Lactose Intolerance: What You Should Know

 

Lactose intolerance is simply the inability of the body to digest lactose, a disaccharide sugar found mostly in diary food. People with lactose intolerance are unable to fully digest the sugar (lactose) in milk. As a result, they have diarrhea, gas and bloating after eating or drinking dairy products. The condition isn’t harmful, but it can be uncomfortable and may be embarrassing. There’s no cure, but you can manage it by watching how much milk or milk products you drink or eat. Lactose intolerance is very common. In fact, it's thought to affect around 75% of the world's population.

What is lactose?

Lactose is a disaccharide sugar, meaning it consist of two monosaccharides sugar, namely; Glucose and Galactose, that is bonded together by an alpha glycosidic bond.

The enzyme lactase is responsible for the breaking down of lactose sugar into two monosaccharide sub-units glucose and galactose. It acts on the glycosidic linkage between the two simple sugar which then gets absorbed into the body through the intestines.

Without sufficient lactase, lactose will not digest lactose properly. Instead, it goes on to the colon, where it mixes with normal bacteria and ferments. It can cause things like gas, bloating and diarrhea.

Lactose is also found in breast milk, and almost everyone is born with the ability to digest it. It is very rare to see lactose intolerance in children under the age of five.

Causes of lactose intolerance

• Hereditary; most people develop lactose intolerance due to a minor genetic disorder that runs in the family.
• Age; the enzyme lactase production tends to decrease with increase in age. As a result the catabolism of lasctose reduces. 
• Some ailments can lead to lactose intolerance, ailments such as a stomach bug or a more serious issue like celiac disease. This is because inflammation in the gut wall can lead to a temporary decline in lactase production. 
• Injury to the small intestine which is called Hypolactasia, can cause lactose intolerance in both infants and lactase persistent adults and is generally reversible.

Symptoms of Lactose Intolerance

These symptoms usually appear one-half to two hours after consumption. And severity of symptoms typically increases with the amount of lactose consumed. These symptoms include;

• Abdominal bloating
• Abdominal cramps 
• Diarrhea 
• Nausea 
• Borborygmi, and 
• Vomiting

List of diary foods

The following dairy products contain lactose:

• Cow's milk (all types)

• Goat's milk

• Cheese

• Ice cream

• Yogurt

• Butter

 

Diagnosis

To diagnose a patient with lactose intolerance, the intestinal function is therefore challenged by ingesting a higher quantity of dairy products than can be readily digested. The symptoms of lactose intolerance is expected to surface within 30 minutes, but may take up to two hours, depending on the quantity of lactose that is present in the dairy product, that is being ingested. There are several test that can be used to test for lactose intolerance, and the includes;

• Blood test; In blood test, blood samples are used in testing for lactose intolerance. And because of the continuous requirement of blood for this test, it was replaced by the breath test which only requires the patient to breath probably on a biosensor.

• Stool acidity test; This test can be used to diagnose lactose intolerance in infants, for whom other forms of testing are risky or impractical.

• Hydrogen breath test; the most accurate lactose intolerance test. This is carried out by the used of clinical gas chromatograph or compact solid-state detector, which detects the presence hydrogen and methane which are the end products of bacteria metabolism on lactose.

• Genetic diagnostic; Genetic tests may be useful in assessing whether a person has primary lactose intolerance.

• Intestinal biopsy; An intestinal biopsy can confirm lactase deficiency following discovery of elevated hydrogen in the hydrogen breath test.

• Stool sugar chromatography; though most people uses procedure to test for lactose intolerance it is never considered reliable enough to conclusively diagnose or exclude lactose intolerance.

Managing lactose intolerance

In the case of lactose intolerance caused by injury or disease, treatment of the underlying disease or injury may allow lactase activity to return to normal levels.
For aged people with lactose intolerance, there are no possible treatment for them. The best thing for them is to reduce or abstain from dairy foods.