Lactose Intolerance

[welshchick]

Is anyone else here lactose intolerant?

I have been for the last 2 years - it just suddenly came on when i was 18. I've been to the hospital for the tests, and i'm waiting for the follow-up appointment with the doc - but that's going to be months away (stupid NHS!).

anyway, i have some questions about it, and was wondering if anyone else here is lactose intolerant too before i ask the questions.

 

[growingupinhim]

I am..no milk for me! i now use organic soy milk...funny though I can still eat a ocassional soft serve ic cone..but not a shake or blizzard!
there are alot of altertatives to dairy...soy being the most poular. there also lactaid tablets .

 

[sowellfan]

My wife is, and I am also, I'm pretty sure. It's fairly common here in the States, and from what I understand it's almost the rule in Asia (or parts of Asia, at least). It all has to do with how the different people groups changed over time. The Europeans had domesticated animals, so they came to rely on milk past infancy. So eventually most Europeans people came to retain the enzyme that processes milk on into adulthood. People groups who didn't have domesticated cattle didn't have a need for that enzyme into adulthood, so they are more lactose intolerant. I remember all this in the context of a story about some American multi-national food corporation's problems with marketing milk and other dairy products in Asia. They couldn't figure out why stuff wasn't selling, until they realized that people in Asia just didn't really drink dairy products because they couldn't digest them well.

 

[welshchick]

do you have to stay off milk 24/7? also, can you eat a small amount of lactose-containg products?

i have a problem....i've tried every lactose-free type milk, and i hate them all. i cant stand soya, and some of the other stuff on the market tastes like manure! after 18 years of ordinary milk, i cant get off it!

so i've cut it down a lot. i don't have cereal anymore and i try to avoid ice cream (thats a very hard temptation!) and other products. But i have to have milk in my tea and coffee. i normally wake up every morning with a bad stomach and feeling sick, but i guess im getting used to that. but the thing is, even if i havent eaten any lactose the day before, i still get nauseous....is it from all the leftover lactose in my system or something?

i have another side-effect too.....it's a kind of woman's problem and i don't want to post it on an open forum...but i don't suppose any women have any women's type of side-effects???

 

[sowellfan]

Here in the states we have these little pills called Lactaid or Ultra Lactaid. You take them at the same time as your first bite of dairy product, and they work pretty well from what I understand. Regarding lactose-free milk, I can't tell the difference between it and regular milk (we drink 2% fat milk, so I can't say much for skim, 1%, or whole milks).

 

[welshchick]

Here in the states we have these little pills called Lactaid or Ultra Lactaid. You take them at the same time as your first bite of dairy product, and they work pretty well from what I understand. Regarding lactose-free milk, I can't tell the difference between it and regular milk (we drink 2% fat milk, so I can't say much for skim, 1%, or whole milks).

yeh i do have some Lactase tablets....i found them a few weeks ago in a health shop. only problem is that they're quite expensive, so i only try to use them if i'm gonna have some concentrated lactose like ice-cream or cream products. but they have defiantely helped, i need to find out if i can get them of prescription from the doctors.

this may sound a bit stupid, and you may not know, but over here we have 3 types of milk - full fat, semi-skimmed, and skimmed. my family always buys sem-skimmed, but would it be better if i just drank skimmed milk in my tea/coffee? does skimmed milk have less lactose than full fat and semi-skimmed? i'd never thought about it before until you said above. either that or i reckon you've got nicer milk than we have over here!

 

[Multi-Elis]

My mother is lactose intolerant, she did the tests and turns out to be surprisingly very lactose intolerant. (It goes by degrees) However she can stand a tiny bit of milk on a full stomach.

I haven't had any tests done, but I think I'm probably somewhat lactose intollerant. I used to drink almost 4 cups a day of milk, and after running I would drink almost a litre at once. And then I noticed that every time I did that I would have gigling all over my somach and need to go ... more often... so since then I drink not much more than 1/4 cup milk, preferably on a full stomach.

My mother and I eat a lot of yogurt.
Many recipes can be easily have the milk replaced with soy milk.
Try soy milk with chocolate powder. Then drink it as if it were a chocolate drink, (not chocolate milk)

Remember that you can still put a bit of milk in what you eat, and that you can have all the yogurt you want and I think you can also have all the cheese you want. Creams are better than milk in the sense that the lactose isn't found in the fat.

 

[sowellfan]

Here in the States we have whole milk (I guess the same as full fat), 2% fat, 1% fat, and skim milk. So I guess your semi-skim milk is the same as either 2% or 1%. I don't know that the fat content of milk has anything to do with the amount that it bothers people with lactose intolerance.

The tablets we have here are called Lactaid, and the brand-name caplets are Lactaid, and they are 120 capsules for $15.79 (U.S. dollars). You eat 3 w/ each meal, so at 13 cents per meal, it's about $0.39 for each serving of lactose stuff. I'm not sure if the stuff you're looking at is more expensive or what.

Here's a link for Lactaid.

http://www2.eckerd.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Eckerd&category%5Fname=100277Lactaid&product%5Fid=745836&tab=shop%5Fhealth%2Egif

Then there is also the store-brand generic lactose digestion tablets, and they are 120 capsules for $12.49, their link is here.

http://www2.eckerd.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Eckerd&category%5Fname=100274Eckerd&product%5Fid=537831&tab=shop%5Fhealth%2Egif

 

[catalyst]

yeh i do have some Lactase tablets....i found them a few weeks ago in a health shop. only problem is that they're quite expensive, so i only try to use them if i'm gonna have some concentrated lactose like ice-cream or cream products. but they have defiantely helped, i need to find out if i can get them of prescription from the doctors.

this may sound a bit stupid, and you may not know, but over here we have 3 types of milk - full fat, semi-skimmed, and skimmed. my family always buys sem-skimmed, but would it be better if i just drank skimmed milk in my tea/coffee? does skimmed milk have less lactose than full fat and semi-skimmed? i'd never thought about it before until you said above. either that or i reckon you've got nicer milk than we have over here!

Skimming has to do with the amount of fat that is removed during processing, and has little to no effect on the amount of lactose. Lactose is simply milk sugar, nothing more, nothing less. To determine the amount, simply read the listed number of carbohydrates in each serving of milk, and it is, by and large, the amount of lactose present.

 

[Hands&Feet]

Actually, most adults are lactose intolerant to a degree. That's because our digestive system changes from the way it is when we are young--just like the Bible say it does.
It manifests itself differently with each of us. But, there are times when it is worse that others. I became so lactose intolerant that I could hardly eat anything. Then one day it just went away. I think if you stay off of dairy products for a while, your system can eventually begin to tolerate them again.

 

[Etharia]

Question
How do you tell if you're lactose intolerant? Are there certain symptoms or do you have to have a test done?

 

[sonshnes]

I found out that I was lactose intolerant just by making the connection between my feeling sick to my stomach and having eaten dairy foods. I would get sick roughly four hours after having eaten something with milk.

I actually was lactose intolerant through middle and early high school. I have since grown out of it. From what I hear, that is pretty unusual. My younger brother actually grew out of it, too.

The lactaid pills really helped me. I got to eat the dairy I wanted as long as I took the pills with the meal. My intolerance was pretty bad...I would have to take 4 to eat pizza. I also used this great product for my milk. They were lactaid drops that I put right into a regular gallon of milk to counteract/remove the lactaid from it (same brand as the pills - the ones sowellfan recommended). We always had a regular gallon of milk and one without lactaid. I never noticed a difference in taste. You might try that.

Good luck! Feel free to PM if you have other questions!

 

[welshchick]

thanks for those links sowellfan - i'll check them out and maybe order some, as they look cheaper and maybe better.

one question tho - do you take the pills with every meal you have? even if it hasnt got lactose in?

My symptoms were just bad stomach ache and nausea a few hours after eating dairy. I always get it in the mornings when i wake up too. when i went to the hospital for tests the nurse told me that tiredness is also a mian symptom, and that would explain why i've been flaked out a lot of the time.

i never knew you're body could go back to nromal after a while....
i've found that sometimes, for about 4 weeks, i can have dairy and not have any side-effects or lactose intolerance. it happened over Christmas for example, and i wondered why i didnt feel ill. i thought it was because i was too busy to think about it, but maybe my body gets better then goes down hill again, sort of in a cycle.

 

[sowellfan]

You just take the Lactaid pills with meals that contain dairy (I would assume that this means a significant amount of dairy, not just some parmesan cheese sprinkles). The other stuff, regarding your body going back to normal, I don't know much about at all.

 

[Multi-Elis]

My mother gets along pretty well without the pills. And even though she is considered very lactose intollerant she can eat all the yogurt, cheese and butter she wants. All the products in which a bacteria "used up" the lactose, or inwhich all the lactose was taken out (butter)


Here symptoms, after she did the test, was just loose bowel movements and lots of gas and lots of gurgling in the stomach.

 

[shteffi]

I've been lactose intolerant for years, and it's such a pain. At first I just couldn't eat dairy on an empty stomach, but now I can't even have more than 3 scoops of ice cream on a full stomach or a fourth of a cup of milk. The Lactaid pills really help, and I usually take more than one if I'm not sure how much dairy there is in a substance, and Tofutti makes some great non-dairy products that taste exactly like the normal stuff, sometimes even better. Especially the sour cream and cream cheese. Silk Soy milk is pretty good. When I have the vanilla flavored stuff I can hardly tell the difference between that and real milk. So that's what I suggest... Tofutti, Lactaid, and Silk. Also, I wouldn't dare try eating any dairy on an empty stomach, even when using the pills. At least drink a glass of water or eat a few crackers first.

 

[IvoryRain]

Actually, most adults are lactose intolerant to a degree. That's because our digestive system changes from the way it is when we are young--just like the Bible say it does.

Where in the Bible does it say this? I'm not arguementative, just new to everything.

 

[happily_saved]

Hey

I'm 17 and I'm lactose intellorent. Really sucks. But yeh i stay away from all dairy products. I have tried the Lactaid pills tho, how much do they work?

 

[Multi-Elis]

The pills have been proven psychological. So if you believe in them, eat them away!

 

[Beastt]

Is anyone else here lactose intolerant?

I have been for the last 2 years - it just suddenly came on when i was 18. I've been to the hospital for the tests, and i'm waiting for the follow-up appointment with the doc - but that's going to be months away (stupid NHS!).

anyway, i have some questions about it, and was wondering if anyone else here is lactose intolerant too before i ask the questions.

As someone else noted, being lactose intollerant isn't necessarily an abnormality. It depends on the region in which you live. Approximately 12-15% of American caucasians are lactose intollerant but among Asians 80% of the population are lactose intollerant. The charts I have seen would seem to indicate that not being lactose intollerant is the oddity. I think the highest percentage I've seen so far is African blacks, in which 95% of the population is lactose intollerant. Infant humans produce an enzyme called lactase, which as you already know is the enzyme necessary to break down lactose, (milk sugar). Without lactase, the undigested lactose is very irritating to the digestive tract. Many people don't even know that they're lactose intollerant because the symptoms are relatively subtle, yet, they may go through most of their lives with a slight, constant bleeding in the small intestine due to the irritation.

I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear but some research is revealing evidence that you might be better off listening to your body when it rejects lactose rather than utilizing lactase pills to cope. The camps are strongly divided when it comes to milk but, if I'm seeing it clearly, the pro-milk side is slowly losing ground the the anti-milk side. Humans are the only mammal who continue to consume milk into adulthood. We're also the only mammals who routinely consume the milk of another species. Milk has been linked to eczema, osteoporosis and, of course, high fat intake. I assume you're not in the United States but here we have a federal organization to oversee food and medications. It's called the "F.D.A." and it allows as many as 750 million pus cells in every liter of milk. I would be very surprised if milk where you live is any less contaminated with pus, blood, hormones, steroids, pesticides and antibiotics. It's completely your option but you could see it as a positive message from your body rather than a problem.

I made the mistake of delving into the milk topic a few years ago and after tons of reading and research, I'm now mentally lactose intollerant. The idea of consuming the excretions from a cow's udder is sickening to me. I used to be a total ice cream fiend and I wondered if I could really give it up. After a few months away from dairy, I found that it wasn't a problem for me. It's one of the happier "mistakes" I ever made.