Intolerance II

My ongoing research into my lactose intolerance moves forward. Over the past few days, I've had milk, mostly in the form of Starbucks Coffee drinks. I had earlier tried drinking soy milk and reported on the mostly favorable results in an earlier post.

My preliminary research on Lactaid says, "it works". Twice, I drank Starbucks espresso based drinks with milk (Caramel Macchiato or Caffe Latte) in their grande size without bad side effects. The first time, I'd eaten a bigger than usual lunch and was having some gas prior to the coffee, so, while the gas persisted, it didn't seem to worsen. As a result, I couldn't reliably judge if Lactaid worked. The following day, I had one on an empty stomach, the result was virtually no flatulence. Lactaid worked!

What I don't know is how much is necessary in order to counter a certain volume of milk. Since Lactaid is an enzyme, it breaks down the lactose that my body can't break down itself. (My body doesn't produce lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, in sufficient quantities if at all.) Lactaid comes in caplet form, and 3 caplets is the recommended dose. Taking at the recommended dose prevented problems.

The next question is will a lower dose work - will 2 caplets do the job? One? Will one be enough most of the time? Will two usually be enough? So, for me, further study is in order.