Lactose Intolerant?

I have to start this post off by saying I've never been terribly fond of milk.  Part of that I'm sure is due to our family being raised on a product called Powdered Milk.  I don't think any of my siblings like milk very much.  Ever since I left home I've bought milk from the store (either 2% or skim depending on who I was living with at the time).

But even with the regular milk, the only time I really ingested milk was a little bit with cereal, cooking with it, hot chocolate (which barely counts), or chocolate milk.  I never drank a glass with a meal or even with cookies or brownies like some people.  I'd much rather drink water any day.

All that stopped when I started herbalife a while ago.  The nutrition shakes are a powder that you mix with milk.  I drink 2 shakes a day and each shake is 8 oz of milk per day.  I started noticing changes in how I felt.  I was getting nauseated and gassy after I drank the shakes.  I changed to soy milk and all the sick feelings went away.

Now, I've started up on herbalife again.  I tried milk again because I haven't had any sick feelings since the original feelings.  After about 4 days of shakes, once again I'm nauseated and gassy.  I'm ready to change back to soy milk again.  I did a little research and I have all the signs of lactose intolerance.  The level of it varies from person to person  I guess I only show signs when I drink a fair amount of it.  I never have those feelings when I just have other small quantities of dairy in any form.

I guess I'm lucky to be able to monitor what I eat and know how to deal with it.  It could definitely be worse.  I'm 34 and I just learned I'm lactose interlerant.