How to Tell if You Have a Casein or Whey Allergy
Casein is a milk protein found in the solid part of the milk, the curds. Whey is a protein found in the liquid part of milk, often referred to as milk plasma. If you have a casein or whey allergy, you are essentially allergic to milk. This is different from lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerant people do not have the right enzymes to break down lactose, a sugar found in milk. They experience extensive digestive issues because of it. A milk allergy is the immune system reacting to the proteins in milk, like casein and whey, as if they were infectious agents.
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Instructions
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Recognize the symptoms of milk allergies. After consuming a milk product, you may be nauseous, develop skin irritation or have trouble breathing. A few hours after ingestion, you may develop an itchy rash around your mouth or labored breathing. Loose stools are often associated with milk allergies, and your stool might even contain blood.
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Keep a food diary so that you can track what you are eating and how it makes you feel. Write down the contents of each meal and any allergy symptoms each day. This will help you make a connection between what you are eating and how you are feeling.
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Seek help from your doctor. Explain your symptoms and the information that you collected in your food diary. Clinical diagnoses are used to determine allergies. This means that your doctor will do a series of evaluations to eliminate other possibilities as well as use his own observations to make the determination. First, he will give you a thorough exam to rule out any obvious health conditions. Then he will give you a food allergy skin test. He will prick the skin on your forearm or back with small pure amounts of allergens, including casein and whey. Later, he will read your skin test to see which allergens caused skin irritation or bumps. In some cases, he will also run a blood test that measures the amount of casein or whey antibodies in your blood. High levels indicate that your immune system is reacting to these proteins. After taking into account all of these tests and evaluations, your doctor will make the determination if you are allergic to milk proteins.
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Tips & Warnings
Those who have immediate relatives, such as siblings or parents, with allergies to milk proteins are more likely to have them than those who do not.
