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Can We Talk About Immodium Please

Cynbd

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Cynbd Contributor
Cynbd
Posted

Hi there,

How does everyone use Immodium around here? Before I found I have celiac disease I had suffered from what I mainly thought was Lactose Intolerance for many years and learned to avoid using Immodium unless I had to go somewhere. My thought had always been that dairy was fermenting in my intestines and the only way to move on was to get it out of my system and not slow it down for another day with Immodium.

I also have the impression that Immodium only delays the inevitable -- D And... once the fermenting dairy was out of my system I was good to go.

So, with that being said, how does that compare to a gluten attack? Is it the same theory where you are just delaying the inevitable, and as long as one is hanging out at home near a bathroom it would be best not to take Immodium and let it all out?

Or -- can I just manage it with Immodium and save myself a lot of pain and anxiety?

Also, I believe I am also fighting IBS (my symptoms have gotten worse again since school started (I am a 40 something full-time student with a family, so it can be stressful to say the least) My Doctor told me that managing IBS with Immodium is fine, that it is not all about getting the gunk 'out of the system' -- but I think I am finding it is hard to tell the difference between glutening and IBS...

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

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gfp Enthusiast
gfp
Posted
Hi there,

How does everyone use Immodium around here? Before I found I have celiac disease I had suffered from what I mainly thought was Lactose Intolerance for many years and learned to avoid using Immodium unless I had to go somewhere. My thought had always been that dairy was fermenting in my intestines and the only way to move on was to get it out of my system and not slow it down for another day with Immodium.

I also have the impression that Immodium only delays the inevitable -- D And... once the fermenting dairy was out of my system I was good to go.

So, with that being said, how does that compare to a gluten attack? Is it the same theory where you are just delaying the inevitable, and as long as one is hanging out at home near a bathroom it would be best not to take Immodium and let it all out?

Or -- can I just manage it with Immodium and save myself a lot of pain and anxiety?

Also, I believe I am also fighting IBS (my symptoms have gotten worse again since school started (I am a 40 something full-time student with a family, so it can be stressful to say the least) My Doctor told me that managing IBS with Immodium is fine, that it is not all about getting the gunk 'out of the system' -- but I think I am finding it is hard to tell the difference between glutening and IBS...

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Its a fairly complex question and I don't think there is a simple best answer.

As far as letting it all out, its really not that simple because gluten attaches itself to the body. As with most things the body has different ways of dealing with it both long and short term.

One of the first things that happens when you get a virus is your body identifes that virus and starts to take steps to eradicate it. The long term way is by manufacturing specific antigens for this virus but this takes a while so meanwhile the body does what worked for our ancestoral mammilian cousins which is elevating the body temperature. This works well if your a cat or a horse because their body temp is already quite a bit higher than humans or pigs but for humans its pretty ineffective because our body temp is so low to start with and many of the viri are shared across species.

We still do it though because its programmed in... the other responses programmed in are nausea and diarrea.

Meanwhile the body prepares its real defense which is active and targets the viri...

When you have celaic then the problem is that the body misidentifies the protein as a antigen (a virus or bacteria) and starts to make antigens against it...

Because the gluten attaches to the body the antigens fight this and destroy it but also whatever its attached to...

In reality it is not gluten destroying your villi, it is your own antigens.

Obviously the faster its got rid of the better but if you read many household poisions some of them say "Do not induce vomiting" this is because the substance can do as much damage oin the way out as being handled ...

Immodium is a modified opiate like heroine or coedine but it is engineered not to provide the endorphin stimulant that makes the others addictive.

What it does do is bind tot he endorphin receptors and this in itself then triggers a consitpation... a simple way to look at this is your body doesn't want the stuff to leave your stomach and go through your intestines...

Its a little hard to explain because in many ways its like the body is making complex decisions when its really just following a very smart programme.

One side effect of immodiium I find is it effectively blocks the opiate receptors by binding to them, and because it fits better than gluten it does so preferentially. The problem with gluten is it binds but imperfectly and hence can damage the receptor itself thus causing mood swings and brain fog as the body is looosing the functionality to control this itself...and respond to external stimuli

My 2c is its worth taking (but not the liquid that contains gluten) if only to act as a blocker for the exorphins ( a collective name for proteins that connect to the endorphin receptor and commonly include casein and gluten)

A second important thing is that it is the inefficiency of the gut-blood and blood-brain barriers in celiacs that lead to many of the effects of glutening...

you can search for research on zonulin if you want to understand more...

By slowing down the process of these toxins attaching to the receptors being transmitted across the barriers it gives the barriers time to respond... and in a way by binding the toxins in fibre they are being prevented from interfering as opposed to being blasted through your intestines at supersonic speed...

bklynceliac Apprentice
bklynceliac
Posted

I don't think there's much to the "need to get it out of my system" argument. If I'm having a bad attack and need to medicate with pepto or gluten, it can stop it in its tracks, not just delay the inevitable. If offenders really just need to get out of your body, you would get the same D once the immodium had worn off. But that doesn't really happen. In my experience anyway. I will say though, that if it fits with my schedule I would just assume go through the D and be working from an empty stomach than deal with the tightness and uncomfortability that you get with anti-d meds. But immodium is a pretty safe and effective medication, if you're having trouble and would feel better with a couple in your belly, I wouldn't be shy about taking them. Feeling good is the goal.

larry mac Enthusiast
larry mac
Posted
.....My 2c is its worth taking (but not the liquid that contains gluten).....

gpd,

That was really impressive; what a lesson. You obviously know your stuff (no joke).

Regarding the statement above. The last couple times I tried to take liquid Immodium over the last couple years, it made me feel worse, ill to my stomach. But the tablets did not, and worked fine. I had no idea there was gluten in it. Of course I didn't even know anything about gluten or Celiac at that time. Which means I couldn't have been mentally influenced by other factors (such as all the celiac info, stuff I read on this & other sites, etc), and was making a completely objective observation.

My bottle of Equate brand liquid Imm. does not list the inactive ingredients. They may have been on the box, which I discarded. What makes you think there is gluten in it?

best regards, lm

larry mac Enthusiast
larry mac
Posted
....How does everyone use Immodium around here?....

cbd,

I'm no expert and fairly new myself. But I start taking the tablets (as gpd said, the liquid makes me ill) if I determine I've got more than just a normal, common case of slight diarrheal. The sooner the better in my opinion. I sart with two, then one every meal or snack time, or following a bad bm (about every two hours I guess). If one didn't do the trick, I'd up it to two. No more than six a day is what my doctor said.

That has worked well for my very limited "after diagnosis/going gluten free experience. Before that, I had been told by my previous doctor (the quack butcher) not to take any stomach meds at all except cholestyramine (a prescription powder). That worked at first. But as my undiagnosed celiac progressed, it stopped working. I eventially found a good doctor, and am now better.

best regards, lm

p.s. to gpd. Would you please shed some light on the workings of cholestyramine resin as relates to us. I would really appreciate it. Thanks, lm

darlindeb25 Collaborator
darlindeb25
Posted

Yeah, gpd, that was very impressive. I can't remember if I ever used the liquid immodium. I do know that when I had something I needed to do, I would take it and then I knew that the next day or that night, I would be even sicker. Yet, I never took more than 1, never.

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