Healing Lactose Intolerance
I wrote about this on Twitter a couple of days ago, but I thought I would share this here too. Life can be funny sometimes ...
On Jan 20, 2018 I shared on Facebook that I had become lactose intolerant. Compared to prostate cancer, this was a minor thing. It was more a frustration than anything else.
It actually started six months before that, in June, 2017. I still believe it was caused my several rounds of antibiotics, but I may never be able to prove my hypothesis. After a lot of trial and error, I had proven to be extremely lactose intolerant. Even a small amount of butter, or any form of diary, would make be very sick. I even reacted to 5 McDonalds french fries one time while on a road trip. This was not a good thing. Yes, they use diary in a coating on their fries.
A couple of weeks ago, our daughter-in-law, sent Teresa home with some ‘keto’ cookies. They looked so good, and I ate two of them. In the communication, Teresa missed the fact that they were not diary free. I learned this in a text message with my son, Ben. To say I was a little nervous, even fearful for my bathroom is in understatement. But to my surprise, nothing happened. I never felt any stomach pains, no diarrhea .. just normal.
So, I decided to start testing my gut. The next day I ate some grass-fed butter .. something I had wanted to try for a while. Nothing again. At this point, I was getting brave, so I ate more of those darn cookies. (My weight is still dropping, so I figured at a weight lost of 70 lbs, I deserved those cookies). Still no reaction.
This set me up for the ultimate test. I knew Mozzarella cheese is fairly good for this test, so we decided to have a little keto pizza and home-made cheese bread sticks. These are not your average bread sticks. Yes, they are keto, but 2.5 cups of cheese in with some almond flour. And of course, butter! We did this Sunday evening. Wow, was that good. Once again, no reaction.
I love cheese, and I can eat it again.
What happened here? Other than eating why too much, I seem to have healed my gut. Some possible explanations:
Nature just ran its course. I have read stories of people being able to add diary back into their diet over time, but slowly.
Keto: I know others that eat a ‘keto’ lifestyle that found that after some time they were able to tolerate diary. Well, one other person ... but only n=2.
Probiotics: For months, I have tried various probiotics. The last one I tried was from ‘Pure’. I think it was the best of the bunch. I have not taken any for several weeks. Maybe there is no connection, but something changed in my gut biome.
Maybe it was a carb intolerance. I eat less than 20g of carbs a day, and my insulin resistance seems to be healed. Maybe there is a connection?
Some other poorly understood change .. who knows.
Of course, maybe its temporary. I really don’t know. I will continue to try some different foods now and then, but my gut appears to be healed. I am diary free for the most part. Milk has no place in my lifestyle. I will eat grass-fed butter, and some cheese, but this is still a welcome surprise. I really don’t miss diary, so I will add it when I want some, but not every day. '
~ Rick
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