E73.1: Secondary lactase deficiency

You are lactose-intolerant.

Lactose (milk sugar) must be broken down by a specific protein in the intestines. Only then can lactose be absorbed. You don’t have enough of this protein. Consequently, your intestines cannot process it so well. Lactose then gets into intestinal segments where no sugar should be. The sugar is broken down there by normal gut bacteria. If you nonetheless consume lactose, you may thus for instance get abdominal pain or diarrhea.

Many people in the world have too little of this protein or the protein does not work properly. If your mother stopped giving you milk when you were a small child, the protein works less. Many dairy products are used in Germany. The body is thus trained to process lactose. The protein thus continues working normally after you are no longer receiving your mother’s milk. In other countries, fewer or no dairy products are used. For this reason, people from such regions are likely not to tolerate lactose.

Because of another disease, you do not tolerate lactose well. That may for instance be an intestinal disease that damages the intestines. As a result of the other disease, lactose cannot be absorbed properly.