There is a new and dangerous overdose threat, and it is found in anti-diarrhea products like Imodium A-D. It is called loperamide, and it can get you high but also take your life.

Now comes word that a 29-year-old Pittsburgh area man died as a result of a loperamide overdose.

As KDKA in Pittsburgh reports, the unusual cause of death for Arjun Patel, 29, of Fox Chapel was ruled this week in his November 2017 death.

The overdose danger of loperamide has quickly grown so great, the FDA recently asked manufacturers of these anti-diarrhea medications to change the way they package their products in order to curb the growing abuse of these drugs, KDKA reports.

The station ads that loperamide poisoning cases have risen sharply over the past two years in western Pennsylvania, with addicts buying hundreds of Imodium-like pills and taking them to get high:

"Since 2015 through the end of 2017, just at the Pittsburgh Poison Center, we saw a 167 percent increase in calls related to loperamide toxicity, with more than half of those people needing to go to the hospital," Dr. Michael Lynch, of UPMC's Pittsburgh Poison Center, told KDKA.