Imodium A-D subject of another FDA safety memo

This best-selling diarrhea drug could kill you

We’ve all been hit with it at one time or another — Montezuma’s Revenge! It can happen on an adventure to a faraway locale or right in your own home.

And I bet you have the go-to treatment for that in your medicine cabinet right now: the old standby loperamide, a.k.a. Imodium A-D.

But before you “run” into the need for some and reach for that bottle or those caplets, you should know it has two strikes against it: One, it’s an opioid (that’s right, an OTC opioid!), and two, it has been linked to numerous sudden deaths.

I know, that sounds incredibly bizarre for such a popular drug. And it’s something the FDA has been diddling over for decades. Just last week, in fact, the agency issued another meaningless “Drug Safety Communication” over loperamide with a plan to “foster safe use” of the drug.

That would be for manufacturers to voluntarily stop selling those giant-size boxes (you can easily get it in counts of 200 caplets — or more!) and limit the number per box, maybe even with single-dose packages.

But as you and I both know, when drugmakers do something voluntarily, that can take months or even years.

The problem with loperamide, however, is that even if Big Pharma goes ahead with exactly what the FDA asks it to do, it may not make this drug one iota safer for you to take.

Deadly duos
To get the full picture of how the FDA has been hemming and hawing over loperamide, you have to go back to its original approval in 1976. At that time, it was on the list of controlled substances — right along with morphine.

But that didn’t last too long. By the 1980s, it had somehow morphed into the “super-safe,” popular drug for diarrhea that it is today. Along the way, however, the FDA started hearing reports of people dying after taking the med.

And according to that recent communiqué I just mentioned, the FDA continues to receive reports of “serious heart problems and deaths” brought on by the drug.

But, not to worry! Those primarily involve people who take huge amounts of Imodium and other generic brands of loperamide to get high, the agency claims.

Okay, hold the phone. Yes, some people have used large amounts of loperamide to get a buzz (it’s an opioid after all)… but what constitutes a deadly dose could be a lot less than you think!

On top of that, the drug is known to potentially become deadly when combined with numerous other medications — including OTC ones that would seem quite logical to take right along with a drug to treat diarrhea. (I’ll give you some names in a minute).

So, while a lot of those cases were due to taking intentional large doses to get high, others weren’t.

Exactly how many people have been harmed — or killed — by taking loperamide as directed? It’s impossible to say.

That’s because only a fraction of the actual adverse events caused by any drug are reported to the FDA. And not only are those reports voluntary, but many of the known side effects caused by loperamide are heart related, such as abnormal cardiac rhythm or heart attack.

Seriously, is every heart attack patient asked if they took this drug? Of course not! This could well be a major cause of heart problems that’s just flying under the radar.

As I said, this med can interact with many different drugs, potentially creating an increase of loperamide in your body. It’s the same effect that you would get from taking an overdose, even when you’re really not!

Some of those common meds shockingly include:

Tagamet HB, the popular OTC acid reducer,
Zantac, another OTC acid drug also used to treat ulcers and GERD,
clarithromycin and erythromycin, both antibiotics,
gemfibrozil, a cholesterol-lowering med sold under the name Lopid, and
Qualaquin, a quinine-based prescription drug used to treat leg cramps.

And the FDA even warns about the quinine present in tonic water!

Yes, there are a lot of questions. But we know for sure that there’s no reason to risk taking loperamide — especially since taking it can cause the opposite problem and leave you backed up for days afterwards!

Instead, you can effectively treat diarrhea with home remedies such as yogurt, kefir (a probiotic drink), bananas, and even coconut macaroons.

Just be aware that the biggest danger when you have diarrhea is dehydration, and that’s especially true where kids are concerned. So, be sure to use natural drinks that can rehydrate, ones that contain the electrolytes that are vital to replace after even a short bout.

“Imodium (loperamide) for Over-the-Counter Use: Drug Safety Communication – FDA Limits Packaging To Encourage Safe Use” FDA, January 30, 2018, fda.gov