Lactose intolerance is otherwise known as lactase deficiency or hypolactasia. It is a person’s inability to digest and metabolize sugar found in milk called lactose, a large sugar molecule formed from smaller sugars of glucose and galactose. Lactose is enzyme required to breakdown lactose in the digestive system, but the inability to break or split it results in lactase deficiency and in several symptoms. These symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, flatulence, bloating, acid reflux or flowing back, and nausea. These symptoms usually disappear when milk products and other products containing lactose are effectively removed from the
diet of the affected person.
There are at least three
causes of Lactose Intolerance. The first is congenital, which is the absence of lactase in a person from birth. The secondary cause is due to a disease that destroys the lactase and the lining of the small intestines. The developmental cause of the deficiency occurs after childhood when the amount of lactase begins to decrease until adulthood. Infants born prematurely, that is, before the ninth month, are at
risk of Lactose Intolerance because their lactase levels do not increase until the third trimester, or the ninth month of pregnancy. However, lactase deficiency is now very common in adults and this happens when lactase is not well made by the small intestines. Lactase as an enzyme helps the body absorb foods.
Doctors and other healthcare providers diagnose persons with Lactose Intolerance by first determining if they have digestive and irritable bowel symptoms. This is a preliminary diagnostic step although not all people have digestive symptoms even if they have lactase deficiency.
Digestion of lactose can be measured through two tests—the hydrogen breath test, and the stool acidity test. With the first test, the person’s breath is analyzed at regular intervals to measure the amount of hydrogen after the patient is made to drink a lactose-loaded beverage. High levels of hydrogen are produced by undigested lactose in the body. The stool acidity test is performed for infants and children to determine the amount of acid in their stool. Lactic acid and other fatty acids created by undigested lactose can be detected in their stool sample.
Treatment of Lactose Intolerance can be done by first removing milk products from the diet of a person in order to improve the symptoms. Substituting these products with those that are easier to digest is another way to deal with the digestive inability. These food products include buttermilk and cheese, yogurt, ice cream, milk shakes, goat milk, and lactose-treated cow’s milk. For infants and toddlers, soy formulas, soy or rice milk are needed to improve their symptoms.
Doctors say that Lactose Intolerance cannot be prevented but its symptoms can be managed and controlled through a diet that puts a limit to dairy products. But in the event symptoms persist and even get worse, or new symptoms develop despite treatment, consulting a doctor is inevitable. This is necessary to get the doctor’s or a dietitian’s advice about planning a diet, or information on the best
food substitutes.
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