Lactose intolerance is a digestive disorder that results from an inability to produce sufficient quantities of the digestive enzyme lactose. While it's certainly possible to have both lactose intolerance and anxiety, there's no direct scientific connection between the two. Lactose intolerance can't cause anxiety, and anxiety can't cause true lactose intolerance.
Lactose Intolerance
Lactose intolerance is a relatively common digestive enzyme deficiency, though it's not nearly as prevalent as generally believed. True lactose intolerance is distinct from milk allergy and digestive upset upon consuming milk that's not directly related to inability to digest lactose. True intolerance stems from insufficient production of the lactase enzyme, according to MayoClinic.com. You need lactase to break down lactose, and you have to break down lactose to absorb it.
Lactose Intolerance Symptoms
If you have lactose intolerance, you'll experience symptoms such as cramping, gas and bloating or diarrhea upon consuming milk and other lactose-containing dairy products. The discomfort is the result of undigested lactose passing into the large intestine, where resident bacteria break it down to fulfill their energy needs. In the process, they produce a large quantity of gas, which fills the large intestine and leads to bloating and cramping.
Anxiety
Anxiety in one sense is nothing more than a natural reaction to stress. An anxiety disorder, however, occurs when you feel anxiety chronically, and for no recognizable reason, according to PubMed Health, a consumer health website produced by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. There are many ways in which chronic anxiety or an anxiety disorder can manifest itself. These include classic symptoms of anxiousness, such as a racing heart, rapid breathing and a general feeling of nervousness. They also include heart palpitations, nausea and headaches.
Relationship
There's no direct relationship between lactose intolerance and anxiety. One can't cause the other, and there's no likely common cause of the two. However, because anxiety can give you gastrointestinal symptoms in a general sense, you may feel as though you've developed lactose intolerance because you're more gassy, crampy or bloated than normal. Anxiety-related digestive disorders aren't true lactose intolerance, however, because they don't stem from inability to produce enough lactase enzyme.
