pc@hplabsb.UUCP (Patricia Collins) (01/13/84)
Lactose intolerance is the result of insufficient lactase --an enzyme most of us have early in life, but which decreases as we get older (and in fact nearly disappears in MOST people). I drank LOTS of milk until it was discovered that I had a lactose intolerance. Like others on the net, I was diagnosed as having a nervous stomach. So nervous, that the doctor decided I had an ulcer and operated!! Long after they cut my vagus nerve (although no ulcer was found), I finally found out what the real problem was. In addition to intolerance being widespread among the Mongolian and Negroid races, I understand that American Indians suffer the same intolerance. The problem is also common among Southern Europeans, as someone else pointed out.