Title: Can You Become Lactose Intolerant Later in Life? | Everyday Health
Headings: Can You Become Lactose Intolerant Later in Life?
Can You Become Lactose Intolerant Later in Life?
Digestive Problems Similar to Lactose Intolerance
How to Determine if You're Lactose Intolerant
How to Manage Different Degrees of Lactose Intolerance
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
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Content: The symptoms of lactose intolerance and these diseases, such as abdominal pain, gas, and diarrhea, can be similar. One difference between IBD and lactose intolerance is the presence of blood in your stool. You won’t see blood if you’re lactose intolerant, but it’s possible to see blood in your stool if you have IBD. Normal aging may make you more sensitive to digestive disturbances, such as feeling bloated after meals, Grand says. And eating certain foods that irritate the lining of the intestines or stimulate the gut to contract more quickly, such as caffeine or spicy foods, can mimic lactose intolerance symptoms. How to Determine if You're Lactose Intolerant
A simple way to determine whether you've become lactose intolerant is to completely eliminate milk and milk products from your diet and monitor how you feel in the following weeks. “If you still have symptoms on a milk-restricted diet, you know it’s not the milk,” Grand says. A breath test can provide a more definitive diagnosis, according to the NIDDK. For this test, you'll drink a beverage with lactose and then breathe into a balloon-like container so that your hydrogen level can be measured. Under normal conditions, after consuming dairy, people will have only a small amount of hydrogen in their breath.