| If you're familiar with lactose intolerance, you | | | | foods are not eaten regularly, demineralization can |
| know that this hereditary deficiency in the | | | | result in microscopic fractures in the vertebrae |
| enzymes that enable the body to digest the | | | | that cause persistent, usually mild, back pain. |
| lactose sugars in dairy products commonly results | | | | Lactose intolerance is also a factor in back pain in |
| in flatulence, diarrhea, and bloating. | | | | men who receive hormone therapy for prostate |
| In a small number of the lactose intolerant, | | | | cancer. Men who are giving feminizing hormones |
| however, particularly among lactose intolerant | | | | have much the same risk for osteoporosis as |
| children between the ages of 3 and 10 in China | | | | women of the same age. |
| and Japan, the most common symptom is | | | | But lactose intolerance is a significant risk factor |
| abdominal pain that may be referred by the | | | | for fractures of the lumbar spine for anyone over |
| central nervous system to the back. | | | | 50, including, according to Drs. Karry Jackson and |
| Otherwise, lactose intolerance may be related to | | | | Dennis Savaiano of Purdue University, 69 per cent |
| back pain in a different way, through | | | | of women who are lactose intolerant. Dairy |
| osteoporosis. | | | | products providing nearly three-fourths of the |
| Researchers at Purdue have found that girls as | | | | calcium in a Western diet, anyone who has not |
| young as 10 to 13 who cannot tolerate milk | | | | made adjustments to get enough of the mineral |
| already have mineral deficiencies in their bones. | | | | is at risk for lower back pain and associated |
| Over the course of a lifetime, if other calcium-rich | | | | problems. |