Lactose Intolerance

Did you know that many people who are told that they’re lactose intolerant are not truly intolerant? So, what is it one can do to make life a lot more comfortable and enjoy a little bit of Camembert, Wensleydale or Cheddar? At Aloeride, we are particularly fond of Salade Chèvre Chaud… a mountain of fresh salad with on top, warm goat’s cheese on thinly sliced toast, oh yum! How sad if you would have to forego such a healthy delicacy, especially if this would be because of a fictitious reason of lactose intolerance. There’s lactose intolerance, there’s sensitivity and there’s digestive capacity…

For most people it is true that, if their gut flora (modern term is gut microbiome) would be more diverse and robust, their sensitivity or perceived intolerance to lactose would be less or even non-existent. The simple reason for this is, that a more diverse/robust gut flora makes a greater quantity of more diverse enzymes to break down food, including lactose. Lactose is broken down by lactase into common glucose and galactose. Unless you have the rare metabolic disorder Galactosaemia, your body can metabolise i.e. tolerate galactose. Most people’s lactose problem stems from not making enough lactase. You can change this. Between 1 vegetarian capsule of Aloeride once or twice a day and a gradual increase of (and it must be) double-fermented milk kefir (so all fermentation has happened outside your body) you can build a diverse and robust gut microbiome. From our approach you may have seen that you should give the effect of your brain on your gut considerable consideration. More stress, less tolerant to lactose. Your gut microbiome changes with what you eat, with your prevailing mood, with your physical activity level, and throughout seasons.

Of the four probiotics that have proven succesful in our MD’s work, the Probion Active is clinically proven to relief diarrhea, bloating & gas, abdominal pain & unpredictable bowel movements in clinical trials with sensitive IBS sufferers. For using daily with normal, speedy or loose (diarrhea) digestion, active lifestyle, lactose Intolerance. Probion Active is suitable for a FODMAP diet.

If you make milk kefir yourself, which is what Han advised to many of his patients, then, instead of just fermenting the kefir overnight, you leave it to ferment for longer. This is the same approach as taken in the Specific Carbohydrate Diet with double fermented yoghurt… lactose fermentation takes place in the jar and not in your body. So you’ll get all the benefit from the wider spectrum, probiotic cultures and none of the disadvantages of lactose. Unless your lactose intolerance is an inherited genetic fault, double fermentation can be a sensible way to grow and maintain a healthy gut microbiome, and in doing so you are likely to reduce lactose sensitivity.

Of course you know of IgE-based, acute allergy (sufferers carry an EpiPen epinephrine autoinjector) but you may not be familiar with slow IgG immune responses. The danger of acute allergy is anaphylactic shock which can be triggered by food but also by biting or stinging insects or even medication. Thus ‘IgE’ presents a non-negotiable scenario but ‘IgG’ often allows for managed transgressions.