Ask Dr. Scott

So, what exactly is lactose intolerance?

Q: Dr. Scott, what is lactose intolerance, and why can’t some people tolerate milk products?

A: A great question about something that afflicts a large portion of the American people. The National Institutes of Health estimate that one-half of American adults over 50 years old have lactose intolerance. Lactose is a milk sugar that cannot enter the bloodstream directly from the digestive tract. It must be broken down in the small intestine by an enzyme called lactase to form glucose and galactose before it can enter the bloodstream.

If you don’t have enough lactase, the lactose you drink or eat (dairy products) is not digested properly and the undigested milk sugar moves into the large intestine, where it is consumed by bacteria that live in your digestive tract. There, the lactose can cause your gastrointestinal tract a lot of problems. It can pull water from the bloodstream into the gut and cause diarrhea. As the bacteria digest the lactose, they produce acids and gas that can cause bloating, cramping and flatulence.

In the United States, some ethnic and racial populations are more likely to have lactose intolerance than others, including Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians, African Americans and Asian Americans. Because of heredity (genetics), about 75% of adults around the world have trouble digesting lactose. The Japanese for instance consume very little dairy — so 80% of Japanese are in fact lactose-intolerant. Intermarriage between races has helped decrease the number of people who can’t digest milk. Realize too that if you are sensitive to cow’s milk then you are probably also reactive to beef, but have a 50% chance of being able to tolerate goat’s or sheep’s milk.

Many people who think they have difficulty digesting milk really don’t have a problem. Recent studies have shown that lactose intolerance may be confused with other digestive disorders such as acid indigestion, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and intestinal gas. Taking drugs to ward off muscle pain, such as ibuprofen and aspirin, can also upset your stomach. Lactose intolerance has been a trendy condition in the past few decades, but just because your stomach hurts, don’t automatically assume it’s because of milk intolerance.

Many cases of digestive illness have been corrected by complementary and alternative medicine. (Cuthbert, 2014) Achlorhydria, bloating, candida albicans, constipation, Crohn’s disease, diarrhea, food allergies, gallbladder disorders, gastric and duodenal dysfunction, hiatal hernia, indigestion, infantile colic, leaky gut syndrome, diverticulosis, mucous colitis among many other conditions have been described in detail in the clinical outcomes literature.

It’s actually the homogenization of milk that makes it unhealthy. This process creates very small compounds that get inside blood vessels, causing injury. One of these, xanthine oxidase, causes inflammation and injury to your blood vessels. The consumption of cow’s xanthine oxidase is associated with atherosclerosis in humans. (Sinatra, 2003)

Realistically, nowhere else in the animal world do any adult animals drink milk. Certainly no animal in nature drinks milk from another species, so why do humans drink milk from a cow? I recommend to everyone who wants to be healthy, to eliminate your intake of cow’s milk, and substitute soy, almond or rice milk instead. If you must have the taste of milk in your coffee and tea, then try a mixture of one-third pasteurized heavy cream and two-thirds skim milk. Even with the fat content of heavy cream, it’s a safer choice than risking the damage that xanthine oxidase can wreak on your blood vessels.

You may be interested to know that studies have shown that if the diet of children with behavioral problems is changed to no-milk and low-sugar, not only their behavior but also their allergies, breathing, and sinusitis problems improve dramatically. When other dietary and nutritional methods are used to remove heavy metal contamination (such as cadmium, mercury and lead), similar improvements are also seen. (Melillo & Leisman, 2004)

You can improve your ability to digest lactose just the way you can train your muscles. People can increase their tolerance to milk products by eating fermented vegetables, fermented cottage cheese, yogurt and hard cheeses, or taking probiotics. Whey concentrates are available that have lactose digestive enzymes added.

Those with severe verified lactose intolerance should follow the advice of their health professional. But for those with only suspected lactose intolerance or mild lactose intolerance, slowly adding whey protein blends, especially those which are fortified with lactose digesting enzymes and/or low in lactose, may be the best solution. For those who are allergic to milk products, you should avoid them totally. You can get your calcium from leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds, especially almonds, and quality supplements. Adding calcium foods to your green smoothies is one of the tastiest, healthiest ways to increase your calcium levels — without milk! Don’t think that milk is the only source of calcium; in fact, many experts suggest that the pasteurization process changes useable calcium in raw milk into insoluble calcium, causing many of the calcium-deposition problems.

Dr. Scott Cuthbert is the chief clinician at the Chiropractic Health Center in Pueblo, Colorado, as well as the author of two new textbooks and over 50 peer-reviewed research articles.