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Hydrogen breath test

mikeyarmo

Co-Founder
Have you taken one of these before? I never heard about it until recently when I was in the hospital. Supposedly it can check if their is bacterial overgrowth in your small intestine or also if you are lactose intolerant.

The thing about this test (a dietician told me) is that they may find that people are lactose intolerant, even if that is not the case. The reason is because they do the test usually by giving your body about 50 grams of lactose. This is roughly the same as a litre of milk, which is more than a lot of people can handle at one time. Many people may be able to handle lower levels of lactose, but they end up believing that they are lactose intolerant based off of this test.

This is something to keep in mind if ever you are told to get this test done. You can ask what amount of lactose is being tested, and if it is a high amount (like 50g) you can ask for a lower level to be tested.
 
That for me is one of the scariest things about having crohns- becoming lactos intolerant. Ive experienced a lot of different types of malnutrision but never anything like that-Im a major dairy freak I can polish off a whole gallon of milk in a day. does that happen to a lot of people with Crohns?
 
J

jyarmo

Guest
MikesAngel21 said:
That for me is one of the scariest things about having crohns- becoming lactos intolerant. Ive experienced a lot of different types of malnutrision but never anything like that-Im a major dairy freak I can polish off a whole gallon of milk in a day. does that happen to a lot of people with Crohns?

I don't know exactly for sure...but I remember when I was getting my surgery and I asked my surgeon if there were any food restrictions he said no (I now disagree, but regardless...) unless I was lactose intolerant. I took this to mean unless I *became* lactose intolerant. My mother who was there at the time took this to mean "unless you are lactose intolerant".

At the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is that I think some people can become lactose intolerant after surgery.
 
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ReeRee

Guest
Wow, that's a new one on me. And here I thought I'd heard it all.

I have my own opinions on milk and lactose. I don't do dairy, only soy. I believe that only baby cows should drink milk. But I'll leave that to ya'll to decide for yourselves.
 
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ReeRee

Guest
Actually, you are right. People, all people, become less and less tolerant of lactose over the years. You can become lactose intolerant even without surgery. I have such a problem with it, I've sworn off dairy, only soy for me thank you. The only exception to this is cheese on my pizza. LOVE my cheesy pizza, even tho I really shouldn't eat it.

Before I started drinking only soy milk, I took Dairy Ease or other over the counter lactose products. They work wonders! But, you should really look into switching to soy milk. Silk tastes just like cow milk, plus it has more protein which we need becuase of the malabsorption problems.

As for the diet restrictions, I've found that trial and error works best for me. If I eat something that makes me sick, I stay away from it. The weird thing is, this is a constantly changing thing.
 
D

danielle

Guest
I find that sometimes I can handle dairy and sometimes not...just depends.
 
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ReeRee

Guest
Danielle, that's the way I am. One day I can handle it with no problems, the next I get sick if it's even in the house. Love my Silk tho.
 
S

shaspons

Guest
MikesAngel21 said:
That for me is one of the scariest things about having crohns- becoming lactos intolerant. Ive experienced a lot of different types of malnutrision but never anything like that-Im a major dairy freak I can polish off a whole gallon of milk in a day. does that happen to a lot of people with Crohns?
Pretty common with Crohn's. But hold out hope everyones disease is different.:eek:
 
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ReeRee

Guest
But hold out hope everyones disease is different.
Don't worry, my doc tells me that every case is different. Just reading everybody's stories here is a good indication that he's right. I don't think there are 2 of us here who's disease is the same. There seems to be the basic common symptoms, we're all different.

This forum is turning out to be very educational for me. :cool:
 
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