why don’t they have a cure for lactose intolerance

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If I had a small intestine transplant for someone who produced lactase, would it cure it?
I know lactose intolerance isn’t deadly I’m just curious if it’s possible.

In: Biology

32 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s two forms of lactose tolerance – genetic and environmental.

Young children are almost always lactose tolerant, in that their bodies produce lactase. Most people have a gene that stops us from producing lactase after a certain age. You can be genetically lactose tolerant if you don’t have the gene that disables lactase production. Human breast milk contains lactose, and producing lactase is not without cost, so you can see why we would have evolved to produce lactase but only in early childhood.

Environmental lactose tolerance is generally obtained from gut bacteria. Shifting your gut bacteria balance can be done with probiotics and drinking milk, feeding the bacteria that eat lactose. Gaining this tolerance can be an unpleasant process. Farmers often have environmental lactose tolerance.

Finally, you can take lactase tablets a while before consuming lactose.

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