Can you develop lactose intolerance?

NadNight

I suppose this is really a question for a doctor but I'm currently not able to see my doctor so I thought I'd ask. I sometimes get really painful and bad gas, cramps, nausea and bloating after eating and I've been keeping a log of things that seem to trigger it and so far on the list I have chocolate; jacket potato with butter, cheese and sour cream; porridge made with milk with berries and honey. The common thing about those foods seems to be that they contain dairy (and lactose) so I figure that's what's causing it. Only I've never had an issue with these foods before- growing up I had porridge for breakfast every day! Is lactose intolerance something you can develop when you're older?

Fitnessgirl0913

I became lactose intolerant at 19 so yes it is possible. Definitely talk to your doctor, there is a test you can get to know for sure.

Edit: If you have the opportunity try to eliminate lactose for a couple weeks and see if that helps. I know for me I have to eliminate all dairy, even 99% lactose free still bugs me. I found an almond milk yogurt that is good as well as cashew milk ice cream that really hits the spot!

joseccastaneda

I'm lactose intolerant now. I didn't develop it until I was 39. Its not everything either. I'm ok with yogurt and some cheese. Sour cream sometimes i'm ok other time i'm not. Good way to naturally fight constipation though.

Cbean08

Yes you can. Only certain things bother me too. I can do a moderate amount of cheese and cottage cheese. But milk and yogurt can make my stomach very unhappy.

mmapags

As people get older, especially depending on what your hereditary genetic background might be, you produce less lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose in dairy. So yes, you can develop lactose intolerance. It will apply more to non fermented dairy like milk and ice cream than fermented dairy. The fermentation process for cheeses and yogurts changes the chemical make up and sometime they can be handled just fine.

Alatariel75

Yup, you can both grow into, and grow out of, lactose intolerance and all sorts of other intolerances/allergies.

Skipjack66

Yup. Developed a dairy intolerance over the last year or so. Cheese is a killer, especially a soft cheese like ricotta or cream cheese. I'm 51.

newheavensearth

My daughter became lactose intolerant and developed shellfish allergies in her late teens. Never had either before.

Alatariel75

I've deleoped an allergy to walnuts over the last decade, started with just a bit of mouth fuzz and tingle, worked its way up to now making me wheezy, doctor says stay right away from them because it can develop to full blown aniphalaxysis.

lorrpb

Yes. Things come and go throughout life. Unfortunately more seem to come than go, lol! Just cut out the things that bother you most and you'll probably be fine.

zjpq

I did! After my 2nd was born, so sad

LKArgh

Yes, most babies are not born lactose intolerant, people become lactose intolerant later in life.

DamnKnitBlast

Yes - you can certainly develop it. All mammals have the lactase enzyme as babies to digest mother's milk. All Mammals except humans loose the enzyme (and the ability to digest the milk sugar lactose) once they are weaned. Humans is the West (Europeans esp.) have a genetic mutation which means we never lost the lactase enzyme and can digest milk. Most of Asia is lactose intolerant btw!

I was fobbed of by doctors for 20 years being told I had almost migraines (painkiller every day) and irritable bowel syndrome. I cut out dairy and the change was miraculous in 3 days!

I'd recommend cutting out all dairy for a week and see how you are. If lactose is your problem - Arla do a fantastic range of "lacto free" products but give it a while of being totally off dairy for a few weeks to clear your system first.

(A ton of good info on Wikipedia btw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance )

ashbabe25

This is the new sucky thing that's going on with me. I used to have a full 8oz of milk in my morning smoothie and a few weeks ago it started disagreeing with me, so I subbed the milk with water and half a banana for creaminess.

Thought it was a fluke and went back to milk yesterday and regretted it as my stomach gurgled all day

kavahni

I became lactose intolerant at about 55. Funny thing though. I did the program in the book "I Gave Up Sugar" after having a runaway relationship with it. My hot flashes went away as did my lactose issues. More than two years later, and back eating sugar (though not as much as before), I'm still good with dairy. Hm.

Speziface

My lactose intolerance started kicking in a few years ago, but it's pretty much limited to drinkable quantities of milk. Ice cream sometimes triggers it, but cheese, yogurt, and buttermilk don't appear to bug me at all. Interestingly, since I've started eating a lot of Greek yogurt the intolerance seems to have backed off a little bit.

ashleyconleche

You definitely can! I was lactose intolerant until I was about 3, then I was good for most of my life. About 5 years ago, it started to bother me again. It's mostly drinking milk that causes the issue for me (easy fix, stopped drinking dairy milk). Once in awhile, yogurt or cheese will cause some unwanted side effects, but I love them too much to give them up

bbontheb

Yes, I am and only since adulthood. Some of those items have minimal lactose (butter, for the amount you eat on a potato). IBS however can be flared by chocolate, oats, etc. It might be beneficial to look into a low-fodmap diet. You go through elimination diet and then introduce items slowly. Fodmaps are basically short chain carbohydrates that cause gas in the intestines, bloating, etc There is a (for a fee) app that is great called Monash I think to help if needed.

_pi3_

Yeah I developed lactose intolerance once I got older. I used to drink milk and eat cereal all the time but not anymore

mail2dijaw

I developed lactose intolerance after a back to back episode of malaria and typhoid when I was 14 yrs old

rsclause

Sure, it didn't show up for me until my twenties. I had a few issues but assumed it was fiber in the cereal. It wasn't until I got a large chocolate milkshake and received the "two minute warning" That I put the two together. You can get lactaid milk but I prefer almond milk now. I stay away from milk and cream but don't really have any trouble with cheeses.

shaumom

I'd second attempting to cut out all dairy and see how you do. Because as everyone has said, yeah, it can happen at any time. Although, to note, lactose intolerance can occur due to damage of the intestines in the area where lactase is made. So sometimes, severe stomach bugs or food poisoning can cause temporary lactose intolerance. This is also something common with the damage from celiac disease, and a few celiacs I've known had lactose intolerance as one of the first signs of their disease (so if you start having problems with any wheat products, too, you should probably check into that - the treatment for it involves a dietary change, but no meds, so not super expensive for those of us in the non-insurance train).

For when you add it back in, IF lactose seems to be the problem, you'll want to do a little research on the dairy, because the lists on what is safe, and what is not, don't always agree with each other, or with people's experiences, and this is why.

The dairy that you can eat is the dairy where the lactose is no longer present, or present in very small amounts. When lactose ferments, the bacteria doing the fermenting EAT the lactose. So any product that is allowed to go through this process all the way, like buttermilk, or yogurt, has little to no lactose. Aged, harder cheeses have the lactose containing whey drained off, and the aging helps convert most of the rest to lactic acid. butter that has been clarified, like ghee, as the milk solids containing the lactose mostly removed. So you would think that would help figure it out, yeah?

The only problem is that modern manufacturing has completely bejanked the whole process, mostly in the USA. It takes time to ferment foods, so instead of letting dairy fully ferment, many American companies will allow yogurt/buttermilk to partially ferment only, and then they add in souring agents or thickeners to 'fake' the taste and feel of a fully fermented dairy product. So the product still has plenty of lactose in it. In fact, sometimes the thickener is MORE dairy, so the product can have more lactose than it started out with!

Cheeses can also have issues like this, but less often.

One interesting take on how to see if a dairy food has lactose or not is to look at the sugars, though - this article talks about it: https://lifehacker.com/the-best-cheeses-to-eat-if-youre-lactose-intolerant-1563386663

DananaNanas

You can develop food allergies at any age! My best friend used to LOVE shrimp until she had it one day (age 16/17?) and it nearly killed her! Ended up in the hospital. Now she has to carry an epipen anywhere she goes in case food gets cross contaminated!!