Millions of people in the country are lactose intolerant or have digestive problems when they drink milk. If you child is one of these people, by simply heating the milk before she drinks it, she may be able to drink it without having the normal lactose intolerance problems.

This data is originating from a recent report in the Allergy and Clinical Immunology publication. As reported in the research article, when normal milk was heated and provided to kids who had cow milk allergies, three of four of them no longer exhibited allergy symptoms. Under normal situations, when a milk allergy sensitive child drinks milk, his antibodies go into action to attack the milk proteins. This is what causes the allergy symptoms. The theory is that when milk is treated past a specified temperature, the heat destroys the milk proteins that normally trigger the allergy symptoms.

Next the researchers had to test this theory. And they did so by slowly introducing the way the gave the heated milk to the kids. They started by giving the heated milk to the children indirectly through other food products. For example, they would heat milk, and then add the heated milk to various recipes such as muffins, pancakes, and others. If the children had no reaction from eating foods containing heated milk, they then had them drink the heated milk directly. As theorized, most of the participants had no reaction to the heated milk.

Up to now, if a lactose intolerant person wanted to drink milk, they did have choices. These choices usually came down to one of the following four options:  1) They could do what many people do and simply avoid milk products altogether. 2) They could drink milk and simply suffer the consequences of bloating, cramps, upset stomach, diarrhea, and so on. 3) They could orally take food enzymes that enable them to pre-digest the milk proteins. 4) They could purchase the more expensive milk that have milk enzymes added to them.

We should, of course, mention that there are many people in the health field who think that humans have no business drinking milk from a cow. And, what they suggest is that if you really desire the taste of a milk like product that you try one of the many milk substitutes in the stores such as soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and so on. But for those that want cow's milk, the study could provide them with new food options.

Up to this point, its long been thought that if a person was allergic to milk, it didn't matter whether the milk was cold, warm, hot, or whatever. At the very least the study forces researchers to rethink some of their earliest assumptions about milk allergies and how to handle them.

And, even though this particular milk study was relatively tiny, consisting of just a hundred children, if larger follow up studies are done and reflect the same results, an entire new class of products could hit the market targeted at the millions of people who love to drink milk but are lactose intolerant.

But that could be only the tip of the iceberg. This study could also lead to entirely new ways of managing and controlling lactose intolerance in both adults and children.