Can one become lactose intolerant, or can you only be born with it? I ask because in the last week or so I’ve become quite, er, gassy. I’m an avid milk drinker, I drink at least one glass for every meal. For the other 19 years of my life it’s given me no problem, but lately my stomach’s been constantly bubbly and making noises. I don’t feel nauseus or have any of the severe lactose intolerance symptomes.
Have you taken any antibiotics recently? That’s a suspect cause of a sudden onset of lactose intolerance. You can spontaneously develop it out of nowhere, though.
I recommend going to your Friendly Local Chain Store, and buying the generic equivalent of Lactaid Ultra. You probably don’t need to take too much of it… severely lactose intolerant people would be waaaaaay more than gassy after drinking a glass of milk. One pill should suffice, with a glass of milk. If the problem continues after taking that measure, you should probably go see your doctor.
You can become lactose intolerant later in life. In fact, almost NO babies are lactose intolerant.
By the way, I’m 27, confirmed to be lactose intolerant, and up until I was 18 I can guarantee you I wasn’t lactose intolerant.
There are also records of people getting stomach ailments (giardia is most prevalent in this) and then being lactose intolerant once the ailment was done with them.
You’re in good company. Most grown adults are not able to drink milk… the only exceptions tend to be white people.
I have some problems with “real” milk, so I’ve wound up drinking (well, mostly cooking with) soymilk instead. Most brands are nasty, but Silk is pretty good.
I second the “lactose intolerance can come on spontaniously” crowd. My wife had no problem with milk until her 50s. I’m still in my 40s and don’t have a problem, yet. We switched to Silk soy milk and found it quite a pleasant substitute.
There are two types of LI.
Primary LI stems from the normal, gradual lessening of the production of the lactase enzyme after weaning. This happens at different ages in different cultures. In people descended from Europeans, it can often happen as an adult, giving rise to the mistaken name of adult-onset lactose intolerance. Most of the world’s population is of this type.
Secondary LI stems from injury, surgery, drugs, or other shocks to the small intestine that knocks out lactase production temporarily or permanently. Many babies get this after the misnamed “stomach flu,” but almost all regain the ability to digest milk within a few weeks. Adults who have major surgery or other problems can wind up severely intolerant because no lactase will ever again be manufactured.
Antibiotics can cause secondary LI for yet another reason. The symptoms of LI are caused both by undigested lactose pulling water into the intestines, creating diarrhea, and by certain types of bacteria in the colon fermented undigested lactose and releasing gases, creating bloating and flatulence. Antibiotics can kill these bacteria. Whether symptoms return depends upon which types of bacteria eventually repopulate the colon.
When adults “suddenly” notice symptoms it is likely that their lactase production has finally dropped under the threshold necessary to digest all the lactose in your regular diet. Now undigested lactose is “suddenly” hitting the intestines, and symptoms result.
Yes, lactase pills are the solution for almost everyone. Generic ones are as good as the branded ones. You want a minimum of 3000 FCC units or 125 mg of lactose per pill. There are double-strength and triple-strength pills available as well.
Very solid info so far. You can also get lactose-free milk in many stores. Cows need not stand in the unemployment line on your account.
The unemployment line for cows, of course, is the meat department. You knew that.
I haven’t taken any antibiotics recently, suffered any sort of disease, or changed my diet. I guess it could be the adult change thing, except I’m only 19, which seems kinda young.
I was one of those unlucky few. My mother had a hell of a time feeding me. I couldn’t ingest milk products without serious, nasty intestinal woes. I spent a lot of time in the hospital. Finally, a soy formula was found which I could tolerate.
As a child, my lactose intolerance decreased to almost nil. As a teen, I glutted myself on pizza and cheese. However, once I hit about twenty years old, it came back with a vengance. I never know whether my tummy will happily accept dairy, or revolt. I carry a supply of Lactaid (or it’s generic equivillent) and Lopermide Hydrochloride wherever I go.
Actually, No. Babies are not lactose intolerant, as a general rule, but as you age most people become so. I guess Nature’s idea was that as a baby you suck your mother’s milk, but after this stage you don’t and no longer need the enzyme. Nature did not intend us to drink cow’s milk, goat’s milk, etc. Another alternative is yogurt. Also kefir.
Yep, I don’t think I’m really lactose-intolerant, but find my stomach deals with cultured milk products (cheese, yogurt, etc.) much better than it deals with more than about a glass of any straight milk product at a time. I don’t like plain milk, but if I have, say, 2 cups of hot chocolate or whatever, my gut makes its displeasure known. Cheese and yogurt don’t have this effect, though, no matter what the quantity.
Cheese and yogurt tend not to have much lactose in them.
Here’s a list of the percentage of lactose in different products:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/percent.htm
It’s a good site for those of us who can’t digest that nasty sugar. I’ve found I have the most problem with milk, ice cream from Dairy Queen (low fat = high lactose), and processed foods like Stouffer’s dinners (they have a lot of non-fat milk in them.)
I have problems with regular milk, but skim milk and chocolate milk are fine. You may want to try them.
Actually, skim milk is all I drink. And today at dinner I had no milk, and yet my stomach feels worse than ever. I feel like there’s a huge bubble in there. I’m thinking it might not be the milk but the food (I eat at a college dining hall). Or perhaps it’s just the milk they get, not milk in general.
If you have flu-like symptoms, and you have a strong urge to ride a train, you
just
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AMTRACKS. :rolleyes:
If you can drink skim milk and not regular milk, chances are it’s not lactose intolerance you’re suffering from. You’ll see from the aforementioned list that skim milk contains more lactose than regular milk.
While skim milk has a slightly higher average percentage of lactose than regular milk, it is much too small a difference to have any real-world effect.