As the Internet becomes more and more popular as a diagnostic tool, an increasing number of individuals attempt to self-diagnose their symptoms. Unfortunately, this often leads to misdiagnosis of health concerns. One particularly common self-diagnosis is lactose intolerance, which presents with digestive discomfort upon consumption of dairy products. If you have pulmonary symptoms in addition to your gut trouble, however, you don't have lactose intolerance.
Lactose Intolerance
Lactose intolerance occurs when you fail to produce lactase, the digestive enzyme that helps you digest milk sugar. If you're lactase-deficient, lactose from dairy that you consume passes through your digestive tract to the large intestine. There, bacteria break it down. In the process, they produce copious amounts of gas, which leads to symptoms including bloating and cramping. MayoClinic.com notes that because lactose intolerance is purely a digestion problem, the symptoms are purely digestive -- uncomfortable though they may be.
Milk Allergy
If you experience pulmonary symptoms in addition to digestive discomfort upon consuming milk, two possible explanations may be given. The first is that you may indeed be lactose intolerant and that your pulmonary symptoms are completely unrelated to the milk you're consuming. The second possible explanation is that you aren't lactose intolerant, but you instead have a milk allergy. MayoClinic.com notes that milk allergies -- which are immune-system reactions to the proteins in milk -- can cause gut discomfort as well as wheezing and difficulty breathing.
Determining What You Have
If you are concerned that milk consumption may be causing respiratory problems, it's best not to experiment on your own. Milk allergies can be quite severe and in some cases may result in life-threatening symptoms including closing of the throat and difficulty breathing. If you've had trouble breathing or have experienced coughing or wheezing after consuming milk, see a doctor. Your physician can test you for a milk allergy and help you determine whether the milk is responsible for your symptoms.
Lactose Intolerance Insight
The reason lactose intolerance can't cause pulmonary symptoms is that when you're lactose intolerant, you fail to digest and absorb the lactose in the food you eat. While this can cause uncomfortable digestive symptoms, there's no way it can affect the lungs -- neither the lactose nor any lactose digestion product enters the bloodstream. Further, while allergies activate the immune system, which can affect the lungs, failure to absorb lactose or any other component of food means that the troublesome component remains isolated in the digestive tract and can't lead to symptoms elsewhere.
