Abdominal Bloating: Causes, Symptoms & Solutions
Many people suffer from abdominal bloating, which is a disconcerting and uncomfortable feeling of fullness in the abdomen. Abdominal bloating is one of the most uncomfortable stomach problems you can experience.
For some people, abdominal bloating occurs once in a while. For others, it has been a recurrent problem for several years. Offering a solution to someone who has been suffering from abdominal bloating goes a long way in improving the quality of their life.
In this article, you will understand abdominal bloating, what causes it, and how to deal with it.
What Is Abdominal Bloating?
This experience feels like carrying a “food baby” that makes you very uncomfortable even long after having meals.
Gastroenterologist doctors based in Kansas City define abdominal bloating as the feeling of being bloated, which takes place when the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is full of gas. When you are in this state, your stomach feels full, tight, and swollen. This is what most people refer to as bloating.
Symptoms of Abdominal Bloating
When the gastrointestinal tract is full of gas, this is what you should expect:
- Pain and discomfort in your abdomen
- Excessive gas referred to as flatulence
- Frequent burping
- Your stomach rumbling or gurgling
Major Causes of Abdominal Bloating
Abdominal bloating occurs due to dietary unhealthy dietary habits. It also happens due to overgrown pathogens in your gut, among other gut health issues mentioned below.
Food Sensitivities
Food sensitivities may be why you experience abdominal bloating from time to time. It could result from eating eggs, nuts, corn, soy, sugar, or drinking dairy products. Again, you need to take note of the fact that this is not about food allergies.
There is a clear distinction between food allergies and food sensitivities. You experience immediate reactions when taking specific foods or drinks if you suffer from food allergies. People who suffer from environmental allergies, especially from pollen, experience bloating during spring.
Food sensitivities do not cause an extreme reaction. In this case, bloating occurs hours or days after the food intake. Regular consumption of food that causes food sensitivity will constantly feel bloated.
Eating Too Large a Meal or Eating Too Often
Are you one of those people who too much food? Well, you might want to stop after reading this article. In most cases, bloating occurs when you overeat or do so within very short intervals.
You also need to note that eating too fast, talking while eating, taking large bites, and not chewing your food the right way gets much air into your system. That air causes abdominal bloating.
H. Pylori Overgrowth
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a corkscrew-shaped bacteria. The overgrowth of this bacterium causes chronic gastritis and ulcers. This may cause abdominal bloating, stomach pain, and nausea.
SIBO
Small intestinal overgrowth (SIBO) causes abdominal bloating. When the small intestines are of the standard size, they don’t have too many bacteria. When there is an overgrowth, there are more bacteria that should not be there. This results in poor digestion, abdominal bloating, cramping, gas, and heartburn.
Poor Bile Flow
Bile aids in emulsifying fats for them to get broken down and absorbed into your small intestines. When there is poor bile flow, there are blockages in the gall bladder, poor absorption of fats, and malnutrition. This leads to bacterial overgrowth, abdominal bloating, and other gut health issues.
Natural Bloating Solutions
It doesn’t always have to be this bad. You can do something about it. Here is what you can do.
Adopt Gut-Friendly Nutrition Strategies
The most critical step in tackling abdominal bloating is using gut-friendly nutrition strategies. When you eat food that is friendly to your gut, you have sorted out your health and well-being. Not only the bloating issue.
You will have prevented gut inflammation and boosted the healthy bacteria and the immune cells that contain infections. You start this process by eliminating gluten, refined sugar, vegetable oils, and dairy. Incorporate the anti-inflammatory diet in your meal plan.
This diet includes:
- Tomatoes
- Green leafy vegetable
- Oranges
- Strawberries, among others
It will help in reducing the abdominal bloating that comes with gut inflammation. People who suffer from autoimmune disorders rely on an anti-inflammatory diet.
The diet plays a big role in preventing the occurrence of chronic inflammation.
1. Try Elimination Diet
An elimination diet helps you find out the food you are sensitive to. First, cut gluten, dairy, refined sugar, vegetable oils, corn, and tree nuts from your diet. The next step should be introducing food to your diet, one after another. If you notice the bloating symptoms, you remove that specific type of food from your diet and repeat the process.
2. Try a Prebiotic-Rich Diet
Prebiotics are a specific dietary fiber that feeds the good bacteria in your gut. Probiotics go hand in hand with prebiotics. Foods rich in prebiotics are leeks, onions, apples, asparagus, broccoli, and bananas.
3. Try a Low-FODMAP Diet
This is ideal, especially if you don’t do so well on a prebiotic-rich diet. A low FODMAP diet includes green beans, carrots, arugula, mint, pepper, pumpkin, tomatoes, cucumber, and kale. Fruits in the Low FODMAP diet include kiwi, grapes, blueberries, tangerines, raspberries, melon, pineapples, etc.
4. Test and Treat Gut Infections
Try all the dietary strategies listed above and all the digestive support strategies available, and none of them seems to solve the issue. Your problem could be a gut infection. It’s high time you took a test to begin treatment. This is a very critical step towards your freedom from abdominal bloating.
5. Use Activated Charcoal for Instant Relief
Sometimes the swelling on your stomach is too much and painful, and you can’t wait for it to go away. Worry not. You can get instant relief from activated coconut charcoal. This remedy is one of the oldest.
It has been in use for detoxification as it offers comfort from abdominal bloating and gas. It works by absorbing toxins, and in the process, it reduces digestion problems and rejuvenates your cells.
Bottom Line
Abdominal bloating is not only uncomfortable, but it’s also embarrassing. Having to deal with it now and then is also exhausting. The discomfort it causes can threaten your productivity in a big way as it denies you the ability to perform best in your daily activities. The stress that comes with abdominal bloating affects your self-esteem so that you comfortably engage in social activities.
For these reasons, you need to embrace the natural support strategies outlined above to help you improve your health and overall well-being.