ABSTRACT

Dear Reader,

Lactose intolerance is well-known for decades. Difficulty to metabolize lactose due to a genetic disorder, though exists in a large population, has not been taken too seriously. Reason being, it’s not a fatal disorder and the intolerance leads to some amount of bloating, indigestion, maybe a bit of acidity, and distaste to drink milk. However, as science and technology progressed, one of the numerous causes for fatalities of newly born infants and children have come to the forefront. Though rare, genetic (inherited) disorders in which the body cannot turn food into energy and metabolize, have been detected. These are referred as inborn errors of metabolism (IEM). Such disorders are usually caused by defects in specific proteins (enzymes) that help breakdown (metabolize) parts of food. Examples include organic acidurias, fatty acid oxidation defect, urea cycle disorder, mitochondrial disease, galactosemia, maple sugar urine disease (maple sugar disorder), fructose intolerance, phenyl ketone urea amongst others