Lactose Intolerance

Every time you drink a glass of milk, indulge in a bowl of ice cream or sample anything else in the 'made from milk' department, you experience uncomfortable bloating sensations. Many experts would say that you're lactose intolerant, but if you're smart, you'd like to know what's REALLY going on with your body.

That was my case exactly, so I've decided to share the organic chemistry lesson that I learned about lactose, lactase and what exactly happens when they don't meet each other in the pipe.

Sugars are carbs. The sweet in candy, honey, bread and yes- the slight sweet in milk- are attributed to sugars, some sweeter than others but all known maliciously as carbs (for Carbon+ H₂O).

As you know, some carbohydrates are more complex than others such as flour versus honey. The more complex ones need heat or a special chemical to break them into pieces that the body can use. In the case of lactose-the sugar of milk- a chemical is needed.

A special enzyme found in the body called lactase is that chemical. (-tose= sugar, -tase= enzyme)

This enzyme, lactase, which is specific to lactose (hence the similar names) is responsible for breaking down lactose in the small intestine before it reaches the large intestine.

However most people lose it as they grow older. The reason being that the body finds know reason to continue to producing a chemical that you no longer need (seeing as you left your mother's breast long ago). Some people, whose culture and lifestyle depend heavily on milk as a staple part of the diet, retain it throughout life, but in most cases it's pretty much gone by adulthood.

That means that when you ingest anything that sports lactose as one of its sugars, the sugar passes through your small intestine untouched. Without the lactase, your body makes a second attempt at digesting it in the large intestine. But that's not nearly as effective.

In the large intestine, resident microorganisms cause fermentation to takes place, finally breaking down the lactose while simultaneously producing methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen as byproducts. These byproducts are what we're experiencing when we get gassy and bloated from milk products, all because lactase was missing from the chemical equation. Who knew that one little missing enzyme could be such a problem, but then again, every little thing in the body no matter how microscopic and seemingly insignificant is very much missed when something negative happens to it.

It's one of the things that makes the human body so very interesting.