Dear Folks,

I just arrived on this listserve and would like to know if there are
medical precedents for my symptoms, or at least some of you out there
that share my malady and have some additional info.

About 16-18 hours after eating dairy I begin to develop a headache that
centers about the base of the back of my skull that seems to be
connected somehow to somewhere in my "inner" lower back/abdomen.  I also
feel sluggish.  Nothing I do, including taking plenty of aspirin, helps
except to sleep it off.

If I ingest a larger quantity (as I did accidentally last year), the
symptoms are amplified:  migraine (I suppose) headache, vomiting to dry
heaves, intestinal cramping characterized by an odd sort of diarrhea.

Once, on a hunch during a minor "attack," I experimented with one of
those pre-packaged enemas and it seemed to help.

What is going on?  I'm not lactose-intolerant;  an all-day hospital test
showed I have plenty of lactase.  I don't think this is an allergy;  I
don't have respiratory problems or break out in hives or anything.  I
feel that if I could just figure out what was happening (which organ or
organs are doing what), I might be able to find something that would
reliably relieve the symptoms.

Just a little bit of background to close:  I am 50 years old, I
self-diagnosed the problem about eight years ago after noticing
increasingly worsening symptoms over the 12 years before that.  I avoid
dairy and its constituent parts.

I've really enjoyed reading this list serve over the past four days.  I
was floored at first with the volume of messages, so I went to the
digest--it's nice to know someone can at least digest dairy MESSAGES
without having a reaction!

Greg Epler-Wood
North Bennington, Vermont