its price anytime soon...


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## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

Colt said:


> Thanks guys....the generics are about 85 cents a pill. The only option for me is the run to the US. Even with the hotel stay, it is still a lot cheaper to buy it there.
> 
> Knothappy.....what have you decided about your Imodium schedule? Did you try the 'before bed' option? That really, really helped me. Made the morning much more bearable.


. Yes , I did try that and it helped for a few days, but then failed, but I am going to stick to it toneeif it may help,again. Thanks


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## frustratedibser (Dec 24, 2013)

*I've recently started taking a daily preventative dose of Imodium. For me, 2 pills 1st thing every morning seems to be a charm. I started off taking them at night before bed, having read someone else say that worked best for them, but it wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped. So not wanting to increase the dosage unless I had to I experimented with different schedules. Tried taking it in the early evening about an hour before dinner, thinking it would then be at peak concentration in my system around the time I ate my main meal, and when my symptoms tend to be the worst (unlike many here who have morning troubles, my D usually hits right after dinner; could be that most ppl normally go #2 in the am, but I've always been an evening goer, even with normal stools, may have something to do with being a night owl in general). *

*That worked OK as long as I was faithful like clockwork in taking it, but if I was even 1 hour late, BOOM, diarrhea. Then having read that some ppl find it works best to split the amount into 2 doses, I tried taking 1 pill in the AM and the other in the evening. Same deal, fine if I was a slave to the schedule, but forget a pill and instant problems. So finally I started taking both pills 1st thing on an empty stomach (they have time to work too since it's usually at least an hour from the time I wake up till I eat breakfast) and that was the miracle!







* 

*Now my stools are well-formed, only need a couple wipes to clean and sometimes even sink in the toilet (the ultimate, and pre-Imodium nearly unattainable, sign of a happy gut for me)! Before that I was producing floaty, oatmealish glop that took half a box of moist wipes and nearly an hour of wiping to get clean. When it wasn't bubbly liquid, that is. My poo is a more normal color now also, more brown and less yellow-orange. I do still have some mucus, gas and abdominal pain, but it is bearable. I've considered going up to 3 pills a day to see if that makes my symptoms clear completely, but want to use as little as possible for cost and potential constipation or dependency reasons. *

*Have experimented with dropping down to 1 pill a day, or even 2 on odd days and 1 on even days, but nope, it's gotta be 2 pills every day. I did do the responsible thing and ask my doc about using the Imodium on such a constant basis (after experimenting with it unsupervised for a month, lol







* *), hoped she'd be in the "If it helps, great, use it!" camp, but she said it's not really something she recommends.







* *She said it is better to get to the root cause of the problem (her being a functional medicine doc, this wasn't too surprising), and I agree, assuming we can ever FIND a root cause, which of course is the endless search in IBS. *

*She's having me take a blood test tomorrow, for yeast I think she said. She wants me to have a Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis test too, but it is fairly expensive and not covered by my insurance; and being disillusioned with testing (as 1 gets with IBS after years of having every test known to man only to be told "All the results are normal, there's nothing we can do because technically there is nothing wrong with you"







* *), I'm not keen to plunk a bunch of money into what could very well be yet another fruitless wild goose chase. But then keeping myself supplied with Imodium is also a fairly costly proposition in the long-run, so maybe it is worth it. *

*At least the Imodium is over-the-counter, so I don't NEED my doc's blessing to continue it. BTW, wish me luck tomorrow with the blood test, cause I have horrible, awful, no-good, very bad veins that are tiny, love to hide and "roll" away from the needle, and are prone to "blowing", plus blood that flows (or rather doesn't) like sap in January for whatever reason, even when I super-hydrate beforehand like they tell me to. At least I'm not afraid of needles or blood and am not extremely sensitive to pain, so I can take it when they have to stick me multiple times just to get a little bit of blood.







*


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## Noodles87 (Nov 18, 2014)

Never, whenever I've tried Imodium it has always made me worse.


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## Colt (May 5, 2011)

Frustratedibser....great post!!

Love how they give us all the "root cause" speech. Wish one of them actually would get to the "root cause". Until then, we will do what we have to to survive and live a life.

As for the continuous use and high dosage? My Gastro has excellent credentials, including a consultant to/for the Mayo. He has no issues whatsoever with long term use and has patients who have taken a dozen or more for twenty-plus years with no signs of damage.

Use what works....for me, Imodium has been the only thing that truly helped. It is not a cure, but it makes life much more manageable.


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## D :( (Aug 11, 2009)

Everyday: 4 to 6 usually...8 to 10 for extraordinary circumstances.


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