I think my husband has developed a lactose intolerance. He gets a very bad stomach when he eats certain foods like yoghurt, cream, hot milk. But is OK with cold milk, cheese. Is this right & why would some milk products be OK & not others
Hi Fosseway2 - welcome to HP
There are a few possible answers! As ever, nothing is straightforward.
It could be a problem with protein digestion generally. In which case there is probably a lack of or low levels of stomach acid - treatable with supplements, but one has to ask 'why?' because it is no use treating symptoms only - one has to look for the cause - like stress, low zinc levels, low thyroid and so on, and deal with those.
It could be a lack of vitamins and minerals that support the digestive processes - and with that he'll need a full assessment to decide which minerals are the problem.
It could be a failure of the lactose enzyme lactase to function. This is more common in some ethnic groups like Afro-Carribean and Oriental, but can happen to anyone. If so, then supplementing lactase when consuming dairy products can help.
It might also be something to do with imbalanced gut bacteria which are vital to proper digestion.
It might not be lactose that is causing problems at all - it might be casein, or even another food that is eaten the same time as the dairy produce, or even at another time, intolerances showing up some 12 - 72 hours after ingestion. Or something else entirely.
So, as far as I can see your best bet is to get him to see a registered Nutritional Therapist, see here, and get them to sort him out!
Hi Fossyway 2
One things to also remember is that our stomach enzymes not only work at different pH (acidity) conditions.. but like you have observed activated at different temperatures too.
The fact that milk product at low temperature seems ok for him ..partly explains this .. as the active enzymes are inactive at lower temperatures in certain Milk products.
Worth mentioning this when you take him to your Doc to get the proper check .
I wish you well!
with warm wishes
Vathani
A mild lactose intolerance is pretty common. The easiest way to find out for sure is cut out diary completely for 6 weeks, and see what difference it makes.
There are lots of dairy alternatives now, such as soya and rice milk and yoghurts. Also sheep and goat dairy are less of a problem for mostpeople than cow.
I have the same problems. I sometimes can drink cold milk (but not always), can eat cheese (but no scalloped cheese dishes) and my stomach don't likes cream. But I think, when the stomach can tolerate it often, I can't be a lactose intolerance, or am I wrong?
I drink [url]organic goat milk[/url] for a while and that's working! And it tastes good 🙂