Response to the use of lactase in patients with lactose intolerance

Abstract

introdução: lactose intolerance is the name given to the appearance of abdominal symptoms after ingesting milk and dairy products. People with this condition have a reduced ability to hydrolyze lactose, a carbohydrate present in these foods. Typical symptoms include abdominal pain, flatulence and diarrhea, approximately 30 minutes to 2 hours after consuming these foods. After diagnosis, the patient can remove lactose completely or partially from the diet, in addition to opting for supplementation with the lactase enzyme in tablets. In this study we aimed to find out the rate of improvement in abdominal symptoms with supplementation with the lactase enzyme, so that these patients do not need to remove dairy products from their diets. Methods: Analysis of a pre-structured virtual questionnaire to verify the rate of improvement in lactose intolerance symptoms, and its relationship with the number of tablets used. Results: 242 patients participated in the study, the majority of whom were women (59.5%). Furthermore, 94.2% of patients reported total or partial improvement in symptoms with the use of lactase. The most frequent symptom was flatulence, however, this had no significant relationship with the amount of lactase ingested. Diarrhea, on the other hand, showed that it requires more pills to improve significantly. Conclusion: most patients improve with the use of the enzyme before meals containing milk (94.2%) and diarrhea is the best symptom to quantify the lactase tablets that each patient should use.