# lactose pills and lactose free milk - safe?



## serendipidy (Jun 16, 2002)

Hi

I'm lactose intollerant as are 2 of my children. For the past couple of years I have taken lactose pills with dairy but have been wondering if there are any long term health problems with this. I know I could just give up/limit dairy - I do limit it somewhat but can't imagine giving it up!

My children do not use the lactose pills although I will sometimes get them lactaid milk. Which brings up another question - how do they remove the lactose? I wish there were such a thing as organic lactose-free milk!

Thanks for any info you may have!

Michele


----------



## dooldad (Mar 23, 2005)

This might not apply but, my wife could not drink milk, including all the different lactaid milks and it didn't help, even if she took the pills. The weird thing is she can drink organic milk. Don't know if you tried, just my 2 cents.


----------



## ChasingPeace (Oct 19, 2003)

Organic Valley makes an Organic lowfat (2%) milk. My ds is only 13 months, so he can't drink it yet, and our pediatrician recommended getting lactaid drops and giving him regular organic milk. We haven't found the drops yet, so we haven't tried it and I don't know about the safety of the drops. It's my understanding that they're an enzyme that lactose intolerant people are missing. Will be reading this thread to see if anyone knows more!


----------



## callmemama (May 7, 2002)

Personally, I would (and did!







) ditch the milk! Its not that hard to just substitute with all the rice, soy, almond, etc. "milks" on the market. And you've probably read that mammals really don't "need" milk after they've weaned! There are many other sources of calcium! Good luck!


----------



## Chanley (Nov 19, 2001)

If you are reacting to dairy, it may not be the lactose. Lactose is the natural sugar. Casien is the protein. Casien is a HUGE allergen for many many people.

It causes my Dh to have arthritis like symptoms and causes bloating and diarrhea in my kids. The three of them get eczema as well from it.


----------



## shantimama (Mar 11, 2002)

They don't really remove the lactese - they just add the lactase drops to regular milk so that the lactese is broken down in the container. It makes the milk sweeter tahn regular milk.


----------



## tboroson (Nov 19, 2002)

Chanley, lactose intolerance and casein allergy are fundamentally different things, and both very highly documentable.

Lactose intolerance is when your body doesn't produce enough of the enzyme lactase to break down the milk sugar lactose. Instead, the lactose passes through the digestive system undigested and reaches the colon, where bacteria break it down into lactic acid and other acidic compounds. That causes bloating, gas, diarrhea, pain. This is entirely a digestive function and bears no relationship to the immune system.

Casein allergy is similar to other allergies. The milk protein casien passes through the walls of the gut into the bloodstream, where they are attacked by the immune system. IgE produces histamines, which cause an inflammatory reaction. This can result in hives, the lungs swelling shut, stomach cramps or many other symptoms.

Those who proscribe to the Feingold diet for ADD and/or GFCF principles for ASD believe there are non-IgE moderated immune reactions, too. This is, as I'm sure you know, greatly contested in conventional medical circles. But, it's becomming more and more obvious that there are truely non-histemic immune system malfunctions, like celiac disease. It was only a few short years ago that doctors very ferverently believed that celiac disease didn't exist. Now it's well documented, and known to be very prevalent. I've no doubt that the Feingold and GFCF ideas will also have their day...

Anyway, although I said above that casein intolerance can manifest as digestive trouble, the casien intolerance would *not* be managed with LactAid, which is a lactase supplement. So, if the OP was having success with LactAid, then there is no reason to believe that her problem is casien.

Further, a *huge* percentage of the population is known to be lactose intolerant, i.e. 25% of the entire US population, 95% of Asians, 65% of African Americans. Casein intolerance is clearly not even vaguely that high.

Anyway, to address the OP's post, I'd be interested to know if anybody here knows anything about the inert ingredients and stuff in LactAid. Personally, I'm not suspicious of the primary ingredient. Even if it's synthetically derived, it's still a replacement for an enzyme that we would normally produce anyway. It's the "other stuff" in there that potentially worries me. I've taken it occasionally, but I'm only mildly lactose intolerant and prefer to moderate it by keeping my dairy consumption at a lower level, and focusing on yogurt and kefir rather than fresh milk. I've also found that I have no problem at all with raw milk - and I know several other people who've said the exact same thing. My big bugaboo is ice cream. But since I've started drinking raw milk, I have had very little trouble with ice cream, even non-raw ice cream, and even in quantities that would have had me rushing to the toilet in the past. _(She says, staring guiltfully at the empty pint of organic Ben and Jerry's Sweet Cream & Cookies sitting next to the moniter...)_


----------



## serendipidy (Jun 16, 2002)

tboroson said:


> "Anyway, to address the OP's post, I'd be interested to know if anybody here knows anything about the inert ingredients and stuff in LactAid. Personally, I'm not suspicious of the primary ingredient. Even if it's synthetically derived, it's still a replacement for an enzyme that we would normally produce anyway. It's the "other stuff" in there that potentially worries me."
> 
> That's the part that worries me as well!
> 
> ...


----------



## punkprincessmama (Jan 2, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ChasingPeace*
Organic Valley makes an Organic lowfat (2%) milk.

Yup, and it's lactose free too







But it is soo expensive. Dh, dd and I are all lactose intolerant. I don't usually drink much milk but I am craving it like mad this pregnancy. I have been wondering about the lactose pills as well, it would love to be able to buy regular organic milk. Where we live, I could buy an entire gallon for the price we pay for the little thing of lactose free milk.


----------

