Lactose Intolerant: Are You Or Is Anyone in Your Family?

[Vulpix]

Are you lactose intolerant or is anyone in your family? If so, who in your family and at what age did you/they become lactose intolerant?

[Loki]

Lactose intolerance? What's that?

[WinterMoon]

In my family we have cases of both lactose intolerance and also dairy allergies. The lactose intolerant people normally display it beginning in early adulthood, and those with dairy allergies do so from birth (although it may disappear and re-emerge as well).

[Skandi]

I believe that the intolerance of lactose is geneticaly determined so it would follow that most people who are intolerent should have a family history of it. It will develop in anyone who stops drinking milk for a long period of time as you lose the enzymes nessesary for breaking down milk sugars. Personaly I developed it in my mid teens although it took several years to figure out what was wrong.

[Arrow Cross]

I suffer from political intolerance, as well as the majority of my family. However, I don't wanna get a cure.

[Beorn]

Are you lactose intolerant or is anyone in your family? If so, who in your family and at what age did you/they become lactose intolerant?

I'm going to be very lazy (Sue me. It's a Sunday! ), but what are the symptoms for being lactose intolerant?

[WinterMoon]

I'm going to be very lazy (Sue me. It's a Sunday! ), but what are the symptoms for being lactose intolerant?

Could be mild ranging from gas and bloating within a few hours after consuming dairy.... to more severe with having stomach cramps and diarrhea. From my observation, the "whites" who have lactose intolerance usually have the mild form, and often may not even realize that is where their bloating and gas comes from. It is not severe enough to really affect them in a way which is disruptive of their life or intestinal tract, so they do pay it any mind. Of course, this is just my observation and not based upon any research.

If you want to know if you are lactose intolerant try the following: for several days consume all the dairy you want. Make sure to consume plenty of dairy. See if you get gas and bloating. Then take a couple of days for cleansing and go on a "diet" that will rid your body of everything. Then try going several days without any dairy at all-- no cheese, no milk, no butter, etc. See if you have no gas or bloating. (And during this test, don't eat anything naturally gassy such as beans or broccoli.)

A lactose intolerance comes from the body's inability to break down lactose in the intestines.... that is why symptoms are generally gut related (gas, diarrhea, maybe even constipation). A dairy allergy, on the other hand, occurs in the stomach and is a reaction to the protein(s) in milk (whey or casein). The body is unable to digest them, and an immune system response is triggered. These can also be mild to severe. Symptoms may be anything from a runny nose and typical allergy symptoms. Also there may be severe pains and vomiting. It also can cause skin reactions such as hives or eczema.

I hope I answered your question adequately.

[Grumpy Cat]

I'm slightly lactose intolerant, but I seem to only feel really bad after eating ice cream (which has a higher lactose content than other dairy products).

With yogurt and cheese, I'm fine (probably because the bacterial culture does away with most of the lactose), and with milk I have slight symptoms, but ice cream is killer. I can drink chocolate milk, though, but chocolate actually helps people digest lactose.

I'm the only person in my family with this problem. I started to notice when I was about 19 or 20. I'm not sure where it came from, I don't think it's genetic because then other people in my family would have the problem. I didn't eat much dairy in my teen years (something my mother was always on my case about, giving me the whole osteoporosis speech), so maybe that's why.

[Jägerstaffel]

I had heard that lactose intolerance comes from being the descendent of a hunter-gather society and that lactose tolerance comes from being the descendent of an agricultural society. (In the majority of cases)

A theory was proposed on why the relations spoiled between the vikings in Vinland and the Skraelingr Native Americans that brought this idea into play. Possibly the vikingrs gave the natives milk and dairy products as a sign of goodwill upon their first interaction and the negative side effects caused the natives to think they had been poisoned; creating the bad blood between the folks.

My family comes from a line of farmers on one side, so yeah - definately not lactose intolerant.

[Æmeric]

I was 18 before I heard the phrase "lactose intolerant". It was during my navy service when I lived in close quarters with Negroes. Most of them didn't drink milk, it was some sort of black thing. Several of them told me that Blacks couldn't digest dairy products because their digestive systems were different. I thought to myself "Yeah right! It's just some wisetale their mammies told them to justify blowing the food stamps on beer & cigarettes."

The whole idea of being lactose intolerant seems unnatural to me.