Treatment of lactose intolerance
The symptoms of abdominal cramps, bloating, diarrhea and flatulence, an hour to few hours after a bout of milk are telltale signs of lactose intolerance. In some cases of lactose intolerance where there’s a doubt that abdominal signs and symptoms may be attributed to some other causes, like lactose allergy, diabetes, crohns disease, gastric infections or allergies to some other macro or micronutrient in food, it is prudent to get a proper lab diagnosis as clinical picture in unable to differentiate among these conditions. [8]
There are two types of lab tests pertaining to the diagnosis of lactose intolerance.
Hydrogen breath test: A noninvasive rapid test is a “hydrogen breath test”. the doctor first asks you to take a lactose drink. Afterwards, the amount of hydrogen in the expired air is measured at regular intervals. A higher than normal hydrogen detected is the fermented product of lactose by the gut microflora.