Always Have A Bloated Stomach Here Are 10 Reasons Why
Stomach bloating is so common these days that its been called an epidemic. If you frequently deal with distention, digestive discomfort and a bloated stomach, you probably want to know: Why do I feel bloated all the time?
With most peoples poor diets, high levels of stress, need for daily medications and exposure to various pollutants, its no wonder they suffer some sort of bloating more days than not.
While a bloated stomach is certainly uncomfortable even embarrassing when it comes along with gas or the need to run to the bathroom it might be an even bigger deal than you think. Below well look closer at reasons you may deal with an inflated belly, plus discuss bloated stomach remedies, such as foods to focus on and those to avoid.
What Are The Symptoms Of Bloating
Symptoms of bloating include:
- The skin around your stomach may feel stretched and tight
Depending on the cause, bloating may be accompanied by other symptoms as well.
Abdominal bloating will continue until the food in an overfull stomach is digested or accumulated gas is released. This can take hours or days.
Remedies And Treatments For Bloated Stomachs
While stomach bloating will often resolve on its own, the following measures may help reduce bloating or address its underlying causes:
Exercise and Posture
Physical exercise can help reduce bloating and clear gas from the body. Posture adjustment can also help. The body retains more gas when you are lying on your back, so try to stay active throughout the day.
Over-the-Counter Medication
Both simethicone and activated charcoal are marketed as gas-reducers. The two have proven ineffective and/or inconsistent when used on their own in clinical trials. However, there is some evidence to suggest that they may work when combined or when used with magnesium oxide or loperamide .
Probiotics
The use of probiotics to help with digestive issues is common but little studied. Still, there is some evidence that using probiotics can help reduce stomach bloating. The formula in VSL#3 proved to reduce bloating in both adults and children in clinical studies.
Digestive Enzymes
One common cause of stomach bloating is the inability to digest certain foods. Most digestive enzyme supplements are effective only for people who cannot produce enzymes for medical reasons. However, over-the-counter enzymes have proven to help with the digestion of two commonly problematic foods: dairy and legumes .
If you have a hard time digesting the sugars in these foods, you might benefit from lactase supplements for dairy or alpha-galactosidase supplements for legumes.
Herbal Remedies
Diet
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It Could Be Constipation
While youre spending a lot of time at home, you may not be moving as much as you usually do. You may also be eating different foods. This can lead to constipation. You may be constipated if you experience:
- Fewer bowel movements than normal for you
- Stool that is lumpy or looks like pebbles
- Difficulty passing stool or a feeling that you still need to go after youre finished
Fortunately, you can make a number of at-home changes to help relieve your constipation. These include:
How Is Bloating Treated
Bloating will usually go away by itself if you adjust your diet for a while. Cut down on salty foods, carbohydrates and fizzy drinks. For some people, it can help to avoid foods that contain onion or garlic, wheat, rye, lactose products or stone fruit.
Bloating caused by constipation can be treated by eating more high-fibre foods, increasing the amount of water that you drink, and exercising regularly. Some people may need laxatives to treat constipation.
If you have a medical condition such as coeliac disease, you will need to follow a strict diet to prevent bloating and other symptoms. If you have IBS, following a high-fibre diet and the low FODMAP diet may help. This involves cutting out some dairy products, wheat and other grains, and some fruits and vegetables. Talk to a health professional such as your doctor or a dietitian before starting this diet to make sure it is right for you.
If you have a food intolerance, you may need to try an elimination diet to find out which food or foods are causing your problems. Your doctor or dietitian will advise you.
Some people find that probiotics containing lactobacillus and bifidobacterium can help with bloating by reducing the production of gas in the gut.
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Drinking Too Much Soda
Carbonated beverages, such as soda or sparkling water, are a common reason for bloating. The fizz in your favorite sodas can cause gas to get trapped in your stomach, which can lead to bloating and belching.
Try limiting the amount of soda you drink and switch to a healthier alternative. Water with cucumber or lemon can offer a flavorful drink with your meal, and black tea can provide the caffeine kick you may need in the early afternoon. If youre already feeling bloated, peppermint tea is a common remedy that can be used to help reduce the discomfort.
Drink Water To Avoid Water Retention
Water retention often occurs among dieters and can give you the feeling of being bloated. To get rid of this feeling, you will have to sip water, so you restore your bodys water levels.
Water retention may occur when you are starting to get dehydrated because your body will try to hold on to the water it has left in your body.
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External And Internal Obliques
At the sides of the body are the external and internal oblique muscles, which help perform various kinds of movement in the body. This includes helping with forwarding bending or crunching movements.
The internal and external obliques attach from the bottom of the rib cage to the top of the pelvis, and mesh together in an X-shaped fashion, Gasnick explained. When contracted, these muscles allow the torso to side bend, rotate, and twist, as well as assist the rectus abdominis in performing a forward bending or crunching movement.
Does Drinking Water Reduce Bloating
Water can help beat the bloat, yes. This is because water is an essential part of a healthy digestive system.
Have you ever been dehydrated and as a result, felt sluggish and just plain blah? This is because water helps to reduce the sodium level in your body, which is often a contributor to bloat.
Water is also crucial if you are planning to add fiber to your diet. Keeping the digestive system moving is reliant on good ole H2O.
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Always Be Aware Of What You Eat
Some of us are in the habit of watching our favorite TV show or scrolling through our favorite social media pages while taking our meals.
You might not be aware, but thats actually one of the problems.
Digital distractions while eating, in most cases leads to overeating or you trying to rush food down in order not to miss your favorite show.
This will lead to poor digestion, thereby resulting in a bloated stomach.
Enjoy your meals undistracted. Take time to chew every piece of food you put in your mouth.
This will even aid digestion more. You will feel more comfortable and experience less stress in your stomach.
Eating mindfully will allow you to debloat your stomach quick.
What Types Of Food Cause Stomach Bloating
If you’re experiencing regular bloating, you should see a doctor and discuss your symptoms with them. Together, you can come up with a treatment plan. As previously discussed, because there are many causes for abdominal bloating, it can be challenging to determine what causes an individuals stomach to bloat.
The first line of treatment for bloating that a doctor may prescribe is the low FODMAP diet. FODMAP stands for:
- Fermentable Oligosaccharides. These are found in wheat, onions, garlic, legumes, and beans.
- Disaccharides. A class of sugars that are found in lactose products like milk, yogurt, and ice cream.
- Monosaccharides. This is a type of sugar that includes fructose. It’s often found in fruits like apples and pears.
- Polyols. Also called sugar alcohols, they’re found in apricots, nectarines, plums, and cauliflower. They can also be added to chewing gums and candy.
A low FODMAP diet cuts down the number of carbohydrates listed above that you consume. It has been found the small intestine can have a difficult time absorbing them, so it then passes the unabsorbed carbohydrates to the colon. In the colon, they become fermented and then make gas and cause bloating.
Some people may not have a sensitivity to FODMAP foods. The best way to find out if this diet will work for you is to start cutting FODMAP foods out of your diet slowly and then slowly start bringing them back.
Continued
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What Exercises Can You Do To Flatten Abs
In order to flatten bulging abdominal abs safely, Tripp says that pelvic floor exercises, isometric exercise, and abdominal wall bracing drills are worth trying. These exercises engage the abdominal muscles and help strengthen and stabilize your core, he adds.
A stable core is a strong core, just like a stable leg is able to handle more load, he explained. Without a stable core, it is harder to build strength across all of your lifts.
To send that bulge packing, try three of Tripps safe core-strengthening exercises below:
Eating More Calories Than Usual
Lets face it. When youre off your schedule, sometimes the most interesting thing you can do is bake. But consuming excess calories especially those found in cookies, cakes and bread can pack on the pounds and cause your belly to bloat.
If cooking is your jam while sheltering in place, reserve high-calorie recipes for special occasions, or cut it back to one meal a week.
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Behaviors Food Choices And Activity
Eating behaviors and other habits such as gum chewing, gulping foods and drinking with eating can cause us to swallow air. Bulky foods such as lettuce, cabbage, and dense breads not chewed into small enough pieces increase swallowed air.
Typically, swallowed air contains oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It tends to not have a foul smell, but it does contribute to the discomfort associated with gas.
People vary widely in how sensitive they are to gas production. Keeping a food record to document incidences of gas in relation to foods eaten can shed light on whether food or behavior may be aggravating the situation.
How Can Bloating Be Prevented
To deal with bloating, you may consider discussing your diet and eating habits with your doctor or a registered dietitian. If you can identify the food or eating behavior that causes belly bloat, you can effectively prevent future bloating. To help prevent bloating:
- Avoid eating super large meals in one sitting.
- Eat slowly while seated.
- Avoid foods that tend to make you gassy.
- Be mindful of how much fiber you eat.
- Avoid bubbly beverages.
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Increase Activity Level And Exercising
Even if it may feel a little painful, in the beginning, it can be a handy way to increase your activity level and get started to exercise. Do some daily walks, jog, or get a gym membership? It will all add up and help you to get your bloating and constipation under control.
You can improve your results by increasing your water intake as well.
What Causes The Stomach Bug
Several different viruses may cause the stomach bug. Viruses that most frequently cause it include norovirus, rotavirus, and adenovirus.
The norovirus alone causes up to 21 million cases of the stomach bug in the United States each year. Other viruses such as astroviruses can also cause this condition.
Stomach bug caused by a rotavirus or norovirus infection is highly contagious. In the United States, infection most commonly occurs between October and April. The most common way to contract the virus is from direct contact with someone who is sick.
You can also contract the virus from contact with something someone infected has touched that contains their stool, saliva, or vomit substance with the virus in it.
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Extreme Bloating And Yeast Overgrowth Significantly Degrades Quality Of Life
I know, because I have been there, done that and it is not fun or pretty it is miserable!
Many conventional physicians still do not understand the extensive repercussions yeast overgrowth infection has on our health, or are not aware of the existence of Candida Yeast Overgrowth and are clueless about how to treat it, so they treat the symptoms of your complaint or ailment without realizing it is stemming from an overgrowth of Candida yeast.
Candida overgrowth causes a wide variety of seemingly unrelated Candida symptoms, including chronic tiredness, vaginal yeast infection, penis infection, skin conditions, rosacea, brain fog, joint pain, extreme bloating, flu like symptoms that will not go away, sugar cravings and this list goes on including cancer misdiagnosis.
Only Drink Water Or Tea
When people are bloated, they tend to skimp on water because they think it will make their bloating worse. Since water retention is the body’s way of holding onto fluid so it doesn’t dehydrate, the opposite is true. Drinking lots of water signals the body that it no longer needs to hold onto every last drop to stay hydrated. “Fluids, specifically water, are absolutely key for optimal digestion,” says Isabel Smith, MS, RD, CDN, registered dietitian and founder of Isabel Smith Nutrition.
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Why Do Wheat And Gluten Cause Bloating
Bread, pasta, cereal, and pastries commonly contain gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Gluten is a stabilizing ingredient it keeps dough sticky and bread fluffy, but its root word glue hints that it isnt your digestive tracts best friend.
Due to modified wheat crops that are designed to grow faster while resisting droughts and insects, we no longer eat the simple and natural wheat of our grandparents generation. Todays altered wheat has introduced us to new forms of proteins that we cant easily digest. We also have dramatically easier access to highly refined wheat products, which explains why the prevalence of digestive disorders like irritable bowel syndrome continues to increase.
The enzyme tTG is responsible for breaking down gluten into protein building blocks as soon as it reaches the intestines. However, if you commonly experience bloating after eating wheat or other gluten products, its possible that gluten triggers your GI tract to release a protein that degrades your intestine and creates tiny holes.
Too much intestinal damage leads to leaky gut, which allows toxins, microbes, and undigested food particles to escape through the holes into your bloodstream and trigger additional inflammation and bloating. The only way to prevent wheat and gluten from traumatizing your digestive system is to cut those foods out of your diet for at least 30 days.
Use Phenq Help You To Lose Weight
It can be an excellent idea to use a supplement to help you to lose weight. But the last thing you want is to choose a supplement that makes you bloated.
Phen Q is a 5 in 1 weight loss supplement that can help you lose weight without bloating. It is done by choosing ingredients that are 100% pure and without serious side effects. Ingredients that dont have a reputation for making you bloated and constipated.
The laboratories providing Phen Q in the Uk and US has been approved by the FDA and reaches GMP standard, two factors that guarantee that your supplement is clean and pure.
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Avoid Rapid Weight Gain
Rapid weight gain is linked to bloating for several reasons.
First, a buildup of fat in your stomach area may constrain your bowels, increasing tension and contributing to bloating. Additionally, fat may have inflammatory effects, contributing to hypersensitivity in your gut .
Finally, unwanted weight gain may cause you to focus attention on your stomach area, which may increase your perception of bloating .
If you have overweight or obesity and are experiencing bloating, trying some healthy strategies for weight loss such as exercise and limiting portion sizes may be beneficial.
Summary
Rapid weight gain may contribute to bloating by increasing bowel tension, inflammation, and mental focus on your stomach area. Conversely, weight loss may help reduce these effects.
The Benefits Of Supplementing With Digestive Enzymes
Taking an advanced digestive enzyme supplement with a unique blend of many digestive enzymes will help your body break down and absorb nutrients in your food. From hard-to-digest fiber and dairy sugars to the protein in your favorite steak, digestive enzymes support proper digestion and prevent gas and bloating.
You can take your digestive enzyme on a regular basis, or take it 30 minutes before eating a meal you know will trigger uncomfortable bloating. Either way, adding additional digestive enzymes to your body is exactly how you get rid of bloating fast.
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Why Is My Stomach Bloated
The most common cause of stomach pain and bloating is excess intestinal gas. If you get a bloated stomach after eating, it may be a digestive issue. It might be as simple as eating too much too fast, or you could have a food intolerance or other condition that causes gas and digestive contents to build up. Your menstrual cycle is another common cause of temporary bloating. Sometimes a bloated stomach can indicate a more serious medical condition.