Is The Levbid Working Or The gluten-free Diet?

[jessicalw28]

My doctor put me on Levbid to help relieve my D. I had a negative endoscopy, so he thinks it's IBS. I'm still convinced it's gluten, so I started the diet. The past three days, my stools have been more normal than they have in a long time. I have been on the gluten-free diet a little over a week and the Levbid about 2 weeks. How do I know which one is working? Should I try not taking the levbid for a while? Should levbid have worked immediately?

[ravenwoodglass]

I stopped taking the Levbid when I went gluten free. It was one of a number of drugs that I weaned off of before I started the diet. I never had to add any of the 5 scripts back. If you have been taking it a long time you should ask your doctor if you need to wean off or if you can just stop it. In my case the Levbid was not real effective. I do not think it is a drug that you need to take for a few weeks before it becomes effective like some antidepressants for example. For me it was the diet that caused the incredible changes. My D was gone within less than a week off gluten but when I was taking the Levbid and still eating gluten my D would start up again as soon as the med wore off.

[jessicalw28]

Thanks Ravenwood. It's hard for me to tell if it since I started the med and the diet so close together. I guess I could find out if it would be okay for me to go off the med and challenge it to see if the D comes back.

[ravenwoodglass]

Thanks Ravenwood. It's hard for me to tell if it since I started the med and the diet so close together. I guess I could find out if it would be okay for me to go off the med and challenge it to see if the D comes back.

If you have only been on the Levbid for 2 weeks you should be okay to just stop it. If you had been taking it for a couple of months you might have to taper as if I remember correctly it does have addictive properties. Check with your doctor to make sure but you should be able to just set it aside.

[jessicalw28]

Thanks. I will gladly give it up. It makes my mouth so dry! Will check with the doc tomorrow.