Lactose intolerance is a common digestive problem. It’s not an allergic reaction to lactose (milk sugar). Instead it’s your inability to digest lactose because you have low levels of lactase, the enzyme responsible for breaking-down lactose in your body. If the lactose you eat can’t be digested normally, it passes through your body causing digestive discomfort and producing acidic stools.

The symptoms of lactose intolerance tend to be quite general, with common symptoms including bloating, stomach pain and diarrhoea. And some people with lactose intolerance are actually able to consume some lactose without experiencing ill side-effects. If you’re found to be lactose intolerant, often you won’t necessarily need to avoid dairy products altogether. With some careful experimentation, you should be able to find out how much lactose your body can tolerate without any adverse symptoms. In general, people who have a mild lactose intolerance tend to be able to handle fermented dairy products like live yoghurts better than fresh dairy products like milk.

The lactose intolerance test is a stool acidity analysis. You do not need to bring a stool sample with you to your health check. Instead, you will be given a self-collection kit with full instructions on how to collect a small sample at home, which you can then post to our lab for analysis.