Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Does Imodium Contain Gluten?

mle-ii

Recommended Posts

mle-ii Explorer
mle-ii
Posted

Ok, it was mentioned elsewhere that Imodium contains gluten. This was news to me so I thought I'd search. Couldn't find out for certain so I called customer support of the manufacturer McNeil. Here's the website: Open Original Shared Link

According to the very nice customer support person, the products that are designated Gluten Free are the "Imodium A-D Caplets" and the "Imodium Advanced Caplets". I forgot to ask about the "Imodium Advanced Chewable Caplets" though so I'm not certain.

What he couldn't say is whether the newer formula "New Imodium A-D Liquid" was gluten free. :( And here's why, which I didn't realize. They have an inactive ingredient called "flavor"; so ok, what's in the flavor you ask. Well they don't know, why don't they know? Because the formula is made by another company and that company won't share the ingredients because it is proprietary information. What???

Ok, so how do they know the other products are gluten free? They do a food test on the product to test if it contains gluten. Yikes. I hope that they do this often because how do they know that the company that supplies them hasn't changed their forumla for "flavor"?

How is it that the food industry here in the US is required to list foods that contain gluten but the pharmecutical (sp) industry does not? That seems pretty crazy to me.

Thanks,

Mike

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


penguin Community Regular
penguin
Posted

Actually, food manufacturers aren't required to list gluten. They're required to list wheat, which is one of the top 8 allergens. Gluten-free does not have a definition for the FDA, but there will be one by 2008. I don't know if drug companies are required to list allergens or not.

As far as the liquid immodium, they changed the formula so that it would look more like pepto, which is I guess what consumers wanted. The way McNeil works (they also make Tylenol) is that they will not say a product is gluten-free until it has been tested, and they do this for all new products. So we get into a tizzy about something not being gluten-free when it just hasn't been tested yet. Time will tell as to whether or not the new improved immodium liquid is gluten-free.

The old liquid was gluten-free, and it was clear and disgusting. They reformulated for marketing reasons.

Truth is that the vast majority of medications are gluten-free. Most starches are corn, potato, or tapioca based, and the flavor should be ok. We just need to be vigilant as always and keep on our toes. I'd bet $5 that the immodium liquid turns out to be gluten-free once they test it.

McNeil is a good company, not all companies test for gluten, they just tell you based on ingredients and give a CYA response.

mle-ii Explorer
mle-ii
Posted
  • Author
Actually, food manufacturers aren't required to list gluten. They're required to list wheat, which is one of the top 8 allergens. Gluten-free does not have a definition for the FDA, but there will be one by 2008. I don't know if drug companies are required to list allergens or not.

Doh! I can't believe I said that. Thanks for correcting me. :)

As far as the liquid immodium, they changed the formula so that it would look more like pepto, which is I guess what consumers wanted. The way McNeil works (they also make Tylenol) is that they will not say a product is gluten-free until it has been tested, and they do this for all new products. So we get into a tizzy about something not being gluten-free when it just hasn't been tested yet. Time will tell as to whether or not the new improved immodium liquid is gluten-free.

The old liquid was gluten-free, and it was clear and disgusting. They reformulated for marketing reasons.

Silly consumers. All I really wanted was the alcohol removed. Good point about the testing. I'm just hoping that they don't just test it once and say that their done. I hope that they continue to test the product for gluten to make sure that the content doesn't change because the don't control the "flavor".

Guess I'll be going back to the caplets until I know for sure. I always felt the liquid worked faster, but I'm guessing that's just psychological and not based on reality. :)

Thanks again,

Mike

Lisa Mentor
Lisa
Posted

Love your picture Mikey. Am I the only one old enought to remember? :P

jerseyangel Proficient
jerseyangel
Posted
Love your picture Mikey. Am I the only one old enought to remember? :P

I've been getting a chuckle out of it too, Lisa :D You are SO not the only one old enough to remember those commercials!

I almost forgot--I use the Immodium Caplets when I have to be somplace and you-know. They've saved my life many times ;)

mle-ii Explorer
mle-ii
Posted
  • Author

Yeah, my wife and kids call me Mikey all the time. Used to bug me cause of how it was used back when kids made fun of me. Though it does throw me off when someone besides the wife and kids call me it at times. LOL

eleep Enthusiast
eleep
Posted

Hey -- caplets don't need "flavor" -- steering clear of "flavor" versions seems to work for a lot of OTC products.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


mle-ii Explorer
mle-ii
Posted
  • Author
Hey -- caplets don't need "flavor" -- steering clear of "flavor" versions seems to work for a lot of OTC products.

Excellent point. Those digestive enzymes and bacteria don't seem to care what flavor stuff is and I don't chew the caplets. :)

eKatherine Apprentice
eKatherine
Posted

Isn't the test used for gluten in food products not very sensitive, so the product could have up to 200ppm of gluten and still slip under the radar?

StrongerToday Enthusiast
StrongerToday
Posted
Excellent point. Those digestive enzymes and bacteria don't seem to care what flavor stuff is and I don't chew the caplets. :)

Try it.... you'll like it...

:D

Lisa Mentor
Lisa
Posted
:lol::lol::lol: Mike, we do hope you have a sence of humor. :) We certainly do. ;)
Lisa Mentor
Lisa
Posted
Try it.... you'll like it...

:D

:lol::lol::lol: , still!

Franceen Explorer
Franceen
Posted

According to the Clan Thompson Drug Smartlist, the Advanced Chewable Tablets are gluten-free. But that's the only Imodium product listed by Clan Thompson as gluten-free......

The info was accurate as of 4/2006.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      128,062
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Robinlee
    Newest Member
    Robinlee
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121k
    • Total Posts
      70.6k
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
      Celiac or Addison's complications? Can someone share their experience?

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      I also want to mention that using prednisone would likely also make the endoscopy results invalid. This steroid will cause gut healing and could mask the damage caused by celiac disease. 
    • Jess270
      Bitters for digestion?

      By Jess270 · Posted

      This sounds to me like histamine intolerance. Some foods have more or less histamine. processed or aged meats, fermented food like yoghurt or kimchi and bread (yeast), spinach, eggplant and mushroom are high in histamine. Other foods like tomatoes are histamine liberators, they encourage your mast cells to release histamine, which can also trigger the reactions you describe, flu like symptoms, joint pain, urinary tract irritation, rash, stomach upset, nausea, diarrhoea & fatigue. I had liver pain like you describe, as part of the intolerance is usually a sluggish liver that makes processing all the histamine difficult. There are multiple possible root causes of histamine intolerance, usually it’s a symptom of something else. In my case, leaky gut (damaged gut wall)caused by undiagnosed celiac, but for others it’s leaky gut caused by other things like dysbiosis. Some people also experience histamine intolerance due to mould exposure or low levels of DAO (the enzyme that breaks down histamine in the gut). I’d try a low histamine diet & if that doesn’t improve symptoms fully, try low oxalate too. As others have suggested, supplements like vitamin d, b, l-glutamine to support a healthy gut & a good liver support supplement too. If you’re in a histamine flare take vitamin c to bowel tolerance & your symptoms will calm down (avoid if you find you have oxalate intolerance though). Best of luck 
    • trents
      Vaccines

      By trents · Posted

      @GeoPeanut, milk is one of the better sources of iodine. Iodine is known to exacerbate dermatitis herpetiformis. Many people find that a low iodine diet helps them avoid dermatitis herpetiformis outbreaks. So, maybe the fact that you have limited your dairy intake of late is helping with that.
    • GeoPeanut
      Vaccines

      By GeoPeanut · Posted

      Hi, I'm new here. Sorry for your troubles.herenis a thought to mull over. I recently was diagnosed with celiac disease,  and hashimoto's and dermatitis herpetiformis after getting covid 19. I eat butter, and 1/2 cup of Nancy's yogurt daily. I stopped all other dairy and  dermatitis herpetiformis is gone! I also make grass fed beef bone broth to help with myopathy that has occurred. 
    • trents
      Celiac or Addison's complications? Can someone share their experience?

      By trents · Posted

      Welcome to the forum, @KRipple! Sorry to hear of all your husband's health problems. I can only imagine how anxious this makes you as when our spouse suffers we hurt right along with them. Can you post the results from the Celiac blood testing for us to look at? We would need the names of the tests run, the numeric results and (this is important) the reference ranges for each test used to establish high/low/negative/positive. Different labs use different rating scales so this is why I ask for this. There aren't industry standards. Has your husband seen any improvement from eliminating gluten from his diet? If your husband had any positive results from his celiac blood antibody testing, this is likely what triggered the consult with a  GI doc for an endoscopy. During the endoscopy, the GI doc will likely biopsy the lining of the small bowel lining to check for the damage caused by celiac disease. This would be for confirmation of the results of the blood tests and is considered the gold standard of celiac disease diagnosis. But here is some difficult information I have for you. If your husband has been gluten free already for months leading up to the endoscopy/biopsy, it will likely invalidate the biopsy and result in a false negative. Starting the gluten free diet now will allow the lining of the small bowel to begin healing and if enough healing takes place before the biopsy happens, there will be no damage to see. How far out is the endoscopy scheduled for? There still may be time for your husband to go back on gluten, what we call a "gluten challenge" to ensure valid test results.
×
×
  • Create New...