How Is Ascites Treated
Limiting sodium in your diet is crucial for treating ascites. For people with ascites, recommended sodium intake is less than 2,000 to 4,000 milligrams a day.
A dietitian can help create a healthy eating plan for you. You may also need to take diuretics . These water pills help fluid and sodium leave your body.
Working With A Doctor
It is important to speak openly and honestly with your physician to express a clear picture of your experiences and symptoms. FGIDs present special challenges when communicating, specifically because of their vague symptoms and sensitive subject matter.
There isnt a diagnostic test for bloating or distension however your doctor may run some tests to rule out underlying problems or associated disorders.
For more information about GI tests and how to prepare for them, see our website www.aboutGIMotility.org or see IFFGD publications #111 or #510.
When Should You See A Doctor
Stomach bloating and lower back pain often go away on their own or are alleviated through OTC medication and home remedies. However, you should consult with your healthcare provider if your symptoms come on suddenly, are unexplained, or are persistent and severe enough that they interfere with your daily activities.
Stomach bloating and/or lower back pain may indicate a serious condition if accompanied by:
-
Urine that contains blood and/or pus, is cloudy, or foul-smelling
-
Painful urination or difficulty in urination
If you are pregnant, contact your doctor immediately about any worrisome or unusual symptoms.
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Behavioral And Psychological Therapies
It is recognized that the interaction between the enteric nervous system and the psychological state is implicated in the pathogenesis of IBS. As such, behavioral and psychological therapies are viewed with optimism, but the literature is insufficient, particularly with regard to bloating. Two Cochrane reviews, one on hypnotherapy104 and the other on psychological therapies in IBS,105 both concluded that their findings were hampered by small sample size, validity, heterogeneity, and outcome definition.
Hypnotherapy Hypnotherapy has been reported to reduce symptomatic bloating in patients with IBS, and the benefit is sustained over time.36,37,106 The decrease in bloating symptoms appears to be independent of the subtype of IBS. There is also evidence that hypnotherapy normalizes rectal sensory thresholds in patients with IBS,35,107 and such normalization might be expected to confer an alteration in the perception of bloating. A Cochrane review concluded that hypnotherapy may be useful in patients with IBS who have failed conventional therapy in comparison with either waiting list controls or IBS patients receiving standard care, but the review advised caution in interpreting the results because of poor methodology.104
The Role Of Visceral Sensitivity
Changes in visceral sensitivity have been proposed as the hallmark of IBS.24 Patients frequently describe marked symptoms in the absence of significant physiologic changes, so altered visceral sensitivity provides a ready hypothesis to explain the frequency and severity of the bloating that they experience. Most commonly, rectal hypersensitivity is observed in patients with IBS. Rectal hyposensitivity is also common, particularly in patients with constipation,25 and is associated predominantly with increased abdominal distension. Almost 90% of patients with no-urge constipation, which is associated with elevated rectal sensory thresholds, describe distension and bloating.26 In contrast, hypersensitive patients, in whom diarrhea-predominant IBS is more common, have increased symptoms of bloating in the absence of distension.27
Alterations in visceral sensitivity may explain why symptoms of bloating and distension may be worse in women during the perimenstrual phase.28 Visceral sensitivity varies throughout the menstrual cycle and is generally most acute in the perimenstrual phase,29 the period when symptoms are usually worse. Visceral pain thresholds are also lower in the setting of psychological stress,30 perhaps explaining why patients commonly note exacerbations of symptoms during periods of stress.31
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Limit Your Sugar Intake Especially In Dairy Products
Various types of sugar, like fructose from fruit and lactose in dairy, may cause bloating, so it’s important to avoid them if they’re causing you discomfort, says
Bryan Curtin, MD, MHSc, a gastroenterologist and Director of the Center for Neurogastroenterology and GI Motility at Mercy Medical Center.
“As we get older, some of us will lose the capacity to digest large amounts of certain substances, particularly sugars. Lactose intolerance is the most common of these, but you can also become intolerant to fructose, fructans, sucrose, maltose, and other substances,” Curtin tells Insider.
Approximately 65% of the population worldwide is lactose intolerant. Meaning that their digestive tract has a difficult time breaking down lactose into simple sugars. And undigested lactose ends up moving to the colon, where bacteria break it down, resulting in gas and water. This gas and water buildup can then cause flatulence, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and bloating.
Even substituting sugar for sugar-free sweeteners doesn’t stop bloating. Artificial sweeteners are commonly found in snacks, soda, diet products, and sugar-free gums. Sorbitol, in particular, tends to be poorly digested.
“Other products that can cause gas, bloating, and loose stool include foods containing sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, fructose, and sorbitol,” says Houghton.
Always read food labels and check for these ingredients to prevent bloating.
How Are These Symptoms Treated
Even severe symptoms usually improve over time with diet and lifestyle changes. Your doctor can help you decide which treatments are best for you.
Diet: Eat and drink more slowly to swallow less air. Limit fatty and spicy foods. Avoid caffeine, carbonated drinks, and artificial sweeteners. Avoid common gas-causing foods, such as beans, peas, lentils, cabbage, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, and whole grains. Try removing one food at a time from your diet to see if your gas improves.
Fiber: Fiber has many benefits, although too much fiber may increase the amount of gas in your intestines.
Exercise: Regular daily exercise often reduces symptoms in the stomach and intestines.
Laxatives: Over-the-counter laxatives, such as polyethylene glycol , may help with constipation but probably not with stomach pain.
Antidiarrheal medicines: Over-the-counter loperamide may help with diarrhea but probably not with stomach pain.
Probiotics: Probiotics are found in some over-the-counter supplements and yogurts. Common probiotics are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
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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.
Which High Fodmap Foods Are The Best To Avoid
This is the question that youll need to answer for yourself during the process of the low-FODMAP diet. The answer will be different for everyone. The point of the diet is not to deprive you of bad foods but to find out if your symptoms are related to FODMAPs or not and if they are, which ones. Some people may not improve at all on the elimination phase. If you don’t, theres no reason to follow through to the next phase. But if you do, it will be very important to reintroduce foods in a systematic way to separate the real offenders from foods that you can tolerate. Many people find in the end that its only one or two of the FODMAP food groups that bother them. The ultimate goal of the diet is to widen your dietary options as much as possible.
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Bloating: Causes And Prevention Tips
How often do you hear yourself or friends complain about bloating? We often just say we’re bloated when we feel full, but for many women, the problem relates to a chronic underlying condition. If you feel bloated often, you may have a condition like irritable bowel syndrome , which affects up to 24 of women.
Here are some common causes of bloating and tips on preventing this uncomfortable condition.
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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How To Get Rid Of Gas Pains And Bloating
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The average adult passes gas between 13 and 21 times a day. Gas is a normal part of the digestion process. But if gas builds up in your intestines and youre unable to expel it, you may start to feel pain and discomfort.
Gas pain, bloating, and flatus frequency can be exacerbated by anything that causes diarrhea or constipation. Gas can also be caused by:
- swallowing air while you eat or drink
Make an appointment with your doctor if your gas symptoms:
- cause you distress
- change suddenly
- are accompanied with constipation, diarrhea, or weight loss
Your doctor can determine the underlying cause. If you dont already have a primary care provider, you can browse doctors in your area through the Healthline FindCare tool.
Are Fodmaps Bad For Everyone
Not at all. In fact, our digestive systems are designed to process some foods that we cant fully digest ourselves for example, dietary fiber, which has an important place in digestive health. And feeding the bacteria in our gut is part of our symbiotic arrangement with those bacteria. But some people with sensitive guts experience a level of indigestion from these foods that significantly impacts their quality of life. For these people, the byproducts of fermentation cause chronic symptoms of gas, bloating, abdominal pain and distension. The extra water drawn by the small intestine may cause diarrhea in excess, or constipation if there isnt enough.
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Gas Pain: When To See A Doctor
Veloso says to be on the lookout for abdominal pain and bloating that persists even after constipation improves.
You may have celiac disease or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth , which can cause these symptoms and can occur with either constipation or diarrhea. You may also have irritable bowel syndrome or another problem, she notes.
Sudden Stomach Cramps With Diarrhoea
If your stomach cramps have started recently and you also have diarrhoea, the cause may be a tummy bug . This means you have a viral or bacterial infection of the stomach and bowel. It should get better without treatment after a few days.
Gastroenteritis may be caused by:
- coming into close contact with someone who’s infected
- eating contaminated food
If you have repeated bouts of stomach cramps and diarrhoea, you may have a long-term condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome .
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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.
When Should I See My Healthcare Provider
Seek medical attention if:
- You haven’t been tested for gastrointestinal diseases.
- Your symptoms change or get noticeably worse.
- You are unintentionally losing weight.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Functional dyspepsia can be a frustrating diagnosis for people who experience it and are looking for solutions. On one hand, its a benign condition that wont endanger your life. But on the other hand, there is no definitive cause or cure. Even so, medical testing can help put you on the path to relief. It can identify or rule out certain contributing factors and give your healthcare provider important information about your condition. Your provider will use the evidence they find to prescribe the best medication they can to help you. And if the first prescription doesnt work, that will tell them what to suggest next.
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What Causes Gas Bloating And Belching
Most people have had excess gas, bloating, or belching. Sometimes these symptoms can cause problems or pain.
Bloating is a sensation of belly fullness. Sometimes your belly looks bigger, but not always. People with bloating do not necessarily have too much gas in their stomach, but they are often much more sensitive to stomach symptoms.
Belching is usually caused by swallowing too much air, eating or drinking too fast, drinking carbonated or caffeinated drinks, smoking, or a nervous habit.
Flatulence is the release of excess gas in the colon. It is usually related to your diet.
Most of the time, one or more of these disordersirritable bowel syndrome, dyspepsia, or chronic constipationare the cause of gas, bloating, and belching.
Gas, bloating, and belching are not typical symptoms of cancer or other dangerous conditions, even if you also have abdominal pain, diarrhea, or constipation. However, you should let your doctor know if you are losing weight, having fevers, or bleeding. These symptoms can be more serious.
Although anxiety, depression, and stressful life events do not cause these conditions, they may make the symptoms worse and harder to treat.
Are There Different Types Of Functional Dyspepsia
Some healthcare specialists classify functional dyspepsia symptoms into two categories:
- Epigastric pain syndrome refers to only those symptoms associated with upper abdominal pain and burning.
- Postprandial distress syndrome refers to only those symptoms that occur after eating, such as early fullness, bloating and nausea.
Not everyones symptoms fall neatly into these two categories, but when they do, it helps healthcare specialists focus on treating those symptoms as a group.
How do I tell if I have functional dyspepsia vs. gastritis?
Gastritis and dyspepsia share many symptoms, and you can have both. Gastritis, which is inflammation of the stomach lining, usually has a traceable cause. It might be a bacterial infection, overuse of certain pain medications that erode the stomach lining , or too much stomach acid. These things can be tested for and treated. If you have functional dyspepsia, gastritis may be part of the equation, but not all of it. You may discover and treat the cause of your gastritis and experience some relief from those symptoms, but not total relief.
How do I tell if I have functional dyspepsia vs. GERD?
How do I tell if I have functional dyspepsia vs. IBS?
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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 Pain
If youve ever experienced waves of sharp pain in your belly along with the feeling that your waistline is inflating like a balloon, you might be experiencing bloating and cramps due to intestinal gas.
Everyone gets gas on occasion. Its a natural byproduct of the bacteria in your intestines doing their job and breaking down the fibers, sugars and starches in the food you eat. Though gas pain is usually nothing serious, the discomfort can be intense.
Intestinal gas and its discomfort are likely to resolve on their own. Burping or passing gas through the rectum is usually enough to ease your physical discomfort.
Johns Hopkins gastroenterologist Hazel Marie Galon Veloso provides some perspective on bloating and gas cramps, including when to see a doctor.
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How Common Is Ascites
Fluid buildup rarely occurs in otherwise healthy people. It develops as a result of other diseases, most often cirrhosis. Ascites is the most common complication of cirrhosis. About half of people with decompensated cirrhosis will develop ascites. Cirrhosis accounts for about 80% of the cases of ascites.
Causes Of Serious Bloating You Need To Know About And What To Do About Them
1. Ovarian cancer isnt the most likely, but it is one of the most lethal. Although ovarian cancer is only the fifth most common cancer in women, it causes more deaths than any other reproductive cancer mostly in women over 50. Risk factors include never having children or having them late in life, obesity, a family history of ovarian cancer, certain genetic abnormalities, and long-term treatment with hormone replacement therapy. Persistent bloating, feeling full faster, and pelvic pain are typical symptoms.
What to do if youre concerned about ovarian cancer:
A thorough pelvic exam or transvaginal ultrasound is the best way to diagnose ovarian cancer. The blood test CA-125 isnt a reliable screening test, but it can be helpful for following the course of treatment after diagnosis.
2. Uterine cancer. In addition to bloating, uterine cancer can cause abnormal vaginal bleeding, a watery or blood-tinged vaginal discharge, pelvic pain, or pain with intercourse or urination. But its important to know that sometimes bloating or a change in bowel habits may be the only initial signs of uterine cancer. Important risk factors include taking tamoxifen taking estrogen supplements that dont also contain progesterone radiation therapy a family history of uterine cancer or a family history of a form of inherited colon cancer called Lynch syndrome.
What to do if youre concerned about uterine cancer:
What to do if youre concerned about colon cancer:
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