Lactose intolerance, lactaid, etc.

I think I might be lactose intolerant.  I can stand a little bit of dairy, but it seems to be quite unpredictable.  I can eat pizza one day and be fine and the next time it will be horrible.  Ditto with ice cream or milk. Larger amounts are guaranteed to cause pain and GI distress.

I tried Lactaid tablets in the past, and they did not work for me.  I had the same unpredictable effects--a food was okay one time and not okay the next--much as it is normally without tablets.

I tried Lactaid milk, which gave me painful cramps, gas, and bloating.

What confuses me though is that sometimes I will be okay and it will be fine, but sometimes I can't handle any.  Also, if it was really lactose intolerance, shouldn't the enzyme supplement help me?  It makes me wonder if there is something wrong other than lactose intolerance. 

soy milk also causes me digestive problems much the same as cow's milk.

Does anyone have any ideas?  Oh, and do you think there is a possibility that I could "build up resistance" and 'get used to" the dairy over time if I kept eating it?

I would suggest keeping a food and symptom diary for a few weeks and then taking it to your doctor.  It could be that you have a reaction to dairy products but it's always a little unsafe to self-diagnose and self-medicate.  I'm not sure if the fact that you're not responding to lactaid tablets means it's not lactose intolerance but it could be, for example, that you have some kind of Irritable Bowel Syndrome...  or you could be sensitive to a different food.  There are lots of other possibilities.  Inflamed gallbladders, for example, can be irritated by high fat foods.  Crohn's Disease, colitis... all kinds of things can result in cramps, gas and bloating.

If things don't improve by avoiding dairy products all together, then talk to your doctor and ask their advice.

Lactose-intolerance is much misunderstood. It is rarely something you develop in adulthood without there being another underlying condition.

97% of people of Northern European descent (essentially caucasian) are lactose tolerant for life. The rest of the world's population is essentially the opposite and they cannot tolerate lactose shortly after being weaned in the first few years of life.

If you think you have developed lactose intolerance as an adult then there are two conditions that can temporarily cause this in normally lactose tolerant people: gluten-intolerance and intestinal infections (parasites that cause stomach flu etc.).

I note you have occasional issues with pizza -- so it actually may not be the cheese, it could be the wheat (i.e. gluten-intolerance). In fact hard cheeses (even mozzarella) have very little to no lactose in them.

If you are gluten-intolerant then while you continue to eat wheat, barley and rye your ability to produce lactase (to digest lactose) is weakened. Many people who are gluten-intolerant think that it's lactose that's the problem. Once they are properly diagnosed and they remove wheat, barley and rye from their diets completely, they once again tolerate lactose.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is not a condition or diagnosis -- another medical misconception. IBS means that your medical professionals have not been able to find any reason for your gastro-intestinal symptoms. Never accept IBS as a diagnosis unless your doctor has exhausted all other real diagnoses first.

However GI-Jane is right in suggesting you keep a food diary with accompanying symptoms for a couple of weeks. Then see a doctor with the information you have collected.

Crohn's Disease is most likely diagnosed before the age of 35. Thankfully there is some tremendous treatment success with antibiotics for Crohn's (Dr. T. Borody's work in Australia) where they once thought it was merely an auto-immune condition.

Both Crohn's and colitis are diagnosed by taking a look at the condition of your colon (a sigmoidoscopy and/or colonoscopy). Both Crohn's and colitis however are notable in that they usually cause blood in the stool as well as diarrhea, bloating and gas. So, before you have to undergo any kind of "oscopy" they will simply ask for a stool sample and see if there is occult or frank blood.

If not, then next up is gluten-intolerance (celiac disease). If anyone in your family already has celiac disease, then ask to be given the mouth swab genetic test to see if you have the genetic predisposition to develop celiac disease. Then you can go from there.

That you find your symptoms a bit all over the map; that lactaid was not successful; and that soy milk causes issues (some of those have wheat in them) does mean that a visit to a doctor with a bit of a food/symptom diary will be really useful.

Oh, and the lactose intolerance test is a breath test so that's easy enough to tick on or off the list right off the bat.

It is unlikely to be a food allergy as those usually involve some itching, swelling and nausea as well as gastro-intestinal symptoms -- however, your allergy history will be relevant to your doctor for her or him to determine whether a food allergy is involved.

Best of luck.

Whooops -- shoulda checked first -- you're pregnant -- that's just moved celiac disease up on the list. While you can be born gluten-intolerant, you can also have the genes from birth but they don't get turned on until later in life and the two most common triggers for becoming and active celiac patient are: the hormonal changes in pregnancy and intestinal illness.

Thank you for the replies!!  That gave me a lot to ponder.  Maybe I am not lactose intolerant after all. 

I actually had a test for celiac one time that was negative.  There was a question of it before I was pregnant because I had anemia (they eventually decided was due to a ruptured cyst bleeding).  I don't know much about medical testing for celiac disease, but the test I had was a blood test.  I've heard that for some of those tests to be accurate you need to be eating a diet high in gluten before hand, and I don't think I typically do.  I am not sure the test was reliable.  Do you think it is something worth retesting for?

As far as Crohns or colitis or that type of thing, I really don't have problems with diarrhea very often and haven't had blood.  Diarrhea is really rare for me, it's usually gas/bloating/pain if I have problems.  My pizza reactions might be related to grease/fat too as I seem to have issues if I eat too greasy of foods.

A food diary is a good idea.  I'd really like to get a full workup for this, but it'll have to wait until after pregnancy.  Pregnancy really clouds the picture when it comes to investigating any health issues.

So, yes the blood test for celiac disease is notoriously good at giving false negatives. It is only 90% accurate under perfect conditions. That sounds highly accurate, but it translates that 10 people out of every 100 will be told that don't have celiac disease when they do. In fact, false positives for this test only occur less than 1% of the time (i.e. being told you have celiac disease when you don't).

And yes, you do need to be eating a diet heavy in gluten for about two-three weeks prior and up to the test. Even then, the body may not be able to mount an antibody response (which is what the blood test looks for) if you have had active celiac disease for several years and it has remained undiagnosed.

You may want to consider, after your child is born, a gluten-free diet for six weeks to see if this resolves the gastro-intestinal symptoms, if a full work-up doesn't provide you with anything else more concrete. Don't be too concerned if you steer clear of gluten while you are pregnant. I would suggest quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) as a gluten-free grain that offers complete protein and will provide you and baby-to-be with a great alternate source of B vitamins and protein. And of course, rice is fine too.

Finding fatty foods a problem can happen with celiac disease (while still eating gluten), but it is also possible liver enzyme oddities are at fault, that's a blood test to check that out.

Anyhow, best of luck for you and baby-to-be and let us know how it all goes.

Have you tried Rice Milk? I know when i was a baby i was allergic to breast milk and formula so my mom had to give me Rice Milk. Worth a shot. It actually tastes good it has a sweet taste to it. hope you figure out whats going on!!

Just a quick word of caution on rice milk -- many have gluten (wheat/barley/rye) in them so read the ingredient list carefully (just in case gluten-intolerance may be the underlying cause). Best of luck!

I did not know that! Thanks for the post!! I love this site! Im always learning something new!!!