PharmaAccess
| Product | Quantity | Per Unit | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imodium - 2mg | 30 pill | £0.47 | £15.56 £14.00 −10% | |
| Imodium - 2mg | 60 pill | £0.43 | £28.89 £26.00 −10% | |
| Imodium - 2mg | 90 pill | £0.40 | £40.00 £36.00 −10% | |
| Imodium - 2mg | 120 pill | £0.35 | £46.67 £42.00 −10% | |
| Imodium - 2mg | 180 pill | £0.31 | £61.11 £55.00 −10% | |
| Imodium - 2mg | 270 pill | £0.25 | £74.44 £67.00 −10% | |
| Imodium - 2mg | 360 pill | £0.22 | £86.67 £78.00 −10% |
Your intestine moves its contents along with waves of muscular contraction. In diarrhoea those waves speed up, and contents pass through too fast for water to be reabsorbed.
Loperamide acts on opioid receptors in the gut wall, which slows those contractions considerably.
Contents spend longer in the intestine, more water gets reabsorbed, and the stool firms up.
Crucially, it is designed to stay in the gut and not reach the brain in meaningful amounts. It acts on the same receptor family as opioid painkillers, but it does not produce their central effects at normal doses.
This is the section that matters most, because the instinct is always to stop the diarrhoea.
Reasonable to use: traveller's diarrhoea without fever, a long journey, an exam, a day where you genuinely cannot be near a bathroom, or chronic diarrhoea being managed deliberately.
Do not use:
The logic is simple. Diarrhoea is the body clearing something out. Trapping an infection inside can make it considerably worse — including causing the bowel to distend dangerously.
Here is the thing nobody emphasises enough: people are not harmed by diarrhoea itself. They are harmed by dehydration.
Oral rehydration solutions work better than plain water, because the combination of glucose and salt actively drives water absorption across the gut wall. Water alone does not do that.
Signs of dehydration: strong thirst, dry mouth, dark scanty urine, dizziness standing up, marked tiredness, confusion in older people.
Small amounts frequently beats large amounts occasionaly, especially if you feel sick. A full glass comes back up. A few sips every few minutes stays down.
This needs stating plainly because it has caused real harm.
At normal doses loperamide stays in the gut. At very high doses that barrier is overwhelmed and the drug reaches the heart and brain.
High doses can cause dangerous heart rhythm disturbances, which have been fatal. This is not theoretical.
Taking more because it is not working fast enough is exactly the wrong response. If the recommended dose is not controlling it, the answer is finding out why, not escalating.
Old advice said starve. Current thinking says eat, gently.
Temporary lactose intolerance after a gut infection is common and catches people out. It settles as the lining recovers.
Severe abdominal pain with swelling and no bowel movement is a warning sign and needs urgent attention.
This is a travel-bag item rather than something to find when you already need it.
Pick the strength and the pack size, put in a delivery address, confirm. Couple of minutes, any time of day, no queue and no conversation across a counter.
It goes out in plain packaging. No pharmacy name on the outside, nothing that hints at what is inside. How long delivery takes depends on where the parcel is headed.
On price it comes down to strength and pack size. Larger packs generaly work out better per unit.
A parcel locker or a work address works as well as home for UK delivery, provided the details are complete and the name is on the door. The plain packaging is unchanged either way.
Active ingredient: loperamide. Loperamide — MedlinePlus (NIH). Reviewed: 17 September 2026.
