# What is lactose monohydrate



## KLG (Jul 8, 2002)

I notice it is an ingredient in Zelnorm. I can't have dairy and I am wondering if one might have the same reaction from this as say a glass of milk? Anyone know?


----------



## Auroraheart (Aug 8, 2000)

I found this on one of the searches


> quote: ApplicationsSheffield Brand Lactose Monohydrate N.F. is recommended as an excipient, filler, diluent and bulking agent in a wide variety of pharmaceutical tablets, capsules, powders and other preparations. It also has applications as a nutrient and multifunctional ingredient in infant formulas, geriatric, dietetic and health foods and may be used as an ingredient in culture media.


Many medications use lactose in them actually. If you are on the birth control pill it is in there too. I am lactose intolerant, when I asked the pharmacist he said the ammount is no minuet that unless you have a severe allergic reaction to lactose, most people are okay.


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It takes a mighty big pill to get the same amount of lactose in it as a glass of milk. There are several grams of lactose in a glass of milk.I do not know if people allergic to milk protiens (which can react at very small doses) have problems with lactose containing pills.If you are really worried take a lactaid or some probiotic bacteria with it. The lactaid breaks down the lactose for you, and the probiotic bacteria do the same, and produce no gas where the problem with lactose is when you do not break it down the non-probiotic bacteria make gas from it.Monohydrate means one water molecule. Some chemicals tend to have a water molecule or a few stuck to them unless you do something to pull it off (anhydrous). K.


----------



## KLG (Jul 8, 2002)

I will give it a shot with some Lactose pills to be on the safe side. Thanks both of you!


----------



## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

> quote:I will give it a shot with some Lactose pills to be on the safe side


Don't you mean *lactase* pills? Either with lactase pills or lactose pills (homeopathy actually consists of pure lactose pills), you won't notice the difference.


----------



## KLG (Jul 8, 2002)

Oops, thanks Flux, I meant Lactase. I typically don't take them because they don't help me at all with dairy, but since the only ingredient (dairy protein) is Lactose Monohydrate, I may be okay then?


----------



## KLG (Jul 8, 2002)

I should add it is a dairy intolerence that I have. I can't handle even minute servings of it.


----------



## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

> quote: but since the only ingredient (dairy protein) is Lactose Monohydrate, I may be okay then?


Lactose is a carbohydrate and not a protein. Milk protein is casein. It is doubtful you could be allergic to lactose, but easily possible to be allergic to milk protein and in minute amounts. It is conceivable that a tiny amount of milk protein could have been mixed in with the lactose and that could a problem. Lactase cannot help with this though.


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

According to the NIDDK there are 11g of lactose in one cup of lowfat milk. I believe the tiny amount typically used as filler in many medications falls far below 1g. We're all different, but I get huge amounts of smelly gas within a half hour after drinking a single glass of milk. Recently I started taking allergy pills 2x/day that have lactose listed with it's ingredients, and I have no reaction to it. If you want reliable info written in lay terms, check out http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/pub...ose/lactose.htm


----------



## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

> quote:but I get huge amounts of smelly gas within a half hour after drinking a single glass of milk.


It does not sound related to the milk.


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

What else are you thinking would cause this?


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

well one thing I can think of is that any accumulated gas will be released once the colonic response is triggered by a meal or a glass of milk.


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

It doesn't happen after meals, or anything else for that matter. Only after ingesting milk products. It's a strong and relatively immediate response, quite differrent from the usual.I'm interested in this milk protein allergy I'm hearing about, none of my doctors have ever suggested the possiblity and I'm having trouble finding info on it through PubMed, NIDDK, I'm still looking. I don't know how I would distinguish this from LI, and I don't know anyone who's had this diagnosed. If anyone has more info about milk allergy, I'd be very interested in hearing about it.


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Don't know if this is helpful but Milk Allergy vs Lactose Intolerance


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Causes of Milk Allergy


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Thanks for the links. According to this info, my symptoms are very consistent with LI, not milk allergy. I've been diagnosed with LI using the hydrogen breath test. Why would powerful smelly gas that starts 20 min to a half hour after drinking milk be inconsistent with that? I'm really trying to understand the issue here, if there is one.Anybody?


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Gas isn't inconsistent with milk allergies. What exactly is inconsistent with it as you see it? You could have just gas and still have milk allergy


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Although you have been diagnosed with LI. The gastrointestinal symptoms seen by the lay person are similar


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

I don't understand what the issue is. The characteristics and timing of the occurrences of this type of gas makes it very obviously different than gas I normally have when I am eating no milk products. I've only tested this a couple of times in the last year, and same thing happened each time. Powerful smelly gas that comes on suddenly about 20-30 minutes later. That's the only time it happens.What seems inconsistent with LI to you about this? How would you distinguish gas caused by LI for yourself?from http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/pub...ose/lactose.htm


> quote: people differ in the amounts and types of foods they can handle. For example, one person may have symptoms after drinking a small glass of milk, while another can drink one glass but not two.


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

I am sorry if I was garbled the first time around. Gas is consistent with both LI and MA.


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

No problem, I understood what you meant.I don't see any inconsistencies. We began our discussion when Flux said he thought the gas I described didn't sound like it was caused by the LI. I'm trying to understand why.From your point of view, how many times would the same stimulus-response have to occur before looks like a pattern?What would you expect anyone's LI symptoms to look like?


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Do a blind study. Put saccharine in one glass of milk and lactose free milk in another. Get someone else to do it so he can adjust the saccharin till they both taste similar. You shouldn't know which glass you are drinking from. Do the experiment for 14 days. Have one of the glasses in the morning and night and see if there is any difference in symptoms. Keep a record of the number of farts for each glass you drink if gas is your main symptom. That's my suggestion anyways


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

Haha!! I'd have to stay home for two weeks alone with my standing floor fan







Your suggestion looks like a well controlled study, but since my symptoms are totally under control when I avoid milk products, I don't see the point.I understand what you're saying from a totally objective point of view, but it's not ambiguous to me as the person experiencing it.


----------



## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

> quote:Why would powerful smelly gas that starts 20 min to a half hour after drinking milk be inconsistent with that?


It is a very quick response for whole milk unless it is skim milk.


----------



## Isis5244 (May 4, 2003)

I haven't had whole milk in many years, it was either skim or 1%.


----------



## flux (Dec 13, 1998)

It is still a very quick response. How quick was the gas in the test itself?


----------



## california123 (Jun 8, 2003)

Just thought I'd add a couple articles on lactose intolerance, sure wish dairy had made a difference for me.Coping With Lactose Intolerance There's good news for people who like milk but think milk doesn't like them. According to a recent study, adults who believe they are lactose intolerant may actually be able to stomach eight ounces of milk a day with meals without ill effects."Lactose intolerance is not an all-or-nothing proposition," said Michael Levitt, M.D., study author and director of research at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "It's more a question of how much milk one drinks than whether one can drink any milk at all."Defining Lactose IntoleranceLactose intolerance is the inability to digest significant amounts of lactose, the predominant sugar in milk. This inability results from a shortage of the enzyme lactase, which is normally produced in the small intestine. The lactase breaks down milk sugar into simpler forms that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. If the milk sugar is not broken down, it is transported to the large intestine where it's fermented by bacteria, producing short-chain fatty acids and gas. Only if the body cannot dispose of these products does an individual develop gastrointestinal symptoms.In reality, most of the world's adult population cannot digest lactose. While human infants are born with high levels of the enzyme lactase, there is a genetically programmed decline in lactase levels after weaning in most racial and ethnic groups except Caucasian North Americans and northern Europeans. As many as 75 percent of African- Americans and Native Americans and 90 percent of Asian-American adults are lactase deficient.However, not all lactase-deficient persons are necessarily lactose intolerant. The diagnosis of lactose intolerance is made by a physician when the incomplete absorption of lactose, as measured by a rise in breath hydrogen, is accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms such as gas, bloating or diarrhea.Testing ToleranceFor his study, Levitt recruited 30 adults who identified themselves as severely lactose intolerant. Of those, nine actually produced some level of the enzyme lactase and 21 did not. All subjects in the randomized, double-blind crossover study drank eight ounces of milk with breakfast for two weeks. One week the milk was treated to digest the lactose, the next week it was not."A good share of our subjects thought they would have to withdraw from the study because they wouldn't be able to tolerate the milk we were asking them to drink," observed Levitt. "However, no one in the test noticed more stomach problems from the regular milk than the lactose- reduced one."Writing in the July 6, 1995, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Levitt and his co-authors concluded that when lactose intake is limited to eight ounces or less a day, symptoms are likely to be negligible. However, they stress that their findings are based on adults and should not be extrapolated to children.Also thought this article was interesting: http://www.woolworths.com.au/dietinfo/rsa14.asp It talks about something I had read elsewhere that low fat dairy products--if your are lactose intolerant--may in fact have more lactose because of dried milk products added to "beefup" the milk. So once again, something to consider that might not seem obvious at first blush. Take care.


----------



## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

> quote: Haha!! I'd have to stay home for two weeks alone with my standing floor fan


----------

