AIBU to ask where you can get a lactose intolerance test?

[LactoseTest]

Adult DS believes he is lactose intolerant. He went to the GP today who said that they wouldn't know where to get a lactose intolerance test.

Does anyone have any ideas? Happy to pay for the testing.

They probably are available but does it matter?
Many adults have a degree of lactose intolerance. Buy a carton of lactose free milk for his tea or coffee, maybe some lactose free cheese. Don't eat any other dairy for about two weeks. Have the symptoms got better?
Start to reintroduce dairy, do the symptoms come back? Try cooked foods at first. He may well find he can eat quite normally but does best with lactose free milk. Lactose intolerance is a scale, it is not an allergy, he needs to find his happy level.

Does adult ds not have google?

Google will tell you to send off a sample of hair - useless
Or someone will hold a crystal against you - useless
Or the NHS will give the same advise I did

There is a hydrogen breath test available - useless it just tells you that you have a degree of lactose intolerance and to follow the eliminate and reintroduce procedure.

I'm assuming OP wants to sort the snake oil from the useful.

Dh is lactose intolerant. We discovered this by removing lactose from his diet. When he inadvertently eats something with lactose in, we usually know almost immediately- thanks sainsburys gluten free, vegan Easter egg.

I'd start by omitting lactose from his diet for a week or so, then get him to have a little bit to see how his body responds.

As others have said, there's an awful lot of snake oil and nonsense in this sector. The best option (and one which most NHS GPs will recommend) is simply to exclude lactose from the diet for several weeks and see what happens to the symptoms. If the symptoms go, then reintroduce lactose and see if they come back. If so, then you're lactose intolerant (as above, many people are to varying degrees), and can choose to reduce your dietary intake of lactose if you wish.

Does eating / drinking lactose make you feel ill, sick, give you heartburn / acid reflux, make you phlegmy or make asthma and eczema worse? Yes
do these symptoms go away if you stop eating lactose? Yes
Then you’re probably lactose intolerant!

This.

This is from NHS

Tests for lactose intoleranceIf your GP thinks you have lactose intolerance, you may:

• be asked to follow a lactose elimination diet – where you stop eating foods containing lactose to see if your symptoms improve
• have blood tests
• do a hydrogen breath test – where hydrogen gas in your breath is measured to find out how well you digest lactose

Has he always had issues with lactose ?

I once went to a talk about lactose intolerance the speaker said as we get older our bodies find it harder to digest lactose- so those who drink lots or milk / milky coffees might find themselves feeling bloated - I have noticed it I have large lattes I can feel uncomfortable so I try to avoid. The best option is to reduce lactose in diet to see if it helps

Why doesn't he just buy some lactase enzymes?

My brother thought he might be lactose intolerant as he kept being unwell.
He stopped eating and drinking things with lactose in it for two weeks and felt significantly better, then drank a glass of milk to check and shat himself.
That seemed fairly conclusive

Pretty much what happens with dh. The smell though could be used as a chemical weapon.

He seems to have very little tolerance though, trace elements will set him off.

@Houselamp I read your post to dh who laughed like a drain.

Give him a full glass of normal milk just before a 3h journey and see if he shits himself or throws up on the way home.

He did both. He was 5. Thanks ex-Mil for this helpful intervention.

Thanks all for the advice 😊

I had a lactose intolerance test on the NHS. It's a two stage test - first they test you for SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) and if that is negative, they do a lactose test. Both tests are based on a breath analyser.
But I got my test before COVID. I imagine you're GP is playing games pretending they don't know the NHS does this.

unlikely to have always had issues with lactose

most of the human race lose the ability to digest lactose as an adult, it is only a few populations that have a mutation that keeps producing enzymes to digest babyfood for their whole life, such as Northern europeans

op, the test for lactose intolerance is to stop eating anything containing lactose for a few weeks, and see if the symptoms disapear - then have something with lactose in and see if the sympotms come back.

It is very common in schools for a student to start taking regular time off with upset stomachs, some time after the age of 14, and then to be diagnosed with lactose intolerance, and for their attendance to suddenly improve again once they start avoiding dairy in their diet.

They don't get a "test", they just stop eating diary.

I sent both my sons to the GP at that age, because I thought they were lactose intolerant, but didn't want to miss something or misdiagnose them. Both times the GP confirmed it with a food diary, nothing else.

@LactoseTest i am lactose intolerant. Came in as an adult. I only linked it up by getting an upset stomach every time I had cereal. I eliminated lactose for 4 weeks. Then introduced it. Terrible wind I could knock someone out and upset stomach. I used to always get trapped wind.

read that it takes 23 days to figure out if elimination helps and clear your body of lactose.

I avoid lactose in company but eat secretly and pay the price. I know my tolerance now. Look up lactose values in dairy food. It will help.

I'm another one who has never had a test but if I eat a certain amount of lactose I know about it.

I can eat some, particularly with other food so a Yorkshire pudding with a roast is fine, as is a bit of cheese but any more than that, well I have not shat myself but I've come close.

Didn’t know this ! How interesting

The NHS lactose test is extremely unpleasant because they give you 50g to drink. Within 30 minutes the breath test will show positive, and then you've either got to leg it home to stay by the loo or stay in hospital until the poonami has passed.

The home testing only works if you don't have other problems such as IBS or IBD. If you have other things causing diarrhoea, then just cutting out lactose won't help much.

Hospital test here, drinking the nasty stuff then being monitored throughout the day, result was 98% intolerant, lactate tablets don't help enough to stop avoiding lactose. Fructose gives me similar symptoms.

I'm quite stunned that some NHS trusts do lactose testing. Mind you I think I live and used to work in a rather poor trust.