Message text written by Anne Davidson
>Do Lact-Aid pills (or other lactase pills or liquid) always prevent a
reaction to milk? In my case, I've suspected that they
don't, always, and one other person I've talked to has suspected the same.
Probably our digestion just doesn't work as well at some times, or possibly
the pills have been stored improperly.<
Lactaid and other lactase pills work by providing your body with a supply
of the lactase enzyme that your body do not make in sufficient quantities.
For it to work properly, several things have to happen:
1) You must take enough of it to counteract all the lactose in the food you
are eating.
2) You must take it at the right time. The best time to take lactase is
just before you start eating. It is less effective if taken after a meal,
and much less effective if taken too long before a meal.
3) You must have a fresh supply. Shelf life can be a problem.
It is also very possible that the problems you have at certain meals, even
after taking lactase, is from some other food than milk. Or the food could
be slightly old, or tainted. Or your reaction could really be from an
earlier meal and you don't realize it because of how slowly food moves
through the digestive tract. Or you could have a mild "stomach flu." Or a
hundred and one other things may be happening.
There's also a psychological factor that people don't like to talk about.
Once we "know" that milk causes us problems, we are likely both to
attribute any problems we have to milk, and to have problems whenever we
know that a food contains milk. The mind and body are connected; they just
sometimes work at cross purposes.
Lactaid and other brands of lactase are known to work. Not for a minute
will I guarantee that they will work for every person at every time. But I
know I am never without a lactase supply on me. I hope that people will
not read your post as saying that lactase pills don't work. I would be
very wary about warning people off something that can help them unless
there were some real dangers involved. And I simply don't know of any.
One other thing, for everybody on the list. Personal experiences are just
that: personal. They may be extremely valuable to share, but they may
simply not apply to any other body besides your own. The accumulated
experiences and expertise that are obvious on the list awe me, but
somewhere in the back of your minds you should remember that we all eat
different foods, as part of different diets, with different genetic
heritages, and different life histories. The same food, product, medicine,
or cure may therefore affect each one of us very differently as well.
Hope this helps,
Steve Carper
author of Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living with Lactose Intolerance
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper
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