Friday, March 22, 2024

How To Relieve Bloating Pain

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Nix The Carbonated Or Sugary Drinks

Chugging fizzy beverages might make you feel better temporarily, but theyll leave you way more bloated than before, says Dr. Smith. The same goes for sugary drinks like Gatorade. Dont let brands that use artificial sweeteners fool youthey too cause you to puff up, says Dr. Smith.

Instead, rely on your good buddy water, and aim for eight glasses a day. Mix in some green, peppermint, or fennel tea to help eliminate inflammatory mediators, says Dr. Ross.

They Can Harm The Brain

In young people, the use of nicotine can impact the reward system in the brain. In time, this can make the use of other drugs, such as cocaine, more pleasurable, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse .

In addition, nicotine use can affect areas of a young personâs brain that are responsible for attention and learning.

It may also increase the risk of developing mood disorders and problems with impulse control.

Eat Several Small Meals

To keep your metabolism revving throughout the day, focus on small, protein- and fiber-packed snacks or small meals every 3 to 4 hours. You will not only burn more calories eating a series of smaller meals, but also avoid the afternoon crash and end of the workday slump.

Eat This! Tip: Use your smartphone or computer to remind you of these intervals. Some go-to healthy snack ideas include:

  • Apple with peanut butter

Quitting Smoking May Be Harder

People who switch from traditional cigarettes to e-products may put off getting medical help or trying proven tools that can help with quitting. This can delay or even prevent a person from quitting smoking.

A found that people who use or have used e-cigarettes are less likely to stop smoking altogether.

Home Remedies For Bloating

How to reduce stomach acidity and gas naturally

Home Remedies

That feeling when your jeans just dont fit like they did last weekwomen know it well. Being more prone to bloating than men, women are likely to experience several of these days each month around the time Mother Nature arrives for her monthly visit. Although bloating is normal, the feeling is still unpleasant. Thankfully, there are some easy at-home remedies for reducing bloating.

Diagnosing Gas Gas Pains And Bloating

Even though gas and bloating are common, a medical evaluation may sometimes be necessary. If you experience blood in the stool, diarrhea, fevers, anemia, or weight loss, you should talk to a doctor.

Medical History & Physical Exam

First, your doctor will review your medical history and ask questions about your symptoms and dietary habits.

The doctor may also examine your abdomen for tenderness or anything that feels abnormal.  A stethoscope may be used to help the doctor determine how well the digestive tract is working.

The results of these preliminary tests will help determine the next level of diagnosis if necessary.

Additional Tests for Gas, Gas Pains, and Bloating
  • Breath tests Breath tests can help determine problems of malabsorption or intestinal bacteria overgrowth.
  • Colonoscopy In patients 50 or older, or who have a family history of colorectal cancer, the possibility of colon cancer may be considered.
  • Imaging If chronic belching is a problem, x-rays may be used to inspect the small intestine, stomach, and esophagus. This is known as an upper GI series

Reduce The Intake Of Salt

Many a time, we consume foods that have a high sodium quantity not realizing that sodium is one of the key perpetrators of bloating and gas in the stomach. In fact, most of us tend to consume foods that may not taste salty at all, however, they contain a large amount of sodium in it.

For instance, soups, bagels, and bread rolls are high in sodium. In order to get instant relief from bloating, start reducing your intake of salt in all forms. The reason behind this is that sodium affects the ability of your kidneys to get rid of the fluids and toxins from your body.

Keeping sodium levels well within control can help your body stay healthy in the long run. However, even a slight increase in the intake of salt can start making you feel bloated and full. Therefore, it is best to avoid salty foods and keep stomach disorders at bay.

In case you have consumed a lot of salty foods, there are a few quick ways to help you feel lighter:

Home Remedies To Improve Appetite

If a persons loss of appetite has a specific underlying cause, addressing it may improve this symptom. This may mean seeking medical treatment for physical health conditions, seeing a therapist or counselor, or speaking with a doctor about adjusting the type or dosage of a current medication.

People can also take steps to stimulate their appetite at home, including those below.

However, anyone who experiences a persistent loss of appetite should consider contacting their doctor as the first step.

Ways To Relieve Gas Pain And Bloating

Listed below are the answers on how to relieve gas and bloating

Cut down these foods from your diet

Sugar

One of the ways to relieve gas and bloating is reducing sugar intake, and it should be extremely limited in everyones diet. However, you should get rid of them completely if you suffer from constant gas and bloating. Not only are sugars difficult to digest, but they are also the food of choice for harmful bacteria, parasites, and yeasts.

Milk and milk products

Intolerance to milk or dairy products should not be new to you. Its one of the most common food intolerances of all time. Lactose is the sugar in milk that is so difficult to digest. Given the frequency of lactose intolerance, there is a good chance you have some level of intolerance that is adding to your constant gas and bloating.

Grain

Reducing the intake of grains is one of the reliefs for gas and bloating. Grains are generally more difficult to digest. For example, more than 50% of the population has difficulty digesting wheat. There are many traditional methods such as soaking to make the grains easier to digest.

Beans and legumes

Beans and legumes are inherently harder to digest, and reducing them is one of the reliefs for gas and bloating. Because of this, they are usually cooked for a long time. There are many traditional methods like soaking to make beans and legumes more digestible.

Don’t Multitask When Eating

“I’m almost never just eating a mealI’m also on my computer or watching television or scrolling through my phone,” admits Lindsey Metrus, Byrdie’s senior editor. After a lifetime of bloat, she decided to try traditional Chinese medicine to ward off some of her discomfort. It turns out, the distraction was part of the problem. “Multitasking with some sort of digital distraction leads to overeating or scarfing down food hurriedly, which translates to poor digestion. It’s also one of the main reasons people face spleen qi deficiency,” according to Emma Suttie, D.Ac., AP.

Metrus continues, “I made it a point to enjoy as many meals as I could peacefully and undistracted, focusing on chewing each piece of food since breaking down foods before they get to the spleen means the spleen has less work to do.” Not only will chewing slowly encourage healthier digestion and, in turn, less bloat, but it will also speed up your metabolism .

Cook At Home More Often

Of course, not everyone has the time or ability to make home-cooked meals nightly. But when you can, try to make it a habit, as making your own meals can drastically decrease bloating.

People are often unaware of hidden salt in restaurant meals, as well as in processed foods, Dr. Streicher says. Of course, thats why restaurant meals taste so good, but if you do your own cooking you can make sure not to over-salt your food, which can make a huge difference as far as keeping bloating down.

These Steps Will Show You How To Reduce Bloating

When you’re trying to ease the pressure off of your bloated tum , you’ll want to rely on these digestion-promoting methods to help you reduce bloating in just 24 hours. Here, we help you identify which habits and foods can help reduce bloating and rev up your metabolism along the way.

Hopefully, after you follow a few of our 25 tips on how to reduce bloating there will be minimal instances of trying to squeeze into your favorite pair of jeans.

Immune Activation In The Gut

Pin on Relieve gas and bloating

A final kind of clinical question here then we can move to a few closing bits. Immune activation in the gut is something that I think thwarts some patients from seeing the level of improvement they would like. I guess another way of describing inflammation is immune activation, theyre kind of the same thing. What Im meaning, more specifically, when I say immune activation is how that label could pertain to some of the corresponding treatments. Histamine has been shown to be an issue for a subgroup of IBS patients. We know that a low FODMAP diet can lead to an appreciable decrease in histamine levels. A low histamine diet can improve symptoms and also increase the amount of histamine digesting enzymes, specifically DAO, that the patient releases. There may even be some type of healing impact that can be imparted by a low histamine diet.

Then, we have certain immunoglobulin formulas, like ImmunoLin, that are showing the ability to bind toxins in the gut and, theoretically, they help to improve symptoms by reducing immune activation. If you bind to the irritant, then the irritant cant trigger the immune system to cause this whole cascade of inflammation and leaky gut and what have you. Is there anything here that you think is interesting, or that youre experimenting with?

DrMR: Sure. You have maybe a loose algorithm. But then you have to personalize how thats applied based upon the individual.

DrPW: Absolutely.

Yoga Poses To Relieve Gas

Maybe youre wondering how to remove gas in your stomach instantly or are looking for positions to relieve gas cramps. Perhaps you want to try some exercises to get rid of gas and bloating. It sounds like yoga is exactly what you need! If youve ever been to a yoga class, youve probably either actively tried to hold in a fart or been the victim of the gas of your classmates. So really, it shouldnt be surprising to find out that several poses relieve gas by assisting with the release of trapped air.

Here are some examples of yoga poses to relieve gas: 

  • Wind-Relieving Pose
  • Two-Knee Spinal Twist Pose
  • Happy Baby Pose

Don’t Suddenly Overdo It On The Fiber

If you’re feeling bloated, it might seem like a good idea to load up on as many fruits and veggies as you can to get your system movin’but that tactic might backfire.

It’s certainly good to have a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet, but if you suddenly begin eating them in mass quantities during your period, you may experience increased bloating simply because your body isnt used to the fiber, says Sara Twogood, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

Eat At Regular Intervals

Many people experience bloating directly after a big meal. It is possible to avoid this by eating several smaller meals each day, which can help to keep the digestive system moving.

Swallowing food quickly can introduce air into the digestive tract. Drinking from a straw can also lead to people swallowing more air, which in turn leads to gas and bloating. People who have bloating should avoid using straws if possible and try eating slowly to avoid swallowing air during meals.

Living Without A Gallbladder

A person can survive without a gallbladder. The liver produces enough bile to digest a normal diet. If a persons gallbladder is removed, the bile reaches the small intestine from the liver via the hepatic ducts, rather than being stored in the gallbladder.

A small proportion of people who have had their gallbladder removed will experience softer and more frequent stools for a while because their bile flows into the small intestine more often.

Now Supplements Orange Chewable Vitamin C

People who do not like swallowing tablets may prefer a chewable vitamin. This product delivers 500 mg of vitamin C per chewable tablet. A person can take one or two per day.

The product is free from common allergens and suitable for vegans. It does contain some sugar and natural sweeteners, though this only totals 1 gram per dose. The tablets have a natural orange flavor.

According to the website, NOW exceeds GMP standards and tests all raw ingredients for safety and purity.

  • half a cup of raw sweet red pepper, which contains 95 mg of vitamin C
  • three-quarters of a cup of orange juice, which contains 93 mg of vitamin C
  • half a cup of broccoli and half a cup of strawberries, which totals 97 mg of vitamin C
  • one medium orange and half a cup of cooked cabbage, which totals 98 mg of vitamin C

Some companies also fortify their breakfast cereals with added vitamin C.

High heat, water-based cooking methods, as well as prolonged storage, can destroy some foods vitamin C content.

For this reason, the NIH suggests lightly steaming or microwaving vegetables to retain more of their nutrients.

Vitamin C deficiency can be fatal without treatment. A person should contact a doctor if they have symptoms that may indicate a vitamin C deficiency.

These symptoms include:

Why Do You Get A Bloated Stomach

Bloat sneaks up on you in surprising ways, depending on what you eat, certain habits you have, and even specific medical conditions. For example, bloating can be a result of digestive distress from eating certain foods , eating habits that cause you to take in more air, and even certain conditions such as a weak heart or being pregnant can all contribute to water retention.

Women can also retain water while they’re menstruating. Those who have irritable bowel syndrome can also experience uncomfortable bouts of bloating after eating foods that contain FODMAPS or during moments of stress.

How To Get Rid Of Gas Conventionally

When gas pains are severe and reoccur frequently, a trip to the doctor is in order. It is important to receive a proper diagnosis for the cause of the gas pain as some potentially serious conditions can present with bloating and pain.

In addition to a medical history and physical examination to check for distension, your physician will review your diet and perhaps order tests. Commonly requested tests include: blood tests, lactose intolerance tests, fructose malabsorption tests, colon cancer screening and, in some cases, an upper GI series of X-rays.

If persistent gas pain is determined to be caused by an underlying health condition, successful treatment of the condition should help to relieve symptoms. In other cases, your physician will often recommended dietary changes, lifestyle modifications and over-the-counter medications.

Medications recommended may include:

  • Beano: Made from a sugar digesting enzyme, this medication may be recommended to help you digest the sugar in vegetables and beans.
  • Lactase Supplements: A supplement made from lactase, the digestive enzyme that helps to breakdown lactose.
  • Bisumth Subsalicylate : A medication that generally reduces the odor of flatus. This medication should not be taken long-term or if you have an allergy to aspirin.
  • Simethicone Antacids : Medications that help to break up the bubbles in the gas, making it easier to expel.
  • Antibiotics: In you have SIBO or another infection.

What Even Causes Gas Pain

HOW TO REDUCE BLOATING! Bloating is the trapping of gas in ...

Why does gas sometimes hurt so bad that you want to cry and check yourself into the ER? Good question. There are a few main causes of gas to keep in mind:

1. Youre swallowing a lot of air: We touched on this above, but its worth emphasizing as a gas pain cause. While its unlikely that youre actually trying to suck down a bunch of oxygen, certain habits like regularly using a straw, drinking a lot of carbonated beverages, eating too quickly, and chewing gum can cause you to take in more air than normal. When this causes gas, its typically via burping, since the air comes back up before it can go all the way to your stomach.

2. Youre eating foods youre sensitive to: Your stomach and small intestine dont entirely break down certain carbohydrates you eat, so they end up getting to your large intestine intact, according to NIDDK. There, bacteria make gas as they process these undigested sugars, fibers, and starches. Certain foods, like dairy products and cruciferous vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, are more likely to cause gas than others, but everyones triggers are different.

3. You have a health condition: Gas can happen if you have health conditions that affect your digestive system, like irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or Crohns disease, or bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Avoid Foods Known To Cause Gas

One way to manage flatulence and belching is to eat fewer of the well-known gassy foods. Common culprits include:

  • Fruits like apples and pears
  • Vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and onions
  • Whole grains like bran
  • Dairy products, including milk, cheese, and ice cream.

These items contain fiber, sugars, and starches that don’t digest or absorb easily, eventually causing intestinal gas.

Foods containing sorbitol, a naturally occurring sugar found in fruit, are on some peoples gassy foods list. Other people are bothered by carbonated soft drinks and fruit drinks. If you discover that these foods are causing you excess gas, eliminate them from your diet or consume them in smaller portions. When it comes to foods to avoid, moderation is key, says Stephen Bickston, MD, a professor of internal medicine and the director of the inflammatory bowel disease program at the Center for Digestive Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Keep in mind that almost any food or combination of foods can cause gas.

Certain foods dont get along well in certain people, says Donald Novey, MD, an integrative medicine physician in Poulsbo, Washington. Some people find they are gassy if they eat fruits with proteins, or if they eat starches and proteins together. Its personal and requires a little experimentation to find out what the culprits are.

Persona Vitamin C With Bioflavonoids

Persona is a subscription service that carries a vitamin C supplement containing bioflavonoids. The product is citrus flavored and can help boost antioxidant intake.

Each supplement contains 500 mg of vitamin C and has undergone quality testing at each stage to ensure safety.

Persona subscriptions also include consultations with nutritionists and personalized plans based on each individuals health conditions.

Replace Sugary Drinks With Water Or Tea

Houghton cautions that carbonated drinks like soda can cause bloating and gassiness. And because it has caffeine, soda can also lead to dehydration, which in-turn can cause constipation and subsequent bloating.

“Adequate hydration is essential to help alleviate constipation. Your colon’s primary purpose is water resorption. If you are already dehydrated, this can result in very hard dry stools building up, being difficult to pass and causing bloating,” says Curtin.

How To Get Rid Of Gas

Often, your gas is caused by what you eat. Food is digested primarily in your small intestine. What is left undigested is fermented in your colon with bacteria, fungi, and yeast, as part of digestion. This process produces methane and hydrogen, which are expelled as flatus.

For many people, changing dietary habits is enough to alleviate gas and its accompanying symptoms. One way to determine which foods are giving you gas is by keeping a food diary. Common culprits include:

  • foods with high fat content
  • fried or spicy food
  • artificial ingredients commonly found in low-carbohydrate and sugar-free products, such as sugar alcohol, sorbitol, and maltitol
  • beans and lentils
  • cruciferous vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli
  • prunes or prune juice
  • foods containing lactose, such as milk, cheese, and other dairy products
  • fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols molecules found in a wide range of foods, such as garlic and onion, that may be hard to digest
  • over-the-counter fiber drinks and supplements

Once you figure out what food is causing the gas, you can modify your diet to avoid the culprit.

If changing your diet doesnt completely do the trick, you have several options to try.

Drink Water With Lemon

Lemon water may help as a bloating remedy because lemon juice contains potassium. Also, drinking more water, in general, improves digestion, according to research on IBS patients that was published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology: If adding lemon to water encourages you to drink more, that will help ease the tension in your abdomen. Next, get a look at some more simple daily habits that can help reduce belly bloat.

  • Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics: “Systematic review: probiotics in the management of lower gastrointestinal symptoms in clinical practice an evidence-based international guide.”

Try Artichoke Leaf Extract

If youre bloated because you suffer from IBS, artichoke leaf extract has proven to be an effective natural remedy, as it stimulates the release of bile from the gallbladder. This helps break down fat from food, which can help beat bloating that occurs from overeating. Researchers are optimistic that with continued use patients suffering from digestive and bowel problems will see relief, according to a study published in Plant Foods For Human Nutrition.

Safe And Effective Laxatives For Constipation

DRPW: With the sort of constipations we see in our clinic, which are pretty severe, theyre very bloated and distended, really, youve got to do that, youve got to clear their bowels out. Just clearing their bowels out will help a lot, if you really purge them properly. Some of our patients only go once every couple of weeks. Well say, look, we want to get you down to preferably once a day, once alternate days. So, youre having to give them hefty doses of laxatives.

I dont know how much the myth of laxatives damaging the bowel exists in the U.S., but just about every U.K. doctor has been taught that laxatives damage the bowel. And the public think that laxatives damage the bowel. So, you have to do a hard sell on these laxatives. Say, look, its nonsense that laxatives damage the bowel. Some of the older fashioned ones, like liquid paraffin werent good. But, the modern laxatives dont damage the bowel. You can take them for the rest of your life and, actually, youll be a lot better with an empty bowel than a bowel thats half-full of feces all the time.

Im wondering about Senna, MiraLAX, do you go all the way to things like your Amitizas, or What are you liking there?

In the tertiary care group, for these really bad constipators, we use something called sodium picosulfate.

Additional Dietary Advice For Bloating

8 Reasons You Feel Bloated And How To Fix

DrMR: Back to the topic of food Are there any other highly impactful, important dietary modifications that you think are important to incorporate? I know that there has been some evidence showing that fat can potentiate visceral hypersensitivity. This is where I think of the LOFFLEX diet, which is a low fiber and fat diet, which has mainly been applied in inflammatory bowel disease. Ive had a handful of patients, where being mindful of fiber and fat has been helpful, just as one example. Are there any other food changes that are fairly impactful that you think we should make sure to include here?

DrPW: Yep. I could point out fat on our little diet sheet we give patients. It says fat can upset you. Its important to sort of take that a little further with patients. Its fat irrespective of the source. The fat in the full-fat milk could upset you just as much as the fat on a rather fatty piece of lamb or something like that. We say its fat, in general, that upsets you. For instance, people will often say, I go out for an Indian meal and it upsets me. They immediately think its the spices, but the Indian meal you have at an Indian restaurant in this country will have a huge amount of fat and ghee in it. Whereas, if you make it at home, and I quite often say to patients, You try making a curry at home and dont put much fat in it, youll probably be okay because spices dont always cause trouble.

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