Lactose intolerance help!

[Chantelle Mullins]

Need some input from all of you out there in the Health World. If you don’t know from my profile I am a personal trainer by day. I was talking with one of my clients last week about what she should not be eating and of course she confessed that she was eating PIZZA! The worst gut killer and weight gainer of all! Anyhow her excuse was that she was recently cured of lactose intolerance by a product called Lactagen (which is why she stated that she couldn’t resist eating pizza again).

Anyhow I’ve been lactose intolerant since high school and I’ve never heard of lactagen before but my client swears by this and is going around telling everyone about it. Has this worked for anyone else? I’ve been to the website and seen the hundreds of success stories. I need some feedback if this is real or not. It’s only $130 bucks so I’m going to buy it tonight but if anyone can tell me how the program works and what to expect it would be appreciated. At this point I’d be willing to pay anything to not feel like crap everytime I eat anything with dairy in it. Plus they say they’ll give you your money back if it doesn’t work so what do I have to lose???

[Diana Young, RD, LD/N, CDE]

Chantelle,
I found this article, strangely, I was unable to locate the article in Today's Dietitian.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) April 25, 2008 -- Today's Dietitian, the magazine for nutrition professionals, features an article about the all-natural, one-time solution for lactose intolerance (http://www.lactagen.com), Lactagen in their April 2008 issue. Today's Dietitian is a magazine that features timely, informative, and award-winning articles on a wide range of health, nutrition, and fitness topics and is read by over 110,000 registered dietitians each month.

Over 50 million Americans suffer from dairy intolerance (http://www.lactagen.com/how-lactagen-works.php), which occurs because their bodies do not produce lactase, the enzyme that enables the body to breakdown lactose, the natural sugar in dairy products. When people who are lactose intolerant ingest dairy products, they suffer from a wide range of gastric symptoms such as cramps, gas, and diarrhea. This severely limits their diets and prevents them from enjoying dairy products such as ice cream, cheese, and any other foods that contain lactose.

Unlike lactase supplements that must be taken before every meal to avoid the unpleasant symptoms of lactose intolerance (http://www.lactagen.com), Lactagen is an all-natural dietary supplement program that trains the body to tolerate dairy, in just 38 days. Once a person suffering from lactose intolerance completes the program, they can begin to enjoy the dairy products that they love, without the need for any additional supplements.

The Lactagen article in Today's Dietitian is written by Juliann Schaefer and features quotes from several doctors and dietitians who study lactose intolerance in hospitals and research institutions. Lactagen is backed by clinical studies and has helped over 10,000 people enjoy their favorite dairy products again symptom free!

Dietitians and people who suffer from dairy intolerance can read the article in the Today's Dietitian magazine.

[Chantelle Mullins]

Thanks for the article Diana, it was very interesting. I did end up trying lactagen and at the very end of the program you are supposed to start drinking milk again for the last 4 days. I had my first glass yesterday and again today, and no symptoms! I was sooo scared to drink that first glass of milk because I was sure that I would be running to the bathroom soon after. But I was totally fine! No gas or cramping or bloating the whole day, it was amazing :) I'm so happy that this is working. I've been lactose intolerant for almost ten years and I never thought I'd be able to enjoy dairy again

[Christopher]

Journey toward Lactose Tolerance


I've started documenting my experiment with going 38 days without dairy while taking a powder called Lactagen which supposedly guarantees to cure my lactose-induced agony once and for all. (Warning: Log contains explicit details of abdominal discomfort.)

Day 1: Stirred up a 1.25 cc scoop of powder with an 8 oz. cup of yogurt with no problem.

Day 2: Stirred up another 1.25 cc scoop of powder with an 8 oz. cup of yogurt. No problem.

Day 12: Mixed powder with hot green tea. Had a salad with dressing which may have contained dairy ingredients. Major bloating and stomach pain ensued.

Day 15: Mild constipation. Stomach gurgling. Went to an all-you-can-eat Italian food and wine night at Il Forno in WLA. Scraped cheese off the pizza. *sniff* Agitated stomach.

Day 17: The regimen has me taking 12 times more powder than on my first day. The powder has a slightly sweet taste but is pretty harmless. Still, it's getting to be a lot to drink down with a 6 oz. glass of water.

Day 18: Stress at work drove me to head to the nearest chocolate store. I chose four dark pieces filled with buttercream, their top seller, and cherry. One piece wouldn’t hurt, I thought. And just how much dairy is contained in chocolate?? A few hours later my colon was gurgling ever so slightly. Crap.

Day 21: I've become increasingly gassy and all backed-up. You know that feeling when you really wanna poo, but no matter how many times you try you just can't seem to? That was me today, all day.

Day 22: I find that when I drink the powder with room temp water I start to feel a little sick in the stomach. And then I get the runs. Psychological perhaps? Powder with cold juice slowly consumed throughout the meal seems to go down smoother.
Day 27: After a dinner of cold Japanese noodles (hiyashi chuka), I had a Starbucks Chai tea with soymilk. You know, sometimes I wonder if those Starbucks people mess with their customers by just adding a little soy and finishing up with regular milk 'cause wouldn't ya know it, I got the runs! So two thoughts came to mind: 1) if I did ingest regular milk then it's just completely counterproductive to my regimen and 2) I'm only eight days away from drinking regular milk, so shouldn't I be able to tolerate it somewhat now? I'm starting to worry...

Day 28: This is the equation I drew up while at Urth Cafe:

Vegetarian Chili + 1/2 chicken pesto sandwich = irritable bowel?!

There was a non-dairy pesto option which I of course requested... and yet.... I really think I have more than one issue here.

Day 34: Took my four scoops of powder without any ill-effects. Maybe my stomach is finally used to it now that it's over. Today is my last day of the powder before the moment of truth when I have my first glass of real milk. ...I'm a little scared.

Day 35 (6.18.07): MOMENT OF TRUTH

11 a.m.: I chose my first poison -- 8.25 oz bottle of Nestle Chocolate Milk. Gulp, gulp, gulp, and down it went within a 15 minute span. A couple hours go by and all is well. Minor gurgling if anything. Then a couple more hours pass and my abdomen starts talking to me. Not as much as usual, but enough to worry a little. Didn't get my morning poop out of the way so I walk over to the loo. Solid, solid, solid....oooh~ yikes... runny. The tail end of it, that is. Damn.

I read some online testimonials and some say that they, too, experienced some discomfort on their 35th day, but were able to built their tolerance after a few more days. ...So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Honestly, I'm just amazed at myself for even drinking a whole cup of milk. That's a daring feat in itself.

4 p.m.: Okay, I officially have the runs. Send your condolences to pirikara[at]gmail.com =(

9 p.m.: Had a cup of regular ice cream without incident. But maybe that's cause my insides are all cleaned out and there's nothing left to expunge.

Day 36 (6.19.07):

9:45 a.m.: I'm slowly and cautiously drinking a 10.67 oz. carton of Alta Dena milk. It's giving me the heebie jeebies, though so far my stomach is holding up.

8 p.m.: I had a burger tonight from The Counter and washed it down with a glass of Trader Joe's milk. (89 cents!) It was far less stinky than Alta Dena and best yet... I stayed completely solid the whole night! (^o^)/ I'm hoping this isn't just a fluke.
Day 37 (6.20.07):

8:45 a.m.: Was running late for work so I down a cup of milk and took off. So far, all is well. (!!)

4:30 p.m.: Okay, I spoke too soon. Cappuccino blast, yo.

8:30 p.m.: Another cup of milk down the hatch... without incident. Seems like I digest dairy better at night for some reason.
Day 38:

9 a.m. Today is officially the last day of my Lactagen stint. Yet, somehow I know I'm gonna have to continue working on it. This morning, I picked up a Chai Latte at a corner tea shop. It took a lot of effort to keep myself from requesting soy milk. "L-L-Low fat milk, please," I stuttered. It scared me to see that my drink was pure white, from the inch-thick froth right down to the base. I stirred it up and took a sip. Sublime.

Two hours have passed and, so far, all is well.
July 10, 2007: A couple weeks have passed since I ended my journey toward lactose tolerance. Last night I was craving Broguiere milk from Whole Foods, so I ran to the store half an hour before closing. I'm sure you've seen it, the one in the glass bottle sporting the tag line, "So fresh, even the cow doesn't know it's missing." It's super tasty and I love it with my morning corn flakes.

I know that my lactose isn't 100% cured. And perhaps it's only a temporary setback of me going on antibiotics this past week for a, well, female issue. The way antibiotics work is that it wipes out all bacteria in your system, both good and bad. So it's really up to your body to re-grow lactobacillus so that it can get back to work against all the milk and ice cream.

Just before dashing off to work this morning, I downed a cup of milk. My stomach has been a little gurgly at times, but nothing cataclysmic. I'm just gonna keep at it day by day. It's really is a good feeling though, to take milk for granted. Drinking it here and there like it's nobody's business. =)