3 ms·
Wow, what's your damage, man? When did I ever claim to be "smart"? Let's say this is my area of expertise. I am informing you that lactose intolerance is due t
by braindeath 7y ago
Wow, what's your damage, man? When did I ever claim to be "smart"?
Let's say this is my area of expertise. I am informing you that lactose intolerance is due to a deficiency in the enzyme lactase, a typically endogenously (by your bodies' cells) produced enzyme. It is therefore not a component of the gut biome. The proteins in your body can affect the gut microbiome, just as the micro and macro structure of your organs can, but they are not part of the biome.
Lactase is present in all normal human infants, since all healthy human babies are capable of digesting breast milk. Lactase expression starts trailing off in toddler-hood. Some populations apparently developed a mutation that causes lactase to persist. One group are northern European/Scandinavians. But there are also other groups such as certain Africans and Meds/Middle Easterners that have lactase persistence (Mediterranean and Middle Eastern people have a long history of consuming sheep and goat milk). The interesting thing is that there are multiple, independent mutations.
The cause for lactase persistence has a number of hypothesis, such as the consumption hypothesis. But these are speculation.
There is no cure for lactase deficiency. The most common "treatment" is oral enzyme replacement. This is known as Lactaid and Lactrase. Lactrase seems to work better for symptoms in most people, but response is variable.