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. 2018 Dec 11;10(12):1956.
doi: 10.3390/nu10121956.

Gender, Age, Race and Lactose Intolerance: Is There Evidence to Support a Differential Symptom Response? A Scoping Review

Rebecca A Lapides  1 , Dennis A Savaiano  2
Affiliations

Gender, Age, Race and Lactose Intolerance: Is There Evidence to Support a Differential Symptom Response? A Scoping Review

Rebecca A Lapides et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Research evaluating the relationship between lactose intolerance (LI) symptoms and age, gender and race is reviewed. An exhaustive search was conducted on the Google Scholar and PubMed databases. The evidence suggests that women, the elderly or specific racial groups are not more susceptible to LI, but rather dose, body size and genetic differences in lactase non-persistence (LNP) are the primary drivers of intolerance symptoms.

Keywords: Lactose intolerance; age; gender; race.

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Conflict of interest statement

Rebecca Lapides declares no conflict of interest. Dennis Savaiano serves on the Ritter Pharmaceuticals Medical Advisory Board and the Danone North America Nutrition Advisory Board.

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