Are you lactose intolerant?
Lactose is a sugar naturally found in milk and other dairy products. If you don't make enough lctase, the enzyme you need to digest lactose, it could be causing uncomfortable digestive symptoms, like nausea, pain, gas, and diarrhea.
If you think you are lactose intolerant, try this self-test. Eliminate all dairy products from your diet for at least 10 days. Read labels thoroughly to make sure no lactose sneaks in through packaged foods, pasta, canned goods, drinks, or other foods. Even if a label doesn't list milk or yogurt, you may find these dairy by-products - casein, sodium caseinate, dry milk solids, and whey - in lots of foods.
If you're not sure whether something contains lactose, don't eat it. And keep in mind that about 20 percent of all prescription drugs and 6 percent of all over-the-counter products contain lactose. If your symptoms get better after 10 days of so, treat yourself to one dairy food or drink. If your symptoms return, you may be lactose intolerant. Talk with your doctor about your self-test, especially if it doesn't give you clear results.
A blood test or breath test, or both, may help you find out whether lactose intolerace is making you miserable. The amount of glucose in your blood or hydrogen in your breath can show whether you can digest lactose.
Before the test. Avoid food, drink, smoking, and heavy exercise for eight hours before the blood or breath test. Tell your doctor about all medicines and supplements you take.
What to expect. A lab technician will draw a blood sample from your arm. Then you will drink a lactose-infused solution. You'll have three more blood samples taken - one 30 minutes after the drink, another one hour after, and a third at two hours. You may also be asked to breathe out of a special device, which measures the amount of hydrogen in the breath. If you have lactose intolerance, the test will probably cause you to have the same symptoms as when you drink milk or eat dairy products.
After the test. You can go back to your normal diet, medications, and activities.
Advantages and disadvantages. Other than possible lactose intolerance symptoms, the test has no side effects or risks. However, some people may still need other tests in addition to these. On a cost scale of 1 to 7 where 7 is the most expensive, this test rates a 3.
© FCA Publishing
Excerpted from FC&A's The Complete Guide to Digestive Health.
