Lactose intolerance is an illness that some people experience because they can’t digest the sugar (lactose) in dairy. This symptom occurs as the enzymes that decompose lactose, which were common in infancy, gradually begin to decrease afterwards, and it is known that this happens due to heredity. In some cases, lactose intolerance appears from birth, but it usually occurs when people become an adult. This occurs in 90% of Asians, 75% of blacks, and 25% of Westerners. Diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps, and bloating are the common symptoms of lactose intolerance.
Let’s talk more about why some people become unable to digest milk as they age. The milk’s sugar is called lactose, and it is a disaccharide composed of galactose and glucose. Usually, lactose is decomposed and absorbed in the small intestine. When the lactose enters the small intestine, lactase, the transmembrane protein that breaks down lactose, is produced from one of small intestine cells, enterocytes. The lactase breaks down lactose to glucose and galactose. They are absorbed into enterocytes, and transported to the bloodstream. This is what happens when digesting milk for normal people. The people with lactose intolerance have problems breaking down the lactose because their enterocytes do not produce enough lactase. Consequently, most of the lactose would move to the large intestine, not decomposed and absorbed in the small intestine. The bacterias in the large intestine causes the lactose fermentation which produces hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide gas. These gasses are the main cause of the cramping and bloating. The lactose fermentation also produces the short-chain fatty acids like acetate, propionate, and butyrate. The lactose and the acids makes the large intestine have a higher osmotic pressure, pulling a lot of water from the bloodstream to the large intestine, and it eventually causes loose stools or diarrhea.
There are clear treatments that can get rid of lactose intolerance by now. The level of pain they get from the lactose malabsorption differs by people. For people who are experiencing severe pain, not consuming dairy products, and drinking soybean milk or almond milk is the best way. Recently, lactose-free milks have been increasingly produced. However, lactose-free milks are expensive than normal milks, and the taste is somewhat different. There are mostly two ways to produce lactose-free milk. One way is to decompose the lactose into galactose and glucose using the lactase when manufacturing the milk. The milks produced this way tend to have a sweeter taste. The other way is to have a special filter that can eliminate lactose from the milk, but because the filter also eliminates some fat together, the milk tastes watery or less sweet. People with moderate problems can eat other foods with the dairy products, or they can eat yogurts and cheese, which have less lactose because they are fermented beforehand when they are being made.
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