Feeling ill right after drinking milk? You must be suffering from lactose intolerance symptoms. Enjoying a cone of ice cream isn’t fun anymore if you’re lactose intolerant. Lactose intolerance or lactase deficiency is the inability of the body to digest milk sugar or lactose. Being lactose intolerant isn’t something you’re born with (although in rare cases it is); it develops over time. As you grow older your body produces less lactase enzyme, which is found in the small intestine. The reason of this is still a mystery.

 

Types of lactose Intolerance

• Primary Lactase Deficiency. This is the most popular type of lactase deficiency and accounts for more than half the world’s lactose intolerant population. Under this is the Late Onset Lactose Deficiency, which is by far the most common of all, also known as the Adult Lactase Deficiency. True to its name, this occurs on adults because the lactase enzyme reserves are dwindling.

• Secondary Type Lactase Deficiency. This is the type of lactose intolerance where bacteria or parasites have invaded the body, particularly the small intestines. The most common type of parasites are the intestinal parasites, rotavirus.

• Congenital Lactase Deficiency. This is a rare type of lactose intolerance. Unlike the traditional occurrence of lactose intolerance where it happens as time goes by, this is purely hereditary. This condition is diagnosed in infancy, and such babies diagnosed with this usually aren’t gaining weight, leading to malnutrition.

 

What can lead to Lactose Intolerance?

• Increasing Age. Lactose intolerance is mostly common in old people.

• Ethnicity. Lactose intolerance is common in black, Asian, Hispanic, and American Indian people.

• Premature birth. Babies that are prematurely born have a higher risk of being lactose intolerant, because this enzyme increases in the fetus late in the third trimester.

• Disease affecting the small intestine. The small intestine is responsible for producing the lactase enzyme, so having problems like bacterial overgrowth, celiac disease, and Crohn’s disease might lead to lactose intolerance.

• Radiation for the abdomen. If you have received any radiation therapy, you are most like to be lactose intolerant.

 

These factors are the most common causes of lactose intolerance, although there may be other, less common causes. The geographical location also affects the chances of being lactose intolerant, for example. People from countries that depend on dairy products have a higher risk of being lactose intolerant than others.

 

How to know if you’re Lactose Intolerant

If you want to know if you are lactose intolerant, one of the domestic steps into figuring out why is for you to stop drinking or eating any product which has lactose in it for a couple of days. After, say, three days, then drink three tall glasses of milk. If you experience stomach-ache, then you may be experiencing lactose intolerance symptoms.

If you wish to confirm any of these suspicions, you should take the lactose tolerance test. The test begins with the patient undergoing fasting, after which the patient drinks a lactose solution. Blood tests are done over a 2-hour period in order to find out whether or not the blood sugar level went up. If your blood sugar level increases, then that means you’re not lactose intolerant.

Another form of test is the hydrogen breath test. Before taking this test, you shouldn’t eat one night before the consultation. You will be given a lactose solution, and then the doctor analyses your breath for any presence of hydrogen gas, which is only present if the lactose is properly fermented.

 

Symptoms of Lactose Intolerance

The symptoms of lactose intolerance occur thirty minutes after the intake of any lactose product, or if you have a higher toleration than most lactose intolerants, it can take up to two hours after consumption. One good thing about lactose intolerance is that its symptoms are noticeable, like the following;

• Abdominal Bloating – Because of the gas forming in the body, you feel bloated and full all the time.

• Abdominal cramps – People who suffer from lactose intolerance may feel abdominal pain after consuming dairy product, particularly in the lower abdomen.

• Diarrhoea – The person will have diarrhoea with bulky stools.

• Gas (Flatulence) – This is again because of the gas that formed inside your body.

• Nausea – The extra acid and gas in the body makes the person feel nauseated.

• The person may also lose his appetite and start to exhibit weight loss.

 

How to Treat Lactose Intolerance

Lactose intolerance is fairly easy to treat. One of the easiest and most obvious ways is to avoid any lactose-containing products. Steer clear from consuming milk and any other milk products. This sounds so hard, because most food that we take has lactose. People have different levels of lactase enzyme and so do food products. The rule of thumb is that you can still eat anything but food like milk, ice cream, and yogurt contains more lactose than your stomach can handle. But if you’re such a fan of drinking milk, you can purchase some lactose-reduced milk in the market.

Lactase enzyme supplementation can also be taken in forms of drops, capsules and tablets. This can be taken orally before meal, or before you take any lactose-containing product, to significantly reduce the lactose content. The level of lactose intolerance depends on every individual, so the dosage count might be higher for others and lower for some.

Dairy products are high in lactose and calcium. If you cannot take any dairy products, this might affect your health because your body requires calcium. You can take calcium supplements instead.

 

Foods That Contains Lactose

• All cheeses

• Butter

• Goat’s Milk

• Ice cream

• Milk (whole, skim, dry powdered, evaporated)

• Yogurt

 

Other Sources

• Breading on fried foods

• Candies with milk chocolate

• Artificial sweeteners

• Breakfast and baby cereals with milk solids

• Hot dogs, luncheon meat, sausages, hash

• Mayonnaise

• Pizza

• Weight loss products and many more.

 

You don’t have to completely change your lifestyle once you know you’re lactose intolerant; you should just know where to find alternatives. Being lactose intolerant makes a person prone to having osteoporosis, or any other bone ailment, because of the lack of calcium. Calcium plays a big role in the well-being of the bones; it gives strength to the bones. Instead of consuming dairy products, eating dark, green, leafy vegetables and calcium-fortified foods is great substitute.

 

Foods Alternatives with High Calcium Content

• Broccoli, collards, turnip greens

• Canned sardines, tuna and salmon

• Calcium fortified juices and cereals

• Soy milk, tofu, soybeans

• Almonds.

 

Every lactose intolerant’s condition is different from others because of the level of lactase enzyme present in the body. This condition may lead to osteoporosis because of the lack of calcium intake. Curing lactose intolerance is no easy task; the best way to go around this condition is by consuming food substitutes and recognizing lactose intolerance symptoms to prevent it from occurring any further.