Lactose Intolerance

Everything you need to know about Lactose intolerance and how it causes diarrhea 

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  • Created by: Amina
  • Created on: 08-01-13 23:06

Lactose Intelerance

Lactose intolerance is the inability to produce enough lactase to digest the diasacchride lactose

Lactose can be found in milk or any diary products. It can be  hydrolysed by the enzyme lactase.

Babies have a large amount of lactase as milk is their main diet. However the amount of lactase reduces as less milk consumed  

In some people the reduction in lactase is so great that they produce very little or no lactase. As a result these peop;e are unable to digest the lactose they consume but however they can they van take either lactase tablets or add lactose droplets or consume lactose free products.

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Symptoms

A lactose intolerent person may have different symptoms such as

  • Diarrhea 
  • Bloating
  • Nausea 
  • abdominal cramp
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Diarrhea

How diarrhea works

Undigested Lactose cannot be absorbed.

This lowers the water potential of the lumen 

The water potiential in the lumen is lower than the water potiential in the blood/cell 

Therefore water moves into the lumen by osmosis

Resulting in diarrhea 

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