Why do I have lactose intolerance in the USA but not in India?
I am in the same puzzled state as you are in. It took me a few months after coming to the US to realize that the root cause to my bowel discomfort is milk. I never suspected it because, I had been consuming milk all my life everyday back in India without any problems. Being a fan of milk, I could not digest the fact that I could not digest milk. I have tried about 4 brands of milk and the best I found so far is Simple Truth Organic milk. It causes discomfort less frequently than others.Like others have mentioned here, one cause might be the differences in cattle feed and cattle lifestyle. But I just found a rather interesting and satisfying article (only enter if you are 18+. There are nude cows on the page :p) on differences between milk in different geographic regions. These differences are owed to the presence of A1/A2 proteins in milk. Most of the dairy farm cows in US produce milk that predominantly contains the A1 protein while Indian/French/African cows produce milk that is rich in A2 protein. According to the article, there are multiple researches that relate A1 protein to some illnesses. While the support and opinions on these researches are mixed, I think this A1/A2 protein difference might be a cause for the newly found intolerance. Only way for us to know is to search for brands that sell A2 milk in the US and try one.
How do I know if I am lactose intolerant? I did not start off as lactose intolerant, but now whenever I eat/drink something with lactose my stomach hurts a lot, and there are other things that go along with it.
The main symptoms of lactose intolerance are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, flatulence after drinking milk. Very few people have these symptoms when eating cheese or yogurt, as these foods are naturally almost lactose free. Even if you have a very low lactase production you should have much lighter symptoms when eating cheese. If you think you are becoming intolerant, discuss it with your doctor. He or she may suggest you have a simple breath test to diagnose more exactly if you are becoming intolerant. Most people become lactose intolerant with age, as lactase production decreases.
I was lactose intolerant for 5 years, but now I have no problems digesting huge amounts of dairy, what happened?
The short and rather frustrating answer is: We don't know.We're at the very start of understanding epigenetics and the micobiome. (The things that live on and in you.) Both are likely to play a factor in this -- which is trivial to show: Children are usually able to digest lactose, but lose that faculty over time. Some children even switch back-and-forth. (I did, just for example.) Some people retain lactose tolerance, to a varying degree. People with certain illnesses like IBDs can switch between being lactose intolerant and lactose tolerant pretty much on a monthly basis. Things are happening in their bodies -- and we don't have a perfectly good grasp of what they are.But I'm fairly confident in telling you what they aren't.They aren't "SIBO" or "Leaky Gut Syndrome" or "Candidasis" which can be treated with silver ions or kombucha enemas or the latest in raspberry ketones or the latest dietary fad. All these things do is treat your wallet to make it magically lighter. A fairly good judgement criterion is whether the page trying to inform you of things is also trying to sell you cures. (Metsol and "Osteopathic Centre", I'm looking at you. We know that your spinal alignment has no impact on how you process your food. Because there is no such thing as an ostheopathic spinal alignment.)A single small-scale study of anything does not give scientific answers -- whatever those might be -- but opens paths to likely further avenues of questions. Nothing more.
Can you become lactose intolerant at any time?
Yes, you can. Often allergies and sensitivities develop later, or responses can "move" -- as from a skin rash to stomach distress. Try eliminating it from your diet for a while, then gradually reintroducing it to see if that's the culprit. If you must have milk products (and they are hard to resist), use Lactaid. It really helps.
What are the symptoms for being lactose intolerant?
If you have lactose intolerance, your symptoms may include: * Bloating. * Pain or cramps in the lower belly. * Gurgling or rumbling sounds in the lower belly. * Gas. * Loose stools or diarrhea. Sometimes the stools are foamy. * Throwing up. Many people think they are lactose-intolerant because the symptoms of lactose intolerance are very common symptoms. If you feel sick after drinking a glass of milk one time, you probably do not have lactose intolerance. But if you feel sick every time you have milk, ice cream, or another dairy product, you may have lactose intolerance. Sometimes people who have never had problems with milk or dairy products suddenly have lactose intolerance. This is more common as you get older. Symptoms of the most common type of lactose intolerance-adult lactose intolerance-often develop during the teen or adult years and continue for life. Symptoms of acquired lactose intolerance last as long as the small intestine does not make lactase.
Is it possible to become lactose intolerant after being vegan for 3 months?
All adult humans are lactose intolerant, actually. They just don’t recognize the symptoms. Some have pain, and THOSE are the people who call, “lactose intolerant,” but in reality, there is a very long list of symptoms that are caused by adults (who by definition should not be drinking dairy milk) drinking “milk,” or dairy milk.Here are just a FEW problems milk causes, and there are hundreds more:Overproduction of phlegm (do you clear your throat repeatedly in the morning? Milk.)BloatingPainful gasIt has been shown REPEATEDLY that milk sucks the calcium from human bones and milk drinkers have a MUCH HIGHER incidence of osteoporosis than non-milk drinkers. Refer to the Harvard Nurses Study on this one.Bad breathNow, with regard to you stopping the milk and then starting and having problems, well…this shows that your body had detoxified from the crap in the milk (including hormones and anti-biotics). So just don’t consume it. It’s horrible for you.
Can someone not have lactose intolerance at a young age then get it as a teen or adult?
Yes, as a matter of fact many adults tend to become more intolerant towards dairy products as they age. This is because the enzyme in your digestive system called “lactase”, which aids the digestion of the protein “lactose�� found in things like milk, cheese, ice cream, etc, becomes more sparse and less useful.As you lose these lactase enzymes with age, your body has a much more difficult time digesting lactose.Folks who are born and raised with an intolerance to lactose are born with less of these enzymes already, which is why they have problems early on.Some adults have less of a decline in these enzymes, so they never seem to have problems as they age.Unfortunately for those who do develop or are born with lactose intolerance, there isn’t much you can do to prevent or solve it, but, you can manage it by eating small portions of dairy products if you choose to.
Can being lactose intolerant kill you? is it a disease?
Lactose intolerance means the body cannot easily digest lactose, a type of natural sugar found in milk and dairy products. Symptoms of lactose intolerance can be mild or severe, depending on how much lactase your body makes. Symptoms usually begin 30 minutes to 2 hours after eating or drinking milk or milk products. If you have lactose intolerance, your symptoms may include: Bloating. Pain or cramps in the lower belly. Gurgling or rumbling sounds in the lower belly. Gas. Loose stools or diarrhea. Sometimes the stools are foamy. Throwing up. Many people think they are lactose-intolerant because the symptoms of lactose intolerance are very common symptoms. If you feel sick after drinking a glass of milk one time, you probably do not have lactose intolerance. But if you feel sick every time you have milk, ice cream, or another dairy product, you may have lactose intolerance. Sometimes people who have never had problems with milk or dairy products suddenly have lactose intolerance. This is more common as you get older. Symptoms of the most common type of lactose intolerance-adult lactose intolerance-often develop during the teen or adult years and continue for life. Symptoms of acquired lactose intolerance last as long as the small intestine does not make lactase. If you think you might have lactose intolerance, talk it over with your doctor. Your doctor can make sure that your symptoms are caused by lactose intolerance and not by another problem. Other conditions can cause symptoms similar to those of lactose intolerance, including irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, overuse of laxatives, and problems digesting foods that contain fructose and sorbitol.
I'm starting to think I'm lactose intolerant, but because I've never mentioned it before and only started thinking about it at 12, I'm afraid my parents won't take me seriously. How can I go about this?
First of all, nobody (almost nobody, there are exceptions but are extremely few) is lactase deficient (aka lactose intolerant) from birth. We are (nearly) all born producing lactase, which is the enzyme that allows our body to digest lactose, which is the sugar of milk. As milk is only really meant to be consummed in the first part of the infancy, most animals stop producing lactase shortly after they are weaned; in the case of us humans this age should be 5 years old. Homo sapiens, in the past handful of millennia, has developed a mutation that allows us to keep producing lactose to a much older age. Yet, only about the 25% of the population keeps producing lactase for the whole life, so most of us will at some point become lactase deficient (aka lactose intolerant). Your time may be coming now, as you are 12.Whe you will become lactose intolerant, if you drink milk you will start having the following symptoms: flatulence (farting), diarrhoea, bloated stomach, stomach cramps and pains, stomach rumbling, and nausea (feeling sick). At first you will likely just have a few rumblings after having a large glass of milk. For many people that’s all: they are lightly lacotse intolerant, so they have a bloated and gurgly belly if they drink a large glass of milk. I am somewhere in between: a smallish glass of milk, especially on an empty stomach, causes me cramps, diarrhea and sometimes a cholic, but I can add a few drops of milk in my coffee with no consequnces.If you are feeling sick when you drink milk you should really tell your parents that you would rather stop drinking milk or only drink reduced lactose milk. Now, while milk is an essential food in very small children, it’s by no means indispensible in teens or adults. You can easily substitute milk with other dairy (yogurt, cheese, etc.) that has naturally next to no lactose content. Only the very few people that develop an extreme level of lactose intolerance can’t even have the other dairy products. Be also aware that as long as you eat enough dairy (if so, eat more yogurt than cheese, as cheese is a fat and salt bomb) your parents have no place in forcing you to drink milk. At 12 you are entitled to your own tastes regarding food. Just tell them that you do not like milk (if you are not indeed lactose intolerant) and would rather have yogurt (make it white and unsweetened) with your breakfast.