Hi everyone - just a simple question - how long before I go out for lunch or dinner should I take imodium/lomotil to stop the inevitable? Thanks in advance for any advice.

I think 30 minutes beforehand is what I've read

Lomotil- 30-60 minutes before.

Imodium- about 4 hours before. It peaks about 4-5 hours after oral dosing. You should just figure out how much you will need during the day and either take it in divided doses or all at once. The half life is long enough, that there is some carry over from day to day and it takes several days to build up a constant blood level.

Jan

4 hours!!!!! Wow I guess I should read the bottle! Actually on one of the bottles it says to take at first sign of loose stool. And then my doc said 30 mins before meal. I guess with the 4 hours I'm safe cuz I'm popping these babies all day long so some of the doses gotta be kickin in.

The over-the-counter meds will not discuss peak plasma levels (unless you are reading the prescribing info inserts). Their instructions are for acute diarrhea, not chronic.

An interesting thing that I discovered about loperamide (Imodium), is that it binds directly to the opiate receptor in the gut wall, and only a very small amount winds up in the systemic circulation. A clinical improvement would occur within 1-3 hours. So, this is much shorter than the 4 peak plasma level, and probably more significant.

http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/Profs/Datasheet/a/Apoloperamidetab.htm

Jan

English Jan......English!!!!

Oh, sorry about that.

The Imodium molecule actually imbeds itself into the intestinal mucosa...sort of like acting topically. It keeps working until it is released into the bloodstream and broken down by the liver. The half life is about 11 hours. This means that half of the Imodium is still active after 11 hours. After 22 hours a quarter of it is still active.

So you can see, there is a carry over from day to day. This is why it takes several days to build up the full effect, and why you should take it on a daily basis (divided or single dose) once you know you are going to need it.

Jan