To think I may have suddenly become lactose intolerant?

[Starcky]

I’ve noticed recently that I feel a little sick after drinking white coffee. Didn’t think anything of it but yesterday I had some Greek yogurt for breakfast - only 125g. Immediately afterwards I felt sick and like it was gurgling around in my stomach. Didn’t think anything of it but today I had the same for breakfast and afterwards felt very sick and also developed a rash under my chin going into my neck and I’m itching all over.

now I’m thinking things over and I have suffered with constipation on and off for a long time - could this be lactose intolerance sudden onset?

Mine was realised at 51, as I look back i probably was for longer but didn't connect the dots. Cut dairy out, see if you feel better. Takes about 3 days to get out your system though.

There's multiple offerings to avoid dairy, i use things like lacto free cheese and butter but increasingly sparingly, I'm too scared to use lacto free milk so I use oat, but have over the course of a couple years gone onto "milk free", i avoid bread, so stopped using dairy, i choose espresso so avoid needing white stuff to milk it.

I suffer intestinal issues and migraine, triggered at different timeliness if I have dairy now. Intestinal is quick, migraines is the day after. So I'm choosing to increasingly avoid.

Looking for the vegan option is easier than looking for dairy free, except cheese - that's horrible so go for lacto free cheese. But you can get Vegan chocolate, and cakes, brownies are usually dairy free. It's definitely a better choice than 5 years ago

I also suffer with migraines!

Lactose intolerance gets worse with age. Some people may be able to tolerate a little dairy/lactose without ill effects but if it’s consecutive days or meals it adds up, all depends on how bad it is. The only way to find out is to cut it out completely for two weeks and then reintroduce it and it will be clearer then if you react to it.
It’s worth noting that it also depends on whether it is lactose in dairy that’s the issue for you or the f it’s another milk protein. I can’t even tolerate lactose free cheese etc so presumably I am reacting to something else as well in dairy. As a general rule soft cheese contains more lactose than a hard cheese like cheddar and some people are able to tolerate this. Dairy was not only affecting my gut health it affected my skin as well my rosacea cleared up after I had cut it out.

Sold!

Cut all dairy.

Yanbu, i randomly discovered the same x

I also embarked on a "gut improvement regime" where after the period of cutting it all out, i tried to repair my gut. Introduced bacteria tablets, and other gut building stuff.

As mentioned by @667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast i can manage a little, so I have Yakult daily, this really helped me. But I didn't introduce that until 6 months after cutting everything out.

If i have dairy, i get intestinal, migraines and sinus issues... snotty nose, bad cough, chesty. It's response for a lot of issues I just previously thought were just not related...

I mean, I thought it was normal to feel sick after a latte? doesn't everyone feel sick after hot chocolate? surely it's just that it's sickly? Doesnt everyone always have a cold nooooo?

It's possible - try cutting out dairy for a few months and see how you feel. There's loads of really good vegan alternatives these days so it shouldn't be too difficult.

I suddenly became lactose intolerant after giving birth. I suspect it was always there on a very mild level but after having a baby it was horrendous.

Maybe yours presented as constipation previously.

These things do change over time for multiple reasons (stress, intestinal flora, diet are some examples).
After 6-12 months you can try to reintroduce, if you want to. Varied diet is usually preferable

It is possible. I've always suffered from bloating, eczema and a stuffy nose but I didn't connect the three. Then about a year ago I noticed that whenever I ate anything with a lot of dairy like a pizza, cheese salad, I would have stomach cramps and diarrhea the next day so I decided to give up dairy and see what happened. I never get bloated now and my eczema and blocked nose is gone too. I've also lost 6lbs. I feel more energetic so I'm sticking to it. It's very easy to follow you can get vegan everything now. The only thing I miss is pizza because the vegan cheese isn't the same but it's not worth the symptoms just to eat a pizza. I find soy milk the best substitute for tea but oat milk is better in coffee. Sainsburys has the best selection of non-dairy, you can even have chocolate.

Yes it’s quite common.

temporary lactose intolerance is also very common after a stomach bug because you lose the bacteria

Yes, I’m coeliac and became lactose intolerant about 6 months ago. I now take a Lactase tablet before I eat anything with it in and can tolerate it. At home we use lactose free milk and cheese so generally pop a pill when I’m out.

There's a D&V bug that gives sufferers a temporary* lactose intolerance. Have you been ill recently.

*By temporary it's months/years not short term. My friend was lactose intolerant for around 2.5 years.

It happened to me at the age of 61, after I had food poisoning. My GP tells me that it's quite common.

Just to add that I now use oatmilk, but I find that Lactojoy tablets help. (Amazon sells them.)

It definitely happens. I developed it during lockdown. Weirdly though, mine is specifically cow's milk. Goat cheese and sheep's cheese is fine.

It can happen. Sometimes it's just temporary due to a virus and sometimes it can be triggered by hormonal changes. Mine resolved while I was pregnancy and breastfeeding but is worse than even now I'm post-menopause.

Try lactofree products for a while to see if there is any improvement. If none, then the next step is cutting out dairy.

That is weird as both contain similar amounts of lactose to cow's milk.

Yep. Happened to me a few years back now, I was fine with milk/cheeses/yogurt etc and then suddenly one day I was not. I switched to lactofree products and mostly that’s been fine (apart from chocolate, dairy free chocolate is not pleasant). A while later I read that sudden lactose intolerance is a not uncommon menopause symptom, which made sense for me - having said that, my mum also suddenly became intolerant about a year and a half after I did and she’s way past that age. Interestingly she sent off for one of those genetic profiles tests and when he results came back, one of the things it mentioned was a genetic predisposition for lactose intolerance.

I found out by accident. Was hospital a few days and didn’t drink milk as it wasn’t chilled enough

Then at home I had awful cramps and diarrhoea. It still took me a few mi ths to realise. And yes agree with pp I have always had bloating, constipation and migraines.

I love milk though. And I hate the taste of lactofree.

Goat and sheep milk have less lactose than cow milk. I can tolerate goats cheese but not cheese made from cow’s milk.

After a truly awful episode of serious food poisoning I developed an intolerance to lactose, I was in my 30s and went to the GP about it, he said its quite common for people to suddenly develop it from a number of things including just getting older.
It's been years since and I can tolerate hard cheese like parmesan and small amounts of other hard cheeses, I buy lactose free cream and milk.

Nope

Milk
High lactose (more than 2g /100g)

• Cow’s milk: 4.6 - 4.8g /100g
• Sheep’s milk: 5.1g /100g
• Goat’s milk: 4.4g /100g

https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/our-services/a-z-services/nutrition-dietetics/nutrition-dietetics-patient-information/dietary-advice-avoiding-lactose