ContinentsCountriesWorld CitiesUS StatesUS CountiesUS CitiesZips
© 2022 World Population Review Privacy PolicyTermsContactAbout
Each individual may experience symptoms differently, but common symptoms — which typically begin about 30 minutes to two hours after consuming food or beverages containing lactose — include: Severity varies depending on the amount of lactose consumed and the amount your child can tolerate. In young children, lactose intolerance is usually caused by digestive diseases or injuries to the small intestine. But most cases of lactose intolerance develop over a period of many years in adolescents and adults.What causes lactose intolerance?
The most common diagnostic tests (performed on an outpatient basis at the hospital) measure the absorption of lactose in your child's digestive system include the following: Lactose tolerance test: This test measures the absorption of lactose in the digestive system. After fasting, your child drinks a liquid that contains lactose. The diarrheal stools are then tested for lactose for the next 24 hours. Undigested lactose fermented by bacteria in the colon creates lactic acid and other fatty acids, which can be detected in a stool sample, along with glucose as a result of unabsorbed lactose. Hydrogen breath test: Your child drinks a lactose-heavy beverage. Her breath is then analyzed at regular intervals to measure the amount of hydrogen. Undigested lactose in the colon is fermented by bacteria, resulting in the production of various gases, including hydrogen. When high levels of hydrogen are present in the breath, improper digestion of lactose is diagnosed. Your child's physician may recommend taking lactase enzymes. Symptoms are often best controlled with a proper diet. Because milk and other dairy products are often a child's major source of calcium, and because calcium is essential for healthy bones and growth, you must ensure that your lactose-intolerant child gets enough calcium from other sources. Nondairy foods that are high in calcium include: Your child's physician may prescribe a calcium supplement if your child is unable to get enough calcium from food. Vitamin D is necessary for the body to absorb calcium; therefore, you child's diet should provide an adequate supply of vitamin D. Sources of vitamin D include eggs and liver. Sunlight can also provide vitamin D.How is lactose intolerance treated?
Lactose Intolerance is a common problem - about 65 percent of the human population has it. And while it can’t be cured, it’s rarely dangerous and you can manage lactose intolerance.
Dr. Christian Mayorga, Chief of Digestive and Liver Diseases for Parkland Hospital System and Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, talks about lactose intolerance.
Highlights from Dr. Mayorga’s interview:
What causes lactose intolerance? Lactose is a sugar commonly found in milk products. The body is unable to absorb this sugar on its own without breaking it down into two simpler sugars: glucose and galactose. And so to be able to absorb and digest those simple sugars, the cells of the intestine make an enzyme called lactase. And what lactose intolerance is is simply the symtoms that arise in patients that have a deficiency in the production of this lactase enzyme.
Who gets lactose intolerance: In general, if you live long enough, you will have symptoms of lactose intolerance. As we get older, our dependence on mother’s milk and milk products wanes because our diet now expands to non-milk based products – meats, vegetables, more well-rounded diet, And so the body ceases to produce enough of the enzyme to break down lactose because it doesn’t need it anymore. And so as we get older, the production of that enzyme wanes, and if your diet still consists of high levels of lactose, then that lactose starts making its way undigested into the colon where bacteria actually can use that undigested lactose for fuel. And the byproducts of that digestion by that bacteria is what causes the symptoms incorporated in lactose intolerance.
Genetic component: People of Caucasian descent tend not to have lactose intolerance symptoms until later in age when compared to patients of African American descent, Hispanics, Asians. The reason for this is unclear, but it probably has to do with our ancestors and our dependence on cows and milk products in the past.
Concerns about eliminating milk products from your diet to avoid lactose intolerance: A younger patient whose diet is well-balanced – fruits, vegetables, other calcium and vitamin-D containing products – absence of milk-containing products from their diet may not be detrimental. But patients who are older and more susceptible to the development of osteoporosis, or weak bones, they are very much in need of higher doses of calcium or vitamin-D, particularly post-menopausal women, and if they’re not getting that in milk products, then they should certainly take it in the form of supplementation.
For more information:
Lactose intolerance
Causes, symptoms and treatment
Lactose Intolerance in Infants, Children, and Adolescents
The Healthiest Diet for Lactose Intol
Lactose intolerance is “an impaired ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products,” according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Lactose intolerance in infants is caused by a mutation in the LCT gene, which results in a life-long intolerance. This condition is inherited, rare, and most common in Finland.
In adults, lactose intolerance is caused by normally decreasing activity of the LCT gene, which means adults may experience increasing inability to digest lactose as they age. About 65% of the adult human population has this sort of lactose intolerance, which results in abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal consequences after eating dairy products.
According to the NIH, in adults lactose intolerance shows up most often in people of East Asian heritage, affecting 70 to 100% of the population. Encyclopaedia Britannica adds that the condition affects about 75 to 90% of Native Americans, Black people, Asians, Mediterraneans, and Jewish people. Only about 5% of Northern and Central Europeans have lactose intolerance.
Global Prevalence of Lactose Intolerance by Country
(percent of country’s population with lactose intolerance)
| Afghanistan | 82% |
| Algeria | 62% |
| Angola | 94% |
| Armenia | 98% |
| Australia | 44% |
| Austria | 22% |
| Azerbaijan | 96% |
| Belgium | 15% |
| Botswana | 88% |
| Brazil | 60% |
| Cambodia | 68% |
| Cameroon | 89% |
| Canada | 59% |
| Chile | 56% |
| China | 85% |
| Colombia | 80% |
| Cyprus | 16% |
| Czech Republic | 81% |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 95% |
| Denmark | 4% |
| Egypt | 68% |
| Estonia | 28% |
| Ethiopia | 77% |
| Finland | 19% |
| France | 36% |
| Gabon | 93% |
| Germany | 16% |
| Ghana | 100% |
| Greece | 55% |
| Hungary | 39% |
| India | 61% |
| Iran | 88% |
| Iraq | 93% |
| Ireland | 4% |
| Israel | 89% |
| Italy | 72% |
| Japan | 73% |
| Jordan | 56% |
| Kazakhstan | 75% |
| Kenya | 39% |
| Kuwait | 56% |
| Lebanon | 78% |
| Malawi | 100% |
| Malaysia | 87% |
| Mexico | 48% |
| Mongolia | 88% |
| Morocco | 73% |
| Mozambique | 95% |
| Myanmar | 92% |
| Namibia | 93% |
| Netherlands | 12% |
| New Zealand | 10% |
| Niger | 13% |
| Nigeria | 87% |
| Norway | 12% |
| Oman | 96% |
| Pakistan | 58% |
| Papua New Guinea | 91% |
| Poland | 43% |
| Portugal | 40% |
| Republic of Congo | 93% |
| Russia | 61% |
| Rwanda | 49% |
| Saudi Arabia | 28% |
| Senegal | 79% |
| Solomon Islands | 99% |
| Somalia | 94% |
| South Africa | 81% |
| South Korea | 100% |
| Spain | 29% |
| Sri Lanka | 73% |
| Sudan | 55% |
| Sweden | 7% |
| Syria | 95% |
| Taiwan | 88% |
| Tanzania | 45% |
| Thailand | 84% |
| Tunisia | 84% |
| Turkey | 69% |
| Uganda | 87% |
| Ukraine | 61% |
| United Kingdom | 8% |
| United States | 36% |
| Uruguay | 65% |
| Uzbekistan | 92% |
| Vietnam | 98% |
| Western Sahara | 53% |
| Yemen | 100% |
| Zambia | 98% |
Sources
Kelli Glaser, “Lactose Intolerance,” britannica.com (accessed Mar. 25, 2020)
National Institutes of Health US National Library of Medicine, “Lactose Intolerance” ghr.nlm.nih.gov, Mar. 17, 2020
Christian Løvold Storhaug, Svein Kjetil Fosse, and Lars T Fadnes, “Country, Regional, and Global Estimates for Lactose Malabsorption in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” thelancet.com, Oct. 1, 2017