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
Lactose intolerance is extremely common in humans affecting upwards of 65 percent of the population. This is most prevalent in Asian populations.
Interestingly most humans are not born lactose intolerant but rather lose the ability to process it after we stop breast feeding.
Humans likely developed adult lactose tolerance as a result of living in close proximity to cows. Ancient humans in Europe began raising wild cows (Aurochs) for meat.
At some point we attempted to consume cow milk and it would have made us sick. But attempting to store cows milk resulted in the production of the first cheeses.
Cheese production at a very basic level is actually very simple, you store milk and it because cheese with time. Many cheeses have lower lactose content and are far easier to digest. So this is likely how early humans consumed milk, as an early preserved processed food.
One theory is living so close to cows and eating cheese resulted in certain bacteria colonizing or developing in our guts that could process the lactose.
Alternately humans got a random mutation that kept the lactose processing component of our guts active as we aged.
As for curing lactose intolerance it’s fairly complicated. It may be fixable with fecal transplants, this is an active area of study for various reasons.
But lactose intolerance is relatively easy to treat with medication. They make pills that contain the lactase enzyme we are missing that can process the lactose.
Latest Answers