Lactose Intolerance - Can It Be Overcome?

[thegazelle]

When I was a child, I used to drink milk every day, sometimes twice a day. Big glass in the morning. A nice hot cup of milk at night. Never had any problems.

Between 16-30 years old, I seldom drank milk. When I started drinking again at 31, I started getting extremely bad stomach aches and the runs. People told me it's because I am lactose intolerant. However, that doesn't explain how I didn't have this problem previously. So two years ago, I started drinking milk every day and I had to go to the washroom every day. It got marginally better with time. I drink the milk since I want to try to have a balanced diet and while I can take calcium pills, I'd rather get the calcium from the milk, since I'm getting liquids at the same time.

Does anyone know whether lactose intolerance can be overcome? I find it hard to believe that I am actually lactose intolerant since I wasn't up to the age of 15. I'm thinking that maybe I need to get my body accustomed to regular doses of milk and eventually, I'll have no more stomach aches and runs.

This is not that serious of a problem, so I haven't seen my doctor yet. But I'm wondering whether there are people out there who have "overcome" lactose intolerance by regular exposure to milk/cheese/ice cream. I know people who turn red-faced when drinking alcohol, but after regular moderate consumption, their face no longer goes flush red.

[wasabi]

I've always heard that lactose intolerance often shows up later in life; this was the case with a few people I know. None of them, however, have tried to increase their "tolerance" of dairy products by consuming more of it. Have you tried the lactose intolerance pills (lactaid)?

[Jucius Maximus]

I know someone who kind of OD's on milk product a few years ago and became very lactose interolerance.

Over the years she's slowly been able to eat more and more milk-based products again.

[westernartic]

When I was a child, I used to drink milk every day, sometimes twice a day. Big glass in the morning. A nice hot cup of milk at night. Never had any problems.

Between 16-30 years old, I seldom drank milk. When I started drinking again at 31, I started getting extremely bad stomach aches and the runs. People told me it's because I am lactose intolerant. However, that doesn't explain how I didn't have this problem previously. So two years ago, I started drinking milk every day and I had to go to the washroom every day. It got marginally better with time. I drink the milk since I want to try to have a balanced diet and while I can take calcium pills, I'd rather get the calcium from the milk, since I'm getting liquids at the same time.

Does anyone know whether lactose intolerance can be overcome? I find it hard to believe that I am actually lactose intolerant since I wasn't up to the age of 15. I'm thinking that maybe I need to get my body accustomed to regular doses of milk and eventually, I'll have no more stomach aches and runs.

This is not that serious of a problem, so I haven't seen my doctor yet. But I'm wondering whether there are people out there who have "overcome" lactose intolerance by regular exposure to milk/cheese/ice cream. I know people who turn red-faced when drinking alcohol, but after regular moderate consumption, their face no longer goes flush red.


It can not be over come.About 5 months ago i started to get very sick after i while i went to my docter.She said i am lactose intolerent.Now up to that point i was drinking 2 glasses of milk a day since i was 15 i am 31 now.It came to the point i could not go out at all.What she told me was to not to have any dairy at all.So i went on that diet and i am fine now.So no if you keep drinking milk etc you will just get worse.

[jakeer]

Technically, virtually everyone should become more lactose intolerant as you get older - humans are the only species that continues to ingest milk after the early growing years, since virtually all other animals can no longer digest it after a certain age since they no longer produce the enzyme (lactase) that breaks down the sugar (lactose) in milk.

Since humans have continued to drink milk at older ages for so long, we've retained the ability to digest it for some time. However, in some people (and at varying ages), this ability begins to go away - and that's lactose intolerance. Since your body is no longer producing the lactase enzyme due to a gene that has started to be switched off, you can't really "condition" your body to start making it again - it just doesn't really work that way. People may have anecdotal evidence to the contrary, and I'm not saying that it may not get a bit easier over time possibly for other reasons (again, you just have to look at people's stories to see that), but I seriously doubt you'll be able to drink milk with the same regularity as you did when you were younger without feeling some discomfort.

[mlc2000]

I know someone who kind of OD's on milk product a few years ago and became very lactose interolerance.

Over the years she's slowly been able to eat more and more milk-based products again.

That happened to me.

I used to drink a 2L jug of milk every morning , riding my bike to work.

4 months of that and I was in a hospital.

It took almost 2 years to get back to being ablr to have lactose products.

[SirAlain]

I'd do anything for a slice of cheesecake right now...
The things people take for granted. :cry:

[getmail99]

You can always get calcium from other food.

[Steeve Urkel]

I'd do anything for a slice of cheesecake right now...
The things people take for granted. :cry:

You could always have a "non-dairy" cheesecake. From a special bakery.

I know I can't tolerate a lot of dairy products and when i was a kid my parents would make me drink a big glass of milk every single morning.

And almost every day my stomach would turn and I'd end up throwing up...fun fun fun.

I can tollerate a bit of ice cream, but at least there is Rice Dream drozen items and they are good!

[Gigi]

I too used to be a frequent milk drinker until about half a year ago, when I started feeling pretty lousy. I didn't realize the connection until I went away for two weeks and had very little milk (only on cereal once in awhile). I felt great but once I got home and resumed my normal diet, all my troubles started again. My doctor suggested lactose intolerance and at first I dismissed it because I had been drinking milk all my life (I'm in my 30s now); however, after stopping dairy for the past few weeks and feeling good, I know she's right.

BTW, you can take lactose supplements (e.g., Lactaid), use lactose drops (e.g., in your milk) or get lactose-free products if you really can't stay away from dairy. I tried that for awhile and it worked to a degree, but I find that I just feel better without dairy consumption. I think once my system settles down I will try a little milk again.

[billdozer]

You mean to tell me you can't even enjoy ice cream?

[Jono]

There is a product being advertised called "lactagen" - google it and you will find various website that sell it. I do not endorse it - I have never tried it, nor do I know anyone who has, but I thought I would pass it along FYI.

If it does work for you, please post back.

My lactose intolerance is somewhat mild compared to what some of you have been describing, but I have settled with drinking Natrel brand lactose free milk (it is actually quite tasty) and avoiding other foods.

[CoffeeAddict]

I started becoming lactose intolerant about 3-5 years ago but it's only now at the age of 29 that it's really becoming hard on the stomach. I do find that the Life brand lactose pills help out though. They're relatively cheap and do the job. Without the pills I can't even drink a coffee with milk in it without gassing up. With the pills i can enjoy a full one wine/cheese dinner and have some other dairy products to boot.

I have never heard of the body "beating" lactose intolerance... I don't think the body starts spontaneously producing lactase again (i think that's what it's called) after it stops producing it.

[thegazelle]

Thank you for all the information, folks. I find it fascinating that a number of you started becoming lactose intolerant in your late 20s or early 30s. That's exactly what is happening with me. My brother is 10 times worse - he just doesn't get stomach aches and diarrhea, but also gets serious nausea and throws up the milk (and I'm sure most of you knows what throwing up warm milk smells like...YUCK!)

It's not just milk for me. I get bad runs and stomach aches when I get ice cream, to a degree. I've stopped eating ice cream more due to the fat content than to lactose intolerance (besides, there's a ton of ice cream alternatives that don't contain milk but taste really good).

It's interesting, because I get the runs from drinking coffee. It's usually a double-double. For years, I thought it was just the coffee that didn't agree with my stomach. Someone mentioned that the milk/cream in coffee does that to them. I wonder whether that's what's happening with me.

I guess I am inquiring as to whether it can be overcome since I see people overcoming the red-facedness of infrequent alcohol consumption (they just drink it regularly and it seems to be OK). Of course, I'd never try overcoming a peanut allergy (since I know there are health and potentially fatal consequences). It's just that when I was a kid, I never heard of ANYONE who was lactose intolerant (not to mention I did not know a single person who had a peanut allergy - we used to have peanut butter and jam sandwiches in school as a regular stape). I wonder whether by avoiding something, we have made our biological tolerance of it worse. We have tons of sanitation products, yet people seem to be sicker than they used to be.

Yes, I have seen the Lactese milk, and I try to pick it up when I can, but obviously, it's a bit more costly to get it. Haven't tried the pills though. These days, most of my milk consumption is with cereal in the morning. It doesn't seem to be AS bad as a straight glass of milk, but on the other hand, I had a bowl of milk with Alpha Bits along with my son this morning. He's fine and has no runs at school. But I get to work and immediately make a beeline for the washroom.

It's also weird, because I can eat pizza or lasagna and there is not as strong of an effect.

[SirAlain]

You could always have a "non-dairy" cheesecake. From a special bakery.

Yes, but it's not easy when you see a cheesecake and you want it right there and then! :|

You mean to tell me you can't even enjoy ice cream?

Well, there are soy ice creams. Some are okay, some are terrible. If ice cream isnt an option, there's soy chocolate, or 100% dark chocolate, or soy smoothies, soy yogurt, etc. Yes, very ... delicious.

[CoffeeAddict]

Another thing is if you're asian you're pretty much going to be lactose intolerant to some degree. It seems to affect asians quite often. I'm asian and my parents are also lactose intolerant although i'm not sure if anyone else in the family is

[Jono]

Chapmans makes a lactose free ice cream that is worth a try and tastes no different from regular ice cream. http://www.chapmans.ca/nutrition.aspx - click on the lactose free link.

I also have no problem eating yogurt - I recall reading that the bacteria in the yogurt culture helps your body to digest foods and has already broken down the lactose to some extent in the milk used to make the yogurt.

[getmail99]

Because yogurt and cheese have gone through fermentation, you can try yogurt and cheese instead of milk.

There are several advantages of yogurt/cheese than milk, I try to list them here, I hope I am correct:

1. probiotics
2. use unpasteurized milk (retain all the good stuff)
3. no extra vitamin D (actually vitamin D is hormone) added, more outdoor exercise please.
4. same amount of calcium

Check the label, try to buy the ones with the shortest label :lol: . Like no colour, additives, preservatives, sugar...

I stopped drinking milk 10 years ago, not because of lactose intolerant but because pasteurized milk is not for human. Recent few years, I started eating yogurt because of probiotics (not for calcium, you can always get calcium from other food than dairy).

Actually I don't know what is the point of drinking milk, yogurt and cheese are a lot better than milk.

[hagbard]

Don't know if you're Asian or not, but Asians are likely to be lactose intolerant. Don't ask me why, I don't know, heard some "expert" on the radio say so.

[al3x89]

I'm lactose intolerant, and it sucks.

When i was younger, I'd have 2 glasses of chocolate milk a day, and the occasional glass of milk, icecream etc.

That was when I was about 14. As soon as I hit highschool, I stopped drinking milk and I would rarely eat icecream aswell (maybe once a month)

I'm now 18, and it's just bad. I even use lactaid, but it doesn't always work. I think my body just got used to them, so they do'nt always work anymore. It really sucks. I'm thinking that I've lost those enzymes cause I've basically brought down my daily intake of dairy products over the years, and maybe my body stopped producing them?

I'm no doctor, so I dunno how it works, but thats how I think of it.

[almostfreeman]

If you are having lactose intolerance problems here are a couple of links that might be of interest ...

For lactose intolerant adults, drinking fermented milk either eliminated or drastically reduced symptoms related to lactose intolerance.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030530081555.htm

Kefir also aids in lactose digestion, making it more suitable than other dairy products for those who are lactose intolerant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

[Portwest]

One of my family members thought she was lactose intolerant for years -- seemed she always had digestive problems after eating or drinking dairy. One day she saw a new doctor, and when she told him she was lactose intolerant, he asked, "Have you been tested?" She hadn't, so he tested her -- had her drink some lactose and then have a blood test. Turned out she isn't lactose intolerant, aftar all, but had some other dietary problem.

[warlockdilemma]

One of my family members thought she was lactose intolerant for years -- seemed she always had digestive problems after eating or drinking dairy. One day she saw a new doctor, and when she told him she was lactose intolerant, he asked, "Have you been tested?" She hadn't, so he tested her -- had her drink some lactose and then have a blood test. Turned out she isn't lactose intolerant, aftar all, but had some other dietary problem.

Thats a very good point to be noted....

[Steeve Urkel]

I'd do anything for a slice of cheesecake right now...
The things people take for granted. :cry:

You could have cheesecake- just not a "regular" one.

My mom, she goes to a special vegetarian restaurant and they have a "tofu cheesecake" made with other grains and nuts.

You could probably get a cookbook and try some of the dairy free recipies.

Also I can't have much milk, so usually make my own ice cream or else buy the Rice Dream brand at the big Loblaws stores in the health foods section, it is very good. Not very "rich" tasting but it is all natural and dairy free.

I also recently saw a Kraft recipe for "ice cream" sandwiches made from Cool Whip and graham crackers and you added fruits and candy and froze the Cool whip....it was actually really good when they were very frozen and I would make more.
Even the people i know who only eat dairy found the graham sandwiches good....the recipe is on the Kraft website somewhere....

[gordholio]

"Pasteurization was a process invented in France in 1862 as an alternative to sterilization. In 1886, it was applied to milk, and by the 1920s or thereabouts became the standard treatment for raw milk in the US. Around this time, illnesses contractible through contaminated milk (most notably tuberculosis) were widespread and, instead of tackling the root of the problem—namely, increasing sanitation standards and enforcing them more harshly—it was decided that pasteurization would be instated. This way even "dirty" milk that had been contaminated along the way could be purified enough for human consumption. Presto, the beginning of an industry which focused on the end product rather than the steps required to make it. Grass-fed cows kept in small herds were replaced by huge herds kept in cement bunkers and fed processed feed products pumped full of antibiotics (not to mention other cows, which led to the rise of bovine spongiform encephalopathy). While there were other factors involved in this mass-commodification of the small dairy farm, the end results have been the same. Today's store-bought milk is stripped of natural nutrients, full of chemicals, and difficult to digest.

What does this have to do with lactose intolerance? It's precisely that stripping of nutrients which causes almost all lactose intolerance (as opposed to a true lactose allergy, which is a subject for another paper) since this intolerance is caused by a lack of the enzyme lactase in large enough quantities within the human digestive system to break down lactose, a fairly complex disaccharide found in milk. Raw milk contains harmless bacteria which produce lactase which, in turn, enables the human body to break down and absorb lactose. Pasteurized milk has had all of these bacteria killed off and is therefore lactase-free, but still contains lactose, causing problems for many people who try to drink it."

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f05/web2/mmichalak.html

[getmail99]

"Pasteurization was a process invented in France in 1862 as an alternative to sterilization. In 1886, it was applied to milk, and by the 1920s or thereabouts became the standard treatment for raw milk in the US. Around this time, illnesses contractible through contaminated milk (most notably tuberculosis) were widespread and, instead of tackling the root of the problem—namely, increasing sanitation standards and enforcing them more harshly—it was decided that pasteurization would be instated. This way even "dirty" milk that had been contaminated along the way could be purified enough for human consumption. Presto, the beginning of an industry which focused on the end product rather than the steps required to make it. Grass-fed cows kept in small herds were replaced by huge herds kept in cement bunkers and fed processed feed products pumped full of antibiotics (not to mention other cows, which led to the rise of bovine spongiform encephalopathy). While there were other factors involved in this mass-commodification of the small dairy farm, the end results have been the same. Today's store-bought milk is stripped of natural nutrients, full of chemicals, and difficult to digest.

What does this have to do with lactose intolerance? It's precisely that stripping of nutrients which causes almost all lactose intolerance (as opposed to a true lactose allergy, which is a subject for another paper) since this intolerance is caused by a lack of the enzyme lactase in large enough quantities within the human digestive system to break down lactose, a fairly complex disaccharide found in milk. Raw milk contains harmless bacteria which produce lactase which, in turn, enables the human body to break down and absorb lactose. Pasteurized milk has had all of these bacteria killed off and is therefore lactase-free, but still contains lactose, causing problems for many people who try to drink it."

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f05/web2/mmichalak.html

+1, I would like to try raw milk. But it is very difficult (actually illegal, unless you have your own cow, or cow share) to get raw milk in Ontario.

Oh, you may get some around Midland farm area. Buy a cow share.

[nalababe]

One of my family members thought she was lactose intolerant for years -- seemed she always had digestive problems after eating or drinking dairy. One day she saw a new doctor, and when she told him she was lactose intolerant, he asked, "Have you been tested?" She hadn't, so he tested her -- had her drink some lactose and then have a blood test. Turned out she isn't lactose intolerant, aftar all, but had some other dietary problem.

Another possibility is a problem digesting cassien, the protein in milk and milk products. This is what my son has a problem with. We finally determined when he switched to a soy cheese that contained cassien...and still experienced the same problems. Knew it was not the lactose.

[gordholio]

+1, I would like to try raw milk. But it is very difficult (actually illegal, unless you have your own cow, or cow share) to get raw milk in Ontario.

Oh, you may get some around Midland farm area. Buy a cow share.

I haven't delved into the issue really, but that's a good idea. There are lots of dairy farmers around here.