Enzyme Lactase - description and instructions for use

Manufacturer: Nature's Way Products, Inc.
Active ingredients

• Not indicated. See instructions

Pharmacological action

• Not indicated. See instructions

• Description of pharmacological action Enzyme Lactase
• Composition Enzyme Lactase
• Indications for use of the drug Enzyme Lactase
• Release form of the drug Enzyme Lactase
• Contraindications to the use of the drug Enzyme Lactase
• Method of administration and dosage of the drug Enzyme Lactase
• Storage conditions for the drug Enzyme Lactase
• Shelf life of the drug Enzyme Lactase

Description of pharmacological action

In early childhood, the drug helps babies digest breast milk more efficiently, reducing bloating and eliminating infant colic. In adults, taking lactase allows you to fully use cow's milk in your diet. The lactase enzyme is recommended for use by adults with poor milk tolerance, a change in dietary pattern, when moving to another area (summer seasons with a predominantly dairy diet), as well as in old age and after intestinal infections during the rehabilitation period. This product is also used for replacement therapy for lactase deficiency in children, starting from the neonatal period. Taking the enzyme leads to the rapid disappearance of lactase deficiency symptoms, improving the quality of digestion.

Signs of lactose intolerance in infants:

• frequent foamy, loose stools up to 8-10 times with a large water spot (lactose prevents water from being absorbed, which leads to diarrhea);
• sour smell of stool (the process of fermentation of microflora in the intestines starts);
• colic due to gas formation;
• in severe cases, dehydration accompanied by severe diarrhea;
• malnutrition, when, with severe degrees of lactase deficiency, nutrients are not absorbed.

— What tests need to be done to determine lactose and lactase intolerance/insufficiency?

— The gold standard for diagnosis is coprogram. The disease is confirmed by the presence of carbohydrates in the feces (more than 0.25% in children under 1 year of age) and an acidic reaction of the feces (pH less than 5.5). There are no other specific signs for transient lactase deficiency. In case of secondary lactase deficiency, depending on the clinical symptoms, a number of tests are done to confirm the presence of the causative disease.

— Valeria Maksimovna, what to do if a child has lactose intolerance to breast milk?

— In addition to therapy aimed at the underlying disease, if present, symptomatic therapy should be prescribed.

• With colic,
  it is necessary to ease the situation for the child and make sure that the gases move through the intestines and come out. Abdominal massage, heat on the tummy, a gas tube, special positions for sleeping or on the stomach, cocoons for newborns, and simethicone-based products will help.
• Child's refusal to eat.
  Loss of appetite is often associated with pain due to swollen intestinal walls - the child may develop a negative association with feeding, after which abdominal problems begin.
• Digestive disorders
  - colic, problems with stool, regurgitation. In case of transient lactase deficiency, replacement therapy is carried out.
• Allergy to cow's milk proteins.
  A breastfeeding mother is prescribed a dairy-free diet, and a bottle-fed baby is prescribed therapeutic nutrition. In case of acute allergies, self-treatment is unacceptable; you need to urgently go to the doctor.

Best before date

24 months

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Description of the vitamin Enzyme Lactase is intended for informational purposes only. Before starting to use any drug, it is recommended to consult a doctor and read the instructions for use. For more complete information, please refer to the manufacturer's instructions. Do not self-medicate; EUROLAB is not responsible for the consequences caused by the use of information posted on the portal. Any information on the project does not replace consultation with a specialist and cannot be a guarantee of the positive effect of the drug you use. The opinions of EUROLAB portal users may not coincide with the opinions of the site Administration.

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Diagnosis of lactase deficiency

The presence of typical symptoms of lactase deficiency: loose stools, bloating, increased gas formation, nausea after drinking milk and dairy products often allows one to suspect this diagnosis even before consulting a doctor or, at least, before performing any tests.

Yes, sometimes a patient, turning to a gastroenterologist, says: “if I drink a glass of cow’s milk, then I will definitely have diarrhea after some time. If I don’t drink milk, everything is always fine.” A typical picture of lactase deficiency usually does not require additional research. In practice, most cases of lactose intolerance are blurred, masquerading as other problems and diseases. Bloating without stool disturbances or mushy stools some time after eating – but who knows what this could be connected with? And if a person consumes milk or dairy products daily, it is usually not possible to establish or exclude a diagnosis of lactase deficiency based on symptoms alone.

How can lactase deficiency be established in this case?

Option one: elimination diet.

By eliminating all milk products from the diet (precisely milk, and not those that “contain powdered milk”) for a certain period, you can see a complete or almost complete disappearance of symptoms. Most likely, it was the milk sugar in the products that caused their appearance. This hypothesis can be tested by gradually introducing dairy products or milk into the diet.

Option two: hydrogen breath test with lactose.

The test is based on determining the hydrogen concentration in exhaled air. Hydrogen is a gas that is released when some carbohydrates are broken down by bacteria in the colon. To do this, carbohydrates need to get into the large intestine, where they are processed to form gas. As a result, the released hydrogen is quickly absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream and delivered to the lungs.

The carbohydrate chosen for the test is the same milk sugar, lactose, which is found in animal milk and dairy products. It is this carbohydrate that is poorly broken down by insufficient activity of the lactase enzyme, resulting in a sufficiently large amount of lactose reaching the colon in patients with lactase deficiency.

Based on measurements of the hydrogen concentration in exhaled air before the test (on an empty stomach) and at certain intervals after consuming lactose, a diagnosis of lactase deficiency is made or excluded.

Option three: lactose tolerance test with blood glucose determination.

The test is based on the knowledge that lactose is a carbohydrate consisting of two simple carbohydrates, one of which is glucose. If a person does not have lactase deficiency, then the activity of the lactase enzyme is preserved, that is, the processes of lactose breakdown in the small intestine are preserved. The glucose molecules released during the breakdown are quickly absorbed and enter the bloodstream. An increase in blood glucose levels after consuming milk sugar can be determined in the laboratory. The disadvantage is the invasiveness of the procedure, i.e. the need to take blood samples several times during the test.

Option four: lactase enzyme activity in small intestinal biopsy.

As we said above, the lactase enzyme is located on the surface of the villi of the small intestine. There are special laboratory kits that allow you to determine lactase activity in real time. To do this, a biopsy sample (a piece of tissue) is taken from the duodenum during gastroscopy. Low enzyme activity may indicate that the patient has lactase deficiency. A relative disadvantage of the method is its invasiveness (the need to perform gastroscopy).

Option five: study of MSM6 gene variants.

This method is now widely used by doctors and offered by laboratories for diagnosing lactase deficiency. However, if you take a critical look at the genetic study, you can understand that even the determination of one or another genotype (C/T or C/C) does not mean that the patient has lactase deficiency. We can only talk about the possible risk of its early development with the C/C genotype or the low probability of lactase deficiency with the T/T genotype.

Treatment of lactase deficiency

Since the cause of symptoms of lactase deficiency is insufficient breakdown of milk sugar (and only that!), solutions to this problem can be as follows:

• completely eliminate products containing lactose from the diet;
• sharply reduce the amount of lactose consumed in food.

Today, there is evidence of the positive effects of milk and dairy products on human health. Thus, regular sufficient consumption of milk/dairy products reduces the risk of developing colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, including stroke. This food group is an important source of calcium, which is especially valuable for people with osteoporosis. In this regard, a complete exclusion of milk and dairy products by patients with lactase deficiency is undesirable.

An alternative may be to select dairy products that contain little lactose per serving. It is known that even individuals with diagnosed lactase deficiency, including those with the C/C genotype, are able to break down small amounts of milk sugar. Their symptoms occur when the amount of lactose that enters the small intestine with food exceeds the capacity of the enzyme system.

In this regard, it is very important to have an idea of ​​how much lactose is contained in different dairy products. We tried to provide data on some products in the table:

*Provided for comparison

As we can see from the table, the lowest lactose content is in hard cheeses, portioned cream, butter and, of course, in lactose-free milk. Research shows that individuals with lactase intolerance generally tolerate up to 12 g of lactose per meal. In practice, this amount can be even smaller and individual for each person.

There are also substitutes for animal milk, usually of plant origin. For example, rice milk, soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, macadamia nut milk, etc. These products do not contain lactose, despite the word "milk" in the name.

Additionally, some probiotics, as well as dietary supplements containing the lactase enzyme, can help solve the problem of lactase deficiency.