Lactose intolerance

[pam2738]

Hi all,

I am wondering about testing for lactose intolerance. Yesterday I had sardines on my millet bread ------- first time I've had sardines in about 8 months. Good quality too. I also had some yogurt in the afternoon with apple butter mixed in. My nutritionist & I have had a subtle ongoing battle about yogurt, she says no & I say yes. So I sneak it every once in a while.

A few hours afterwards, things started rumbling & as time went on, there was lots of "little air', if you know what I mean. This continued into the evening. Noise & "little air". And a bit burpy. This mornings bathroom trip was a softer but still snaky as far as appearance is concerned & no D. Not getting any more graphic for sake of moderators.

Anyway, any idea whether this was due perhaps to the yogurt? Could have been the sardines too, I know. But what is the test for lactose intolerance? Is it done in a dr's office? How to determine?

Thanks in advance,

Pam

[Allison]

Hi Pam,

A few tests to determine if truly lactose intolerant...both blood and breath tests. More general info and some about the tests:
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddisease ... tolerance/

It would be impossible to know what, exactly (if just one thing) caused your symptoms this time.
If you're going to add a new food (or one not tried since cdiff), stick to the "one at a time" rule and repeat that again until you can eliminate that food as a troublemaker before adding another one.

[MaryT]

Pam, I was officially diagnosed with lactose intolerance many years ago with the blood tests. I drank a glass of liquid and then had blood taken over a couple of hours every 15 minutes. I recently had a fructose intolerance test via the breath test and the woman next to me was doing the same thing but for lactose

I know that many lactose intolerant people eat yogurt but I cannot handle it. I drink Kefir instead....doesn't bother me like yogurt.

[pam2738]

Mary,

What happens when you eat yogurt? How do you feel & how soon do you feel it?

Pam

[Sheila1]

pam2738,

I don't know if it works for everyone, but I tested my lactose intolerance real easy and it was free. Well, it cost me a bowl of cereal.

I ate a bowl of cereal a couple nights in a row for supper and had terrible gas within an hour or so. No doubt that's a significant sign :)

[Sheila1]

p.s. I meant to also add -

Now I eat cereal with 2% Lactaid milk and do fine so it's not the wheat or something in the cereal (the whole Lactaid milk made me gassy too but not near as bad). Also, for me I found that Stonyfield yogurt makes me gassy, none of the others do, neither does Activia.

[pam2738]

Now that's really interesting about the Stonyfield. Cause it was Stonyfield I ate yesterday. I was at Whole Foods today & I bought some of that but also a tub of the Wallaby. Since the sardines I had when I got home are sitting fine, it must have been the yogurt yesterday. Now that I read what you have written, I think I'll try the Wallaby tomorrow & see what happens.

Pam

[Christina]

I tested my lactose intolerance basically by elimination and then by adding in dairy products to see what would happen. It was my PCP who told me to do that after going through extensive x-rays and other tests to see what was wrong, if anything. This was quite a long time ago now, at least 10 years. I can tolerate yogurt but if I have a build up of lactose then I am in serious trouble. Ice cream usually does it for me and throw in whipped cream and I'm very,very sick. I get real gassy, severe cramps and diarrhea that lasts for hours. It usually takes me 4-5 hours to start but sometimes it can happen faster than that.

Wallaby yogurt is so delicious. I get mine at Whole Foods,too.

[pam2738]

Christina,

How long do these symptoms last?

Pam

[Christina]

My symptoms of cramping and diarrhea usually last maybe around 3 hours or so. I had a very bad attack while visiting family in March. I had a very yummy hot fudge Sunday around 4pm and woke up at midnight w/ gas,cramps and diarrhea. I was in the BR for about an hour and half and was so exhausted I took 2 Bentyl to stop it because I had to go back to sleep. it worked until about 6 am and then it all started again for about another hour. That day I had to take 3 kids out to a museum so I didn't eat the whole day out of fear I'd get sick. I did have pretty bad stomach pain that day but by the next day I was fine.
For some reason it seems to be getting worse than it was or I'm getting more sensitive. Don't know why. Next time I talk to my GI Dr. I'm going to run it by him.

[pam2738]

Thanks all who answed this so far. I'm going to try the Wallaby yogurt this afternoon & see how it goes. The sardines seem to be ok & I've been snitching small pieces of yogurt cheese once a day & that's not been a problem. I do NOT want to be lactose intolerant as I LOVE aged cheddar. I can do without milk but I'm not sure I can do without my cheese.

Pam

[MaryT]

People who are lactose intolerant have different levels and different forms of lactose they are most sensitive to and the level at which they get sick generally varies. I am extremely sensitive to the 'hidden' lactose used as a binding agent in pills, etc. I can tolerate a little milk, but certain cheeses make me sick in 15 minutes....some may take a couple of hours to make me sick and sometimes I won't get sick at all. But when I do get sick, I generally get cramps, bloating, and urgency. I might have the big D but generally it's not quite D but I'll have to use the bathroom multiple times in a couple of hours....until I get it all out of me. Then I'm fine...although left with an upset stomach for a while and exhausted.

[Christina]

I was up thinking last night and wanted to add if you do wind up lactose intolerant beware of dry cereal and check their labels. Total makes me extremely sick and one of the main ingredients us lactose. It took me awhile to figure out why I was eating it everyday and getting so sick.

[Fiona]

Lactose intoleranance can vary in degrees. I am a celiac (lactose intolerance is very common with that) and fresh milk is very hard on the digestion, but aged cheese (hard cheeses, cheddars, not cream cheese) I tolerate very well (lucky too, like Pam I love aged cheddar!). According to my celiac diet books, the lactose undergoes changes in chemistry in the aging process which makes it much more digestible - soft/cream cheeses aren't the same because they still have the fresh milk lactose levels, but you may not have the same problem with aged cheeses. I am eating yogurt every day, because I am trying to get this wretched thing under control with a non-antibiotic method since the first few rounds on antibiotics were useless (now using oil of oregano/grapefruit seed oil/Betain HCL and Bio K+) and I also have found that different yogurts have different gas effects - currently using the fat-free plain one sold here, which doesn't seem to cause as much gas. The Bio K+ comes in a vegetarian soy version, but the soy causes more pain than milk. I just heard about kefir for the first time on this forum - is it difficult to find? Too right about cereals -watch out for ingredients, especially if there is some variant of modified ingredient - milk, whey, starch, since there is no requirement to say with what or how it is modified. I have to admit, after grain contents, I find sugar to be a larger worry, because it seems to be such an aggravant with cdiff, so if any sugar product is in the first four or five ingredients, I tend to avoid it. Doesn't leave a lot of options - I am beginning to think sugar is in about 90 per cent of our processed food.

[Judy M.]

Regarding plain versus other yogurt: I've been told that the sugars in the fruit or otherwise-flavored yogurts contribute to the gas and bloating problems. So, in fact, it might be better to use plain yogurt and, if absolutely necessary, "lightly" flavoring it so you don't mind eating it.