Lactose Intolerance
Introduction:
- Humans can tolerate varying amounts of lactose before getting symptoms. Symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, gas, and nausea. These symptoms often develop thirty minutes to two hours after consuming lactose-containing meals or beverages, with severity varied depending on the amount consumed. Lactose intolerance has no adverse impact on the digestive tract.
Whether or not there is a disorder:
- Doctors do not consider lactose intolerance to be a disease. They describe it as a reaction of the digestive system to lactose, which it is unable to handle.
- Lactase, an enzyme produced by the cells lining the small intestine, is required by the body to digest lactose.
- Lactase insufficiency allows undigested lactose to enter the colon, where it produces excess gas and water, resulting in bloating, cramps, and diarrhoea.
- Lactose intolerance generates unpleasant symptoms, although it is never dangerous.
Extremely common:
- Lactose intolerance is so common that, with the exception of the 1-2% of people who experience severe bloating, cramps, and nausea shortly after consuming dairy, almost every adult has some degree of it.
- Lactase production by the small intestine naturally diminishes with aging.
- Lactose intolerance is a digestive disorder caused by the consumption of dairy products that resolves when the person fully avoids or limits the consumption of milk products.
- Its symptoms, however, are sometimes confounded with those of other common and chronic gastrointestinal disorders, such as IBS, whose pathogenesis is fundamentally different.
Depending on one’s ethnicity:
- According to the study, lactose intolerance estimations differ by ethnicity.
- Prevalence is estimated to be 75-95% in African Americans and Asians, and 18-26% in Europeans.
- Though specific tests for lactose intolerance exist, such as the hydrogen breath test, they are rarely utilized in clinical practice.
- In most situations, this is a self-diagnosed and self-managed condition. Because traditional tests for detecting lactose intolerance are either unavailable or too expensive in this country, clinical diagnosis appears to suffice.
- Secondary lactose intolerance can occur unexpectedly after surgery or chemotherapy, or if you have a small intestine infection, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease. This, however, usually goes away once the small intestine recovers.
As opposed to allergy, intolerance:
- Lactose intolerance is fairly common among Asians — more than half of Indians are lactase deficient — yet it is very simple to misdiagnose this condition, especially in the elderly.
- Some malignancies, such as colon cancer, might cause strange symptoms in the elderly that are comparable to lactose intolerance.
- Milk allergy generates an acute and strong reaction, whereas lactose intolerance never causes substantial disease or long-term repercussions.
Conclusion:
- Plant-based milk (soy/almond milk) or lactose-free milk are options for lactose-intolerant people who enjoy drinking milk. Lactose-intolerant people can get calcium through yoghurt, tofu, almonds, spinach, broccoli, oranges, lentils, and legumes.
