Lactose In Some Of My Meds & Gfdf Diet

[terps19]

Both wellbutrin and ativan contain lactose and I have a casein intolerance. Would taking these meds darmatically delay my progress of healing on my Gluten-free Casein-free diet?

[tarnalberry]

it's a personal call. I'm Gluten-free Casein-free as well, but do not avoid the casein in pharmaceuticals that I *have* to take. pharmaceutical grade lactose is much purer than food grade lactose, and is *very* unlikely to have the dairy protein in it. additionally, casein does not cause intestinal damage (it has been medically reported to do so - it is *very* rare). finally, the amounts in the pills you are taking would be quite small.

it does, however, remain a personal decision, and you can always talk to your doctor about whether or not you can get your medications compounded. it may be more expensive, but they would be able to make it without lactose for you.

[terps19]

I think I will continue using the meds I am now. Do you have any symptoms after going Gluten-free Casein-free? How did you find out you needed that diet?

[tarnalberry]

I was gluten-free for a year after recommendations from other people, a trial diet, and blood tests, still experiencing some sympjtoms (but a bit different from gluten - more constipation, slightly different stomach symptoms that would fall in the 'celiac symptom' list, but not symptoms that *I* got from gluten), and did an elmination diet to find out that dairy was a problem.

[Guest greengirl]

Question about casein:

Does a product that says "dairy free" or "milk free" mean that it must also be casein free? Or can there still be casein in it? (Just like 'wheat free' doesn't necessarily mean 'gluten free'). Are there any tricky ingredients I should watch for?

My daughter came back casein intolerant from the Enterolab test and we're trying to get a handle on it. Is there a good list of products somewhere online that lists both gluten and casein free foods? I noticed Clan Thompson's list specifies gluten and vegetarian, but not casein, as far as I could tell.

Christine

[tarnalberry]

"dairy free" and "milk free" does NOT mean casein free, it only means that it has less than 0.5% lactose. it tells you nothing about casein, and such foods usually DO have casein in them. (soy cheese and 'non-dairy creamer' usually say 'dairy free' but have casein or casein derivatives added to them.) ALWAYS read the ingredient list.

[mmaccartney]

I'm with Tiffany, it is a choice. I am casein intolerant, but lately I've been taking meds with lactose in them. I *think* that lactose and casein are different. Going on that I decided that taking the pills with lactose in them should be OK. I haven't had any major reactions while on the meds, some slight nasuea one day.

For me it was also weighing the benifits against the possible reaction to the lactose. I took some antibiotics with lactose in them for a sinus infection, when 2 other antibiotics didn't get rid of it. I'm also taking a steroid that has lactose in it for my recent arthritis flare up.

Lastly, the FDA does allow people to label products as dairy free even though they contain casein, such as Non-Dairy coffee creamers. What, they think people won't react to them???

[tarnalberry]

  mmaccartney said:

I'm with Tiffany, it is a choice. I am casein intolerant, but lately I've been taking meds with lactose in them. I *think* that lactose and casein are different. Going on that I decided that taking the pills with lactose in them should be OK. I haven't had any major reactions while on the meds, some slight nasuea one day.

...

Lastly, the FDA does allow people to label products as dairy free even though they contain casein, such as Non-Dairy coffee creamers. What, they think people won't react to them???

yep - lactose is milk sugar, casein is a milk protein. lactose intolerance is when you don't have an enzyme to split up the complex sugar so a bacteria in your intestines does it instead, producing gas as a by product. ('harmless', just very annoying.) casein intolerance is an IgG mediate immune response.

the FDA label definition was written years ago and had nothing to do with casein. it's entirely designed for people with lactose intolerance. the FDA wasn't recognizing casein intolerance in the least when they designed that label defintion.

[Guest greengirl]

  tarnalberry said:

yep - lactose is milk sugar, casein is a milk protein. lactose intolerance is when you don't have an enzyme to split up the complex sugar so a bacteria in your intestines does it instead, producing gas as a by product. ('harmless', just very annoying.) casein intolerance is an IgG mediate immune response.

the FDA label definition was written years ago and had nothing to do with casein. it's entirely designed for people with lactose intolerance. the FDA wasn't recognizing casein intolerance in the least when they designed that label defintion.

So, if I see lactose on the label is that okay for my casein intolerant daughter?

And if it says dairy free on the label then what ingredients should I look for to indicate casein?

Christine

[terps19]

  greengirl said:

So, if I see lactose on the label is that okay for my casein intolerant daughter?

And if it says dairy free on the label then what ingredients should I look for to indicate casein?

Christine

If it says dairy free there is no casien or any milk product in the food. If it says lactose free then definately look for casienates or any other milk ingredient. Whenever I take my meds (when I eat food) I take a digestive enzyme that contain lactase.

[tarnalberry]

  terps19 said:

If it says dairy free there is no casien or any milk product in the food. If it says lactose free then definately look for casienates or any other milk ingredient. Whenever I take my meds (when I eat food) I take a digestive enzyme that contain lactase.

That's not true. Dairy-free may still contain sodium caseinate, for instance, which is a casein derivative.

I don't have the casein-derivative list, but if you google for it, you'll get a number of sights for milk allergies that will give you a list of the ingredients you need to avoid for a casein allergy.

[Guest greengirl]

Thanks!

More information on milk that may be helpful to others:

Open Original Shared Link

Christine