Anyone here been diagnosed with Lactose Intolerance?

Over the last year or so, I have significantly less dairy in my diet and recently Ive found that drinking milk can bring on a really fast (25mins), explosive clear out of my entire digestive system.

Ive always had a pretty strong stomach, but not so presently. A little light internetting reveals that its just as likely IBS or something similar. The other symptom of a bit of blood every now and again is probably more worrying.

Can you train your gut to ‘tolerate’ lactose? Did you do this by reintroducing slowly and in a controlled manner, perhaps with a meal, or is there any credence to the pro-biotic yoghurt drink approach?

I used to happily sink a pint of milk, loved the stuff, now it terrorfies me, even a splash in a cuppa has me wondering if im gonna spend the next hour on the Thomas.

P1$$ taking expected, any advice/guidance very welcome.

Not diagnosed but suspect I have a mild form. Switched to lactose-free milk and the odd ‘normal’ milk is fine. Lactose-free is available from major supermarkets, as well as cheese, cream, yoghurts.

Many people swear by ‘kefir’, I have live yoghurt.

You will need to keep a food diary to be absolutely sure of what is affecting you.

Blood could be haemorrhoids due to regular loo visits, sorry.

My wife has this problem.

As I understand it, there’s some bacteria higher up in your gut that can digest the lactose, but if you lack those then the lactose goes further down your system and meets other bacteria which digest it with unpleasant side effects.

If she maintains a higher lactose intake she doesn’t have much of a problem. If she stops eating lactose then intolerance returns. Which supports the bacteria idea as the earlier bacteria would die out.. I suspect.

You could try reintroducing more dairy, slowly. She finds milk to be worst – processed stuff like cheese or even ice cream isn’t so bad.

However anything ‘pro-biotic’ is really bad for her.

My daughter was born with a lactose intolerance, which is kinda tricky when diet consistes of milk. We had plenty of ‘explosions’ 😯 It was due to a lactase (the enzyme that breaks down the lactose) deficiency. The best thing was to limit the amount of lactose through use of lactose free products (Arla do a range including milk, ‘butter’ spread, yogurt, cheese. They have stopped doing ice cream 🙁 ), or suplement with lactase drops (Colief, sold as a colic remedy but basically just lactase). Now 7 she is getting more tolerant, but still has to have a carefully limited intake. While this may be different to your developing intolerance limiting lactose or supplementing lactase might help you manage the situation or at least help identify if lactose is the problem. I have a friend who is more effected by the dairy protien than the lactose, so uses non cow ‘dairy’ products rather than lactose free.

Avoid sugar as much as you can especially in fruit.

i’m not sure if i’m lactose intolerant, but there’s something in milk that doesn’t like me.

not diagnosed, because my GP doesn’t believe in lactose intolerance, and sent me to see a psychiatrist when i asked him about it.

i’m not sure if it is or isn’t possible to train your body to deal with it, but it’s certainly possible (if a little tricky) to live your life without milk.

people are obsessed with the stuff, and butter, and cheese. They’ll do anything to squeeze just a little (lot) more into a perfectly good meal that would taste just fine without it.

example: curry, it’s proving impossible to find a curry that isn’t approximately 70% Ghee.

(almost) everything tastes better with cheese, or bacon, or both 😀

I can’t drink milk. I’m fine with cheese, yogurt but straight milk plays havoc with my bowels and can even make me vomit.

As for having blood in your poo it’s probably nothing but i’d see a doctor. Workmate just recently was having mild upset stomach and traces of blood in his poo and has just been diagnosed with Colitis.

Black beans are also very good for the digestive system and pretty tasty in salads or mixed with rice and other pulses.

funny enough i had black beans, in with rice, veg and fish for dinner last night

would cheese/yoghurt help rebuild my lactase enzyme supply or am i going to need to bite the bullet and retrain my gut with milk.

(dont want to exclude it from my diet totally)

i’m currently going through lots of tests to find out what i’m intolerance too. go see your GP – you can get refered to a specialist for tests (i’m getting some 3 hours of lactose breath testing done in a few weeks to see if i react to the lactose/glucose solution – not going to be a fun day if i do)

Cinnamon girl – why avoid sugar in fruit for this?

soobalias – Member

would cheese/yoghurt help rebuild my lactase enzyme supply or am i going to need to bite the bullet and retrain my gut with milk.

i am not a doctor, but i’m not sure either of these are destined for success.

I’ve had lactose intolerance for 1/2 of my 36 years. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse (literally as well as figuratively) but it’s eminently manageable, and doesn’t really cause me any major problems. You just get a bit fussier about what you eat. It takes a while but eventually you figure out what you can eat. Lactose is in all sorts of weird stuff you wouldn’t expect it to be in, it’s used to glaze sliced ham, it holds Pringles together, it’s all over the place – you get used to reading ingredient listings. You can get lactase tablets from health food shops or online, these are good if you’re off somewhere where you might not get much choice about what to eat.

I have tried the retraining thing several times, it has never worked so I’ve just got used to it. On the plus side, cutting out dairy products is a really good way of staying thin; cows milk is designed to triple the weight of a calf in a matter of weeks remember…

The other symptom of a bit of blood every now and again is probably more worrying.

Yes, it is. Go and see your docs. It might be piles, it might be some sort of treatable inflammatory bowel disease, or it might be something more serious. I am not kidding, go and see your doctor about this and get it investigated, don’t **** about with it, you’re not meant to shit blood.

my GP doesn’t believe in lactose intolerance

It’s a recognised condition, there have been tests for it for years, it makes life pretty miserable if you don’t know what the problem is and it’s very easily treated with a small lifestyle change. Your GP is an ignorant **** idiot.

Yep, have been all my life until fifteen years ago when I discovered Lactase enzyme tablets.
One before a lactose containing meal and no probs.

Your gut cannot be retrained, though, no matter what you eat. The inability to digest lactose is a genetic anomaly where the gene expression responsible for lactase production is effectively ‘turned off’.

Your gut cannot be retrained, though, no matter what you eat.

No, but your gut flora can be altered. I suspect that not all causes of lactose intolerance are the same. My wife, clearly has the gene for lactase production, as she drinks milk all the time. However she has to keep drinking it – if she has a break from milk then she has trouble resuming it.

AFAIK if you like milk but are lactose intolerant you should give raw milk a go as it still contains the bacteria/enzymes that helps break down the lactose.

gut flora can be altered

This is true, but it is dependant on the sufferers level of the condition.
Mild(secondary) lactose intolerance is not an well defined condition (possibly not a condition at all, maybe more of a ‘sensitivity’). Lactase production can be stimulated by introducing lactose into the food intake in some individuals, but the effectiveness of this is limited, as the production increase is usually small and takes time, but this is dependent on the capability of production in the first place.
The introduction of probiotics seem to allow short term tolerance, but the bacterial colonies that make this happen are often short lived, requiring regular top-ups.
This is what seems to be happening with your wife. As soon as the specialised bacterial colony loses its food source (lactose), they are rapidly out-competed by their bacterial neighbours, hence, back to square one.

Did you know that intolerance is the basic setup of most mammals, post weaning?
People who continue to produce lactase in the gut into adulthood are the genetic mutations! Freaks…. 🙂

Did you know that intolerance is the basic setup of most mammals, post weaning? People who continue to produce lactase in the gut into adulthood are the genetic mutations! Freaks….

*stands next to cdoc*
Yeah, the rest of you lot are the real weirdos.

Did you know that intolerance is the basic setup of most mammals, post weaning?

Actually, yes I did. It could be a significant factor in the development of human civilisation, because we are able to easily convert grass into nutritious high protein portable (and somewhat non-perishable) foods, via cows.

Yeah, but,

Hunter-Gatherer > Pastoralist, any-day 😉

It could be a significant factor in the development of human civilisation, because we are able to easily convert grass into nutritious high protein portable (and somewhat non-perishable) foods, via cows.

If you drink milk you are not civilised. 🙂

I don’t have the Gut problems but anything Dairy seems to play merry hell with my Sinuses now….
I was “diagnosed” as having allergic rhianitus years ago, but I now suspect it was dairy all along ?
I only found out when I cut out Dairy for the iDave/4HB diet a couple of years back and could actually breathe through my nose again!!
I`m now wondering if it is actually something else other than Lactose that causes the “Snot reaction” or if I may be better off trying Non Cow products ?

It can lead to odd reactions in some people. A friend all but cured his chronic eczema by cutting out both gluten and dairy. Cutting out one or the other did not help, so he missed the connection for years.

My eldest was diagnosed with lactose intolerance as a baby, he’s now 12 and can tolerate a lot more than before (although chocolate binging at Easter still proves to be an issue).

He used to have rice milk as an alternative but we then moved onto A2 milk which has enzymes added to stop the reaction. Someone I used to work with bought stuff that she added to normal milk to allow her to drink it, can’t remember what it was called though.

Just make sure you are managing to get enough calcium through other means in order to avoid a loss of bone density.

Just make sure you are managing to get enough calcium through other means in order to avoid a loss of bone density.

That’s important advice for kids, but it’s not really relevant for healthy adults. You’ll get plenty of calcium from a dairy free but otherwise normal diet, provided you don’t have an underlying problem. I’ve been effectively dairy-free for nearly two decades, I don’t make any special efforts to seek out calcium, and I’ve never had any problems with my calcium levels.

As discussed above, most mammals and indeed most humans (globally) don’t drink milk once they grow up, but they don’t have problems with their bones snapping all the time…

Hunter-Gatherer > Pastoralist, any-day

Only until the pastoralists got to a stage of production to support standing armies and non-farming periods long enough to get bored and fighty.

Or is that what you meant? 🙂