Dr. Alison discusses why bloating isn’t actually normal after eating, what causes it, and how to fix it.
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· Are you finding yourself seriously bloated after eating? Maybe it doesn’t matter what you eat, you might find that certain foods trigger the bloating, but you know at the end of the day, your stomach is much bigger than it was in the morning?
· Today we are going to cover some common reasons you might be bloating and what to do about them.
· So some bloating is normal and common. You are adding foods and liquids to your body, you are going to have some change in how you look. The problem is when it doesn’t go down or resolve quickly, it is causing pain, or honestly you can’t fit in your clothes after eating.
· Most of my patients struggle with bloating. They wake up in the morning, feeling great, stomach is flat and as soon as they have coffee or breakfast, they look 5 months pregnant and they can’t get it to go down until the next morning when they wake up. For some people they have an issue with carbonation, a food sensitivity or are missing a digestive enzyme. Once we figure that out the bloating stops immediately!
· The most common cause is
o Carbonation: the excess gas you are putting into your body can cause acid reflux, burping, stomach pain, gas pains and bloating.
o It is worse for those who have been diagnosed with IBS or other gut conditions.
o I would recommend to take a break from carbonation of all kinds, including sparkling water to see it if helps your bloating.
· The next thing we can look at is timing:
o Bloating right after you eat can be an indication that you don’t have enough stomach acid to break down your food and it is creating more gas while digesting food.
o It can also be a sign that you aren’t making enough pancreatic enzymes to break down carbs.
o This is an easy fix because you can use supplements like digestive enzymes with HCL to support your digestive health. Typically this resolves it very quickly.
· If it isn’t resolved then we move onto
o Food sensitivities: especially dairy and gluten.
o Now you can do a blood test for sensitivities, and I do sometimes prefer that, but honestly just stop eating dairy for a week.
· If you have bloating, gas, pain within 1-2 hours after eating
o That is typically an issue with protein digestion
o Again, easily fixed with digestive enzyme
· If you have tried enzymes, ox bile, changing your diet, everything, but you are still bloating, still struggling with reflux, stomach pain, and maybe diarrhea or constipation you might have
o SIBO: small intestine bacterial overgrowth
o When bacteria from large intestine comes into the small intestine and starts to multiply. We shouldn’t have a large amount of bacteria in our small intestines because of the high acidity coming from the stomach. This helps keep bacteria and bloating down.
o If you have been on antacids for a long time, this is the main side effect. Because you have less acid in your small intestines and that leaves room for your bacteria to overpopulate.
o This also happens due to traumatic brain injury, stress, whiplash, and general health conditions.
o This does need to be treated with some type of antibiotic, whether prescription or herbal and you do need to modify your diet.
o You can test for this with a simple breath test, very easily done at home!
o And lastly, we have to manage the diet which is usually a low fodmap type of eating until the infection is managed.
· The last condition I will mention will be
o Leaky gut: this is when the bonds between the cells in the intestines become permanently open and food, bacteria, mold, and anything else that is in our intestinal tract sneaks back into the blood stream.
o This causes inflammation, triggers the immune system, increases swelling, pain, and bloating.
o This can also be compounded by histamine conditions and poor ability to manage the reactions.
o I like to stay away from certain probiotics that trigger histamine and immune responses and stick with safe and minimal probiotics.
o I also like to use the product Repairvite by Apex. This has so many wonderful herbs, enzymes, nutrition, and support for the whole gut. I use it myself and I can’t tell you how much it has helped with digestion, pain, and bloating, especially with ulcerative colitis.
o Diet with these types of issues becomes very personalized to help manage bloating. Of course we want to figure out if there are any sensitivities, how your digestion is working, what we need to avoid and what foods to focus on.
· If you are looking for personalized help, I would love to chat with you. You can schedule a free consultation online with me and we can chat about what you are going through and how we can best support your health. Make sure to like and subscribe so you stay tuned with all our weekly podcasts and see you next time!
