Lactose Intolerant? Indeed, I can't stand it!

[MBell 80]

Hey peeps,

 

I was wondering if anyone had experienced (or heard of others experiencing) lactose intolerance since being here in Germany. Over the past few weeks (roughly 2 months) I seem to be experiencing the "typical" symptoms of lactose intolerance, but I have never had a problem in the US before. Further, I used to (back when living Stateside) drink a lot of milk. Yesterday, upon mentioning this to a person temporarily working with me from China, I was told that in China they are told (well, those traveling to Germany, anyway) to be careful of developing lactose intolerance in Germany, as it often shows up after around 2 years. This hit close to home as I have been here 2.5 years and she did not know that. Anyway, in China apparently they are told specifically to watch out for the symptoms if living in Germany for more than 2 years.

 

So again, I ask, has anyone else felt/read/experienced (in any other way) such a thing? Is there something in the wate... er, um, MILK here?!?!

 

(Last note, I thought maybe it might make a difference between the shelved vs. cold milk, but that's not the case.)

 

Anyway, all feedback (even the occasional D-bag smart@$$ comment) would be appreciated.

[tor 17,438]

maybe a game of tennis would help... B)

[john g. 37,776]

I didn´t know that, MBell, about warnings of developing lactose intolerance in Germany. Interestingly enough, German private health insurers will generally turn down applications from people with it or add a massive surcharge..maybe I now know the reason...

[Guest]

My wife was diagnosed with Lactose intolerance here but my daughter in the UK, who has similar symptoms, was told that it was in her mind.

 

Maybe, here, they are more attuned to it.

[LeonG 14,850]

I have read somewhere that Asians are more prone to being lactose intolerant and maybe they are more likely to get it after they move here because there is a lot of milk in the food? Really just guessing here. I knew a Filipino guy in Canada who was lactose intolerant and I am sure he was never in Germany and so is my brother and he was also never in Germany as far as I know, maybe for a short vacation. I think that yours popping up now is probably just a coincidence.

 

I see in this article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001321/ that they say 30 million Americans are lactose intolerant. I am sure they weren't all in Germany either. Just chalk it up to bad luck and try to stay away from it.

[sosarx 1,661]

About 80 % of asian people (Chinese), as well as people from the sub-saharian Africa and the southern parts of South America have a 80% risk to develop Lactoseintolerance due to their genetic set.

 

Caucasians have a much lower risk, and if you develop an intolerance you should go and get a health check, the reason isn't the milk itself , there might be a serious health- (digestion e.g.) or lifestyle problem ( alcohol e.g.) at the bottom of it.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

I feel like I eat a lot more dairy here than I ever did in the US (indeed, more eggs, meat and animal products in general), and maybe I wasn't as in tune with my body then as I am now, but a few months ago, I began developing crippling, bent-over-double abdominal pains and started making a connection between eating high concentrations of dairy, and feeling like utter shit. The worst for me are cheese and ice cream; never did drink much moo juice (indeed, I have for years preferred soy and use it now on a daily basis for coffee and sometimes for cereal/müsli) but cow milk in reasonable amounts seems to have little to no effect.

 

To check my math (haha just kidding, I just decided not to care a couple times), I ate ice cream or normal cheese after weeks of consuming negligible amounts of lactose and was fairly bowled over by how deathly uncomfortable and disgusting I felt about an hour later. Never noticed this in the States one way or the other but also have a hard time believing German dairy is somehow more evil than American dairy.

[sosarx 1,661]

In order to split up and digest the milk sugar in dairy products the body needs the enzyme Lactase. Babies have it, after most people's bodies ( except most caucasians) produce lesser and lesser of it. So with the years their risk of suffering from that inability to split up milk sugar increases.

 

Most caucasians although produce that enzyme all their life, and if THEY suffer from intolerance symptoms they should go and find out the possible reasons behind this.

[Ciers002 3]

I have been having the symptoms the past few months and find it a lot worse when I eat magerquark. No idea why, but going to try some lactose-free stuff soon and see if it makes a difference.

[aqua_minie 2,797]

I once read somewhere that human beings (well mammals in general) naturally need lesser and lesser milk as they grow older. That article also said that milk is essentially a source of nutrition for mammal babies till the time they are capable of chewing or eating solids as such.

 

This makes sense if you come to think about it, most mammals in animal kingdom wean themselves off milk after few weeks/ months depending on the breed. Maybe it holds truth for us as well, but we've just adopted our diets over the centuries.

 

*written while having my breakfast bowl of museli with milk* :ph34r:

[Beuel 4,947]

Lactose intolerance is quite common in adult mammals.

 

According to this the percentage of lactose intolerant people in Germany is actually rather low in comparison.

 

 

Most mammals normally become lactose intolerant after weaning, but some human populations have developed lactase persistence, in which lactase production continues into adulthood. It is estimated that 75% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood.^[5] The frequency of decreased lactase activity ranges from 5% in northern Europe through 71% for Sicily to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.^[6] This distribution is now thought to have been caused by recent natural selection favoring lactase persistant individuals in cultures that rely on dairy products.^[7] While it was first thought that this would mean that populations in Europe, India, and Africa had high frequencies of lactase persistence because of a particular mutation, it has now been shown that lactase persistence is caused by several independently occurring mutations.

 

[MuffinTop 1,189]

I never had problems in the UK, but as soon as I moved to the netherlands, I started getting stomach cramps on days that I had milk at breakfast, so I gave up eating dairy. However on moving to germany, I found that I could have milk again without a bad reaction. I wonder if it's related to how it's treated during pasteurisation etc?

[Beuel 4,947]

Or maybe it depends on what the cows eat.

[Guest]

True story:

 

My mum remarried when I was 7 and traded life in South London for smallhold farming in Surrey. When I was 10 we relocated to West Wales and started a dairy farm. By the time I was 15 we were back in Buckinghamshire with 80-head of Ayrshires. I grew up drinking milk always less than 12 hours from the cow, and homemade cream, butter and cheese.

 

During the 90's I started traveling the world far too regularly on business, and for some strange reason I stopped drinking milk in coffee and tea and cut out butter altogether (I never really liked cream too much - too sweet), so that by the time I settled in Munich and married a local parasite girl who insisted everything be laced with butter I began to have problems. Without knowing why I would suffer terrible stomach cramps, itching inside the veins in my arms and uncontrollable moments of aggression.

 

Everything came to a head in 2003 when riding on a busy U6 into Harras. Some poor young lady was trying to get her kinderwagen off the carriage only to be flooded by the typical arseholes rushing on and blocking her. I'd just had two buttercroissants and felt the rage. I grabbed the nearest offender and started screaming at him in Cockney and bouncing him against the glass divider.

 

It was then that I noticed the two U-bahnwache taking a distinct interest in me.

 

I went to hospital to see a specialist. First they suspected fructose and I did 2-weeks of fruit-free diet. Then they tested lactose, and after cutting it out things improved very quickly.

 

Years later I know that I am not lactose intolerant, but for the sake of an easy life I say I am so that I don't get the bovine milkfat especially concentrated in butter that seems to be the catalyst for a few hours of pain, discomfort and the Úlfhéðinn in me.

[garry entropy 776]

When I was a relative newcomer to Germany I was staying over at a party and early the next morning I was up early with the little kids, I gave my 5 year old some Weetabix with milk and I also gave one of the other guests small child a bowl too, the mother of the child came down

( a doctor of medicine) and absolutely freaked out, asking me if I was crazy giving a lactose intolerant child milk, I had never heard of lactose intolerance before and I felt really bad as if I had tried to poison the child, it really shocked me as I was only trying to do the right thing, funny thing was the kid loved the Weetabix and showed no ill effects. Cola or peanuts I could understand but something as innocuous as Weetabix and milk could be bad was outside of my experience.

[godz_magnum_opus 269]

Don't want to increase the confusion purposely but I actually developed lactose intolerance while I was in North America from 2007-9. Prior to that, I had lived all my life in India, where, to be honest, I hadn't even heard of such a malady. The intolerance hit me rather severely in the initial days but after a while, it thankfully mellowed down, although I must say that I was on a constant supply of soya or lactose-free milk from thereon.

 

Since the last ~3 years of my residence in Germany, lactose intolerance has fortunately not bothered me immensely even though I have a considerable intake of dairy products including normal [usually frisch, but sometimes also längerhaltbar] milk. I do also switch to soyamilk (never liked the lactose-free milk here so much) once every month or two.

 

Rather recently, I also found - at least for myself - that boiling the normal milk (and then letting it cool down & putting it in the fridge again) seems to reduce its lactose-intolerant characteristic. It could perhaps be something psychological, because boiling milk is a very common practice in India, but then I think there's no harm in giving this idea a shot.

If you do and it also seems to work for you, then please add to this thread! :)

[Oblomov 865]

 

Anyway, in China apparently they are told specifically to watch out for the symptoms if living in Germany for more than 2 years.

 

Is that because in Germany it's actually milk instead of being some melamine liquid?

[texaninrostock 49]

I have to say, I was never lactose intolerant for the first 8 years of living in Germany. We went back to the States for 2 1/2 years and still nothing. On our return back to Germany I was REALLY looking forward going to the wonderful Eis Cafe's they have here and ordering my favorite Mocca Becher full of whipped cream. Afterwards I was in serious pain but it didn't click yet why. Not much longer later, had another ice cream and once again, pain. So I started keeping an eye on my dairy intake and found out the more I ate the pain would came. I find I can still eat dairy but just in low moderation. If I happen to eat too much and start to cramp up, well then I do as my mom would tell me, get on all fours and let 'er rip !!!

[Jeanie 2,598]

 

... that boiling the normal milk (and then letting it cool down & putting it in the fridge again) seems to reduce its lactose-intolerant characteristic.

My step-sister was lactose intolerant (presumably still is, but I have no contact with her) and she always got boiled milk for her cereal in the morning.

[chaos_amoeba 2,724]

You can develop lactose intolerance at any stage of life.

 

True lactose intolerance is caused by the lack of the emzyme lactase in the gut. As a result, you can't break down lactose (the sugar in milk). So your gut bacteria feast on it instead. Because they digest it by fermentation, gas is produced, causing wind, bloating, and diarrhoea. Most mammals cease to produce lactase after weaning, and humans are unusual in retaining this enzyme in adulthood. Some peoples still tend not to produce lactase - largely people from S E Asia; I guess that is the Chinese connection.

 

Some people spontaneously stop producing lactase and thus develop lactose intolerance. Total bummer, but there are lactose free alternatives available (soy, rice milk, lactose-free cow milk and cheese (lactose removed) and very mature cheeses also have little or no lactose. If your lactase production has lessened, rather than ceased, you may be able to eat small amounts of lactose.

 

It's also possible to develop lactose intolerance because of damage to the part of the gut that produces lactase. This is common if you have another, undiagnosed food intolerance or allergy. For example, lactose intolerance frequently co-exists with coeliac disease for this reason (in coeliac, gluten causes an autoimmune reaction leading to destruction of the lining of the gut). Leaky gut syndrome can give similar issues.

 

HOWEVER it is also possible to be intolerant to the Protein in milk (casein), as well as, or instead of lactose. In this case, mature cheeses and lactose-free milk (as opposed to milk replacements like soy) are no good for you, as they contain milk proteins.

 

It's also REALLY IMPORTANT to be aware that, with food allergies and intolerances, it is not always the thing you think, that is causing the problem. Additionally, stress and oher illnesses can create symptoms that mimic food intolerances.

 

If you think you are lactose intolerant, you should:

 

Cut all dairy (ALL. This mean very CAREFUL reading of ingredient lists. Eg, a lot of crisaps have lactose in the flavouring, fgs) for a period of weeks. Then reintroduce lactose free dairy and see if you react. Read up on the symptoms and timeframes so you can see if you have a reaction. If so, you may have a casein intolerance. If not, go on to reintroduce lactose. If you react, you may have a lactose intolerance.

 

Either way, see a doctor and insist on proper testing. If you cut out dairy, make sure the doctor knows this before testing as it may affect the results. Get tested for other food intolerances that might have caused the problem (it's possible to have "sleeping coeliac", for eg. Coeliac without gluten-related gastro-intestinal symptoms. If you have that, you won't know gluten makes you sick, but you may develop long term complications like rheumatoid arthritis or bowell cancer. So if you develop lactose intolerance out of the blue, get checked out for this. 1% of the population have it. There may be other food intolerances to be tested for, too.

 

***My husband is a coeliac. So's his Mum, and she is also lactose intolerant. My best friend is violently intolerant to eggs, lactose and casein. On the other hand, my brother had a time of having his entire face swell up and his lips blister after eating. This was thought to be a food allergy but no culprit was ever found and it eventually stopped happening. The actual cause? Stress. Stress can do weirdass stuff to your body... Anyway, I'm a research scientist so couldn't help reading up extensively after my husband's diagnosis... if anyone wants clarification I'll be happy to share what I know... but I'm not a doctor. Well, actually I am. But my "patients" are green and have leaves... and I always kill them.