37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works great but other issues..., 10 Feb 2010
By Larry - Published on Amazon.com
Started using this product for my son about a month ago. It's working quite well. He is back to drinking milk as you'd expect with a pre-teen. I do not question the efficacy of this products, however I do have some questions about how this product is delivered and the dosing.
The product was purchased through an Amazon 3rd party seller, but the fulfillment was through Amazon. It arrived quickly, and was well packaged. The bottles had a white SKU label placed over the manufacturers label which obscured most of the information (e.g. dosing) provided by the manufacturer. The extra label is not easily removed. This isn't a huge deal, but I'm not a big fan of a manufacturers information being obscured. I don't know if this extra label comes from the reseller or Amazon, but it is unwelcome.
My second concern comes from the supplied bottle cap dropper and dosing instructions. As others have mentioned, the manufacturer recommends 5 drops/pint. The label also states that a serving size is 5 drops with 60 servings per bottle (15 ml) or 300 drops per bottle which would treat 7.5 gallons of milk. On my second bottle of Liquid Lactase I decided to keep track of how many drops I was getting out of a bottle. My bottle ran empty after about 200 drops, or about 1/3 less than the manufacturer states. The scientist in me decided to experiment. Using a syringe I injected 15 ml of water back into the empty bottle. The fill level was similar to unopened bottles so I'm not questioning the amount of product supplied. I then used the bottle cap dropper to count how many drops made up a bottle and repeated the procedure twice. I counted around 200 drops which would only treat about 5 gallons of milk. It turns out a standard drop size doesn't exist, and is dependent on many factors which would vary depending on the liquid being dispensed and the dropper itself. My guess is that at some point Pharmax may have changed suppliers for their droppers and ended up with one that had a different spec. For me the 5 drops / pint recommendation is actually overdosing a fair amount and no harm comes from this other than from your wallet. It is worth checking your own bottles as this could be different depending on the manufacturing lot. I've switched from using the supplied dropper to using a 3CC oral syringe. 2 ml of liquid lactase would match the recommended dose of using 40 drops to treat 1 gallon of milk.
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
one batch didn't work, one batch did, 19 Jan 2011
By Johanna Epps - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lactase Drops 15 ml - For Infant to Adult Lactose Intolerance - 76 Servings (Personal Care)
I bought this "Liquid Lactase" as part of a science experiment to show how lactase breaks down milk sugar into glucose and galactose. I added the product to milk and waited more than 24 hours and then I tested the milk with a glucose test strip and a glucose blood meter. I found no evidence of glucose in the milk which suggests the "Liquid Lactase" did not break down the milk sugar (lactose) the way it is supposed to do.
I tested a different brand of lactase enzyme from Natures Way and it broke down the milk sugar into glucose very quickly so I know my test works. From my tests, it appears that there is no viable lactase enzyme in this "Liquid Lactase." My bottle was from Lot #8901510. You can do the test yourself on lactase products to see if they really contain lactase. All you need is some Diastix Reagent Strips for Glucose. You can buy them at most drug stores. Test the milk before you add the lactase enzyme and then test it again after you add the lactase enzyme. The longer you wait, the more glucose you will find. It also works more quickly if the milk is warm. Although don't heat up the milk past 130 degrees or you will risk destoying the enzyme.
I contacted the President of Seeking Health, Ben Lynch, and informed him of my test results. He said he was going to look into it.
P.S.(Jan 2012) I did this experiment again, 12 months later, with a new batch of the SeekingHealth liquid lactase drops and the new batch was effective in breaking down the lactose. In order to make sure that any lactase drops you are using actually have lactase enzyme, it might be wise to test milk with inexpensive glucose strips before and after adding the enzyme to see if it is really working. High temperatures during shipping can denature the enzyme.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bang for Buck Lactase free Milk, 3 Mar 2009
By M. Gozum - Published on Amazon.com
Bottle of Lactase, per labeled instructions, gives 5 gtts per pint. One bottle has 300 gtts or treats 7 gallons. 1 gallon of regular milk $4. Total cost of Pharmax treated milk, 7 gallons x $4 each, $28, + $13 for Pharmax lactase = $41/7 gallons or $5.86/gal. Lactaid is 3L for $6, or $7.60 gallon.
Is it the same as Lactaid? Yes, but the Pharmax treated milk is sweeter and some regular milk has slightly different tastes depending on the type of farm it comes from.
Technically, one may not need 5 gtts per pint of enzyme, and thus increase the cost effectiveness of the product. Further, lactose intolerance varies from person to person, some cannot digest any lactose at all, while some can tolerate more than others. Thus, milk can be anywhere from lactose free to lactose reduced.
Enzymes are not destroyed, but each 'unit' converts roughly at a fixed rate, so putting more drops accelerates conversion until the enyzme is feedback inhibited. However, if you store milk to allow more time for the enyzme to work, you can use far less drops per gallon. Just how much, has to be worked out, based on the concentration of enzymes in this product. So far, a user's recommendation of 10 gtts per gallon worked for me after standing for 3 days, and I am experimenting with even less lactase per gallon.
Lactaid milk also contains lactase used to digest the lactose. You can mix Lactaid with regular milk in another container, again depending on your tolerance for some lactose, allow the lactase in there to digest the lactose in regular milk. Experimenting, I found I can tolerate at least a 50/50 mix or even drink a mix directly without letting it stand.