Also why is their reaction different than an allergy?
In: 0
An allergy is when the body reacts to a “safe” thing as if it were a “bad” thing. Your body attacks something that should really be OK.
Lactose intolerance is different. There are dozens of different, but very similar, chemicals we collectively call “sugars”. Each sugar molecule requires a different digestive chemical, called an enzyme, to be digested in the human body for energy. Lactose (-ose meaning sugar) is a kind of sugar found in milk and the digest enzyme required to digest it is called lactase (-ase meaning enzyme). Many people naturally produce lactase so they can digest milk-sugar for energy, yay. If for whatever reason the person is unable to produce lactase the sugar goes undigested until it gets to their intestines. The microbes in our intestines *can* digest sugar and they go to town on it, producing gases and waste chemicals that make are gross. That person is now very uncomfortable because they are burping and farting, maybe having diarrhea. So it lactose intolerant people aren’t having an allergic reaction, they are actually not reacting to the lactose at all. It’s the undigested lactose that’s being eaten by microbes, and the waste they produce, that’s the problem. The treatment for lactose intolerance is kind of easy, beyond just avoiding dairy, the person can ingest lactase enzyme directly (in pills or mixed into the milk), or eat fermented milk products (cheese, yoghurt) where the lactose has already been digested.
Celiac is similar to an allergy, but not quite. In an allergy the immune system is attacking foreign chemicals, in the case of celiac, what happens is the immune system starts to attack the person’s body itself. So it’s called an “auto-immune” reaction, the body attacking itself.
It’s worth noting there are multiple similar conditions that can be lumped in, or confused here. Many people who problems with dairy are *not* lactose intolerant but are having reactions due to proteins or other compounds in milk. My daughter can digest lactose, but she has a severe reaction to the proteins found in dairy so she can’t drink even lactose-free milks or cheese.
Celiac is a specific condition, but it’s actually extremely rare. Many people who avoid gluten aren’t actually Celiac patients, they just don’t like the way gluten makes them feel. That’s a preference, not a medical condition, though many people just assume they have celiac or a “gluten allergy” or a “gluten intolerance”, but again, that’s more a preference thing than a legit medical condition.
Latest Answers