In general, my understanding from my own experience, and from the 
reading I do, is that lactose intolerance is NOT an allergy per se, but 
a malabsorption syndrome, with its roots in a deficiency (or total lack 
of) lactase production.

That said, I'm wondering if anyone knows of studies or anything that 
links Lactose Intolerance to allergies (or any other kind of 
immunological syndrome).

Here's the story, and why I ask.

I have been LI since age 24 (which is, BTW, about 30-mumble years ago). 
  Over time, I have noticed two phenomena:  first, that the LI has 
gotten more severe over time, and that allergies (most notably to cats, 
but also dust mites and a couple of other things) have gotten more 
severe over the same period of time.

About 2 years ago, my daughter and her husband got cat(s).  In order to 
visit them, in their home, I started getting allergy shots to mitigate 
those symptoms.  For the first six months or so, it didn't really do 
much good but since then I've been getting better about the cats (to the 
point that I can spend a couple of hours in the house without symptoms, 
though I'm still careful to wash my hands before touching my eyes, and 
other similar precautions - which I was never able to do before).

My wife and I have also noticed that I seem to be less prone to being 
affected by Lactose than I used to be - case in point being the other 
night, when I was at an Italian restaurant and for dessert ordered their 
sorbet (which I asked to make sure it was a true sorbet, just water ice, 
and was assured it was) -- which turned out to be Gelato (more like 
sherbert, which contains milk products.  BTW this precipitated an 
argument with the staff, who went to get the box and ingredients to 
prove there was no problem, and who shame-facedly came back about 10 
minutes later admitting there were indeed  milk products - but we got 
the other 3 desserts for free, in compensation :-)  )

I recognized the problem after one mouthful - but one mouthful normally 
would be enough to produce strong and rapid symptoms.  But, not so. . . 
at most, I had a little discomfort during the night, but nothing more.

The only systemic change I can think of is the allergy shots - no new 
medications (the only other one I take with regularity is Naproxen for 
Arthritis, and have for years).  Nothing else.

So, I come back to my question:  has anyone information and/or pointers 
to any medical studies that might link allergies and LI?

Thanks

Eric