Lactose Intolerance – Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Treatment

Abstract

The majority (about 70%) of the world’s population suffers from lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance leads to long-term discomfort when consuming milk and dairy products, and hence, to their avoidance. Consequently, the intake of important nutrients is reduced, which potentially has a negative impact on the overall health. Knowing the condition – lactose intolerance – will prevent people from unnecessarily restricting dairy products in their diets. In this study, lactose synthesis and catabolism in the human body are presented, also the types of lactose intolerance, as well as the methods of diagnosing this condition, are discussed. Special attention is paid to the genetic causes of this discomfort and to the tests that can be performed. Solutions for the treatment of lactose intolerance have also been proposed, both up-to-date and easily applicable, as well as future developments.

KEY TEACHING POINTS

• This review highlights the lactose pathway – from the mammary gland production to recipient gut hydrolysis.

• Lactose intolerance associated SNPs known so far are presented and discussed.

• Advice for people with lactose intolerance is presented in the form of possible treatments and healthy feeding behaviors.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Lactose intolerance
• single nucleotide polymorphism
• lactose metabolism
• lactase gene
• lactose intolerance treatment

Authors’ contributions

The idea and design were from ZC. ZC and RI collected and sorted data. RI prepared the figures and tables. KG made revision of the manuscript and proposed to restructure for greater clarity. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The article was performed as a part of Assen Zlatarov University project NIH460/2021.