Lactose intolerance is a relatively common digestive problem in which you aren't able to consume dairy products without significant discomfort due to gas, cramping and bloating. There are a few ways you can deal with lactose intolerance, but taking supplemental amino acids isn't one of them -- except in a very roundabout fashion.
Lactose
Lactose is milk sugar. It's a disaccharide, meaning it's made up of two sugar units. The smaller sugar units of lactose are called glucose -- which is nearly ubiquitous in nature and is also found in table sugar and starch -- and galactose. When you consume lactose, you digest it in the small intestine, using the enzyme lactase, which your digestive tract cells produce.
Lactose Intolerance
Some individuals can't digest lactose because they don't produce sufficient lactase. As a result, the lactose passes undigested into the large intestine, where native bacteria break it down. This results in the production of large quantities of gas, leading to cramping, bloating and general intestinal discomfort. Though lactose intolerance isn't an allergy, it can be quite uncomfortable, and it isn't treatable.
Amino Acid Supplements
Amino acid supplements aren't a viable treatment for lactose intolerance, nor are they a valid mechanism for relieving discomfort, because the only way to avoid the symptoms of lactose intolerance are to avoid dairy, to use only lactose-free dairy, or to take supplemental lactase -- the lactose-digesting enzyme -- in pill form. Amino acids themselves won't do anything; while they're the building blocks of proteins, they don't do anything in the digestive tract and can't react with lactose.
A Caveat
In a very roundabout way, amino acids can help with lactose intolerance, but not when taken as pure amino acids in supplement form. Enzymes are proteins, and proteins are made up of amino acids. As such, if you take supplemental lactase for your lactose intolerance, you're actually taking amino acids. However, you're taking them pre-assembled into the lactase enzyme, which is the only way in which amino acids can do you any good with regard to lactose intolerance.
References
- "Human Physiology"; Lauralee Sherwood; 2004
- "Biochemistry"; Reginald Garrett and Charles Grisham; 2007
