May 16, 2011
If you think you are lactose intolerant a new study suggests it might be all in your head.
Researchers say some people who think they are lactose intolerant might actually suffer from a psychological condition known as somatoform disorder.
They studied more than a hundred patients who took a breath test commonly used to identify lactose intolerance.
Patients took the breath test and answered questions about anxiety and depression.
One-third of the participants were diagnosed with lactose-intolerance or a form of malabsorption.
Those with a form of somatoform disorder were four times more likely to say they had lactose intolerance.
Study authors now plan to investigate why some patients focus on food as a cause of their symptoms.