Hello, welcome to episode 45 of the Inside Knowledge podcast, I’m Anna Mapson. Thanks for tuning in, this episode is all about bloating.
I’m going to cover some of the common causes for gas production inside your gut, what you can do when you have a lot of gas, and what you can do in the midst of a flare up. How to prevent it and what kind of things you can do to reduce it.
Is your bloating a new symptom?
This podcast is tailored for people who already know that they have IBS. So I just wanted to say at the beginning, if you’ve suddenly got bloated and you haven’t been to the doctors already. Or if you’ve always had IBS, but suddenly the bloating has got a lot worse, it is worth going back to your doctor. Or talking it through with a health professional to make sure that there’s nothing else that could be causing it.
And now I’ll talk about some of the diet and lifestyle things, but it’s just to check that you’ve had a medical examination.
The link between foods and bloating in IBS
One of the first things people will try to address when they suddenly get bloated is to cut back on gas producing foods. And this can definitely make sense. Some foods we know cause a lot more gas in the large intestine. Or the small intestine because of their fermentation by our gut microbes.
Typically these are things that are high in FODMAPs. So these are starches that our body cannot break down. Types of carbohydrates in very healthy food. They’re not bad for you, but they’re just hard to be broken down. So these are typically things that are high in a carbohydrate called galacto oligosaccharides and fructans, but also lactose that’s in dairy.
FODMAP foods
So what foods are these? These are things like beans and pulses, lentils, and wheat. As well as onions and garlic, cruciferous vegetables. Very high intakes of dairy.
That’s quite a big group of foods that I’ve just been through, and if you were to remove dairy, wheat, onions, and garlic, all cruciferous vegetables, which includes things like broccoli, kale, cabbage, sprouts as well as any other foods, beans and pulses, and that’s quite a lot of food to cut out.
Why do these foods cause bloating?
So what I like to try and think about is why is it that you are not breaking those foods down. Or why are they causing you so much discomfort? The most effective way to test whether these foods are an issue for you is to go on The low FODMAP diet. Which is where you cut all of those foods out for a short amount of time. And then slowly reintroduce them to test which particular foods are your issue.
If you want help on the low FODMAP diet, listen to episode 17 and 18 where I explain how to do all of that. There’s also lots of help on my website about the low FODMAP diet. But.
How much FODMAP food can you eat?
What I want to know from my clients is not only why are you not breaking these things down, but what is your tolerance level?
So it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t have any lentils. It could just mean that you can’t have lentils every day. Or you can’t have a huge plate of lentils because that’s your tolerance. So it’s trying to work out where your tolerance is.
But some of these foods are typically very high in gas producing food elements. They’re the foods that are going to set off your bloating.
Does dairy increase bloating?
Specifically on dairy as well. Dairy has got lactose in it, which is a sugar that’s not well digested by many people. You might experience excessive gas, bloating, and even diarrhoea within about 30 minutes of having a high dairy meal.
This could be like a very creamy sauce, maybe a glass of milk or milk on your cereal, these kind of things could be triggering the bloating.
Digestive enzyme production is key
What is key with this is understanding why your digestive enzymes, the things that break these down normally, are not functioning as they should. We need to go up a level to see, okay, well, if your body is not making enough of these enzymes, which break these sugars down into smaller particles, why is that?
Now with dairy, some people just genetically are not predisposed to make enough lactase, which is the enzyme breaking down lactose.
So they’re going to have a harder time for the rest of their lives.
Other people, lactose intolerance can come and go. The same with breaking down those other FODMAP groups is sometimes you can be impaired.
SIBO can affect digestive enzymes
Your digestive capacity is reduced because of bacteria in the small intestine and that is where most of the digestion happens. There are other reasons why you could be having a lot of gas and in your gut as well. It’s not just down to not being able to digest them properly.
Things increasing your gas and bloating
One of the most common reasons is swallowing too much air, and this can definitely increase farting and feelings of bloating.
Sometimes it could be because you’re eating too fast, and you are gulping down big chunks of food that it’s much harder for your body to digest. You could be talking a lot whilst you’re eating. Chewing gum, that will definitely increase the amount of air that you swallow. If you smoke, I mean you shouldn’t smoke anyway, you know that.
Smoking isn’t good for bloating
But, Smoking definitely can also increase the amount of air that you’re swallowing down into your stomach, and then that has to come down to Up or out. And then drinking with a straw. Like if you’re someone who likes to sip on a straw, sometimes you can swallow more air down like that. As well as drinking fizzy drinks.
And obviously they’re carbonated, so they are literally, got gas in them and that you’re putting into your stomach.
Wearing tight waistbands can cause bloating
Another major cause of bloating that people don’t really realize is wearing really tight clothing. So if you have a really tight waistband, it is stopping the normal progress of gas through your gut. That can cause a build up and become very uncomfortable.
If you imagine a tube and you’re trying to pump air through it, if there’s a blockage in the tube and it’s narrowing at some point because your waistband’s almost like cutting into you. Or your trousers are really tight like skinny jeans, this can give people a stomach ache. And can increase bloating and feelings of abdominal pain.
What we’ve covered so far
So, just to recap, we’ve covered foods that are more rapidly fermented, that’s the beans, lactose, wheat, onions, those kind of things. They are rapidly fermented and can cause bloating in some people who are sensitive. Then we’ve also got are you swallowing more air? Are you doing these little habits that actually could be increasing the amount of air in your stomach?
But then, I also really want to work with my clients to find out what The reasons could be for this additional fermentation. Because some people can eat a very high fibre, high fermentation diet and have no problems at all. And so, we need to look at some of the root causes for that over fermentation.
SIBO is a major cause of bloating
The major one is having small intestine bacterial overgrowth.
It is one of the most common causes for consistent bloating I know about with my clients. I actually just want to take a second to differentiate between bloating and distension as well.
What’s the difference between bloating and distention?
Distension is when you can visibly see the stomach size has increased and you might also feel bloating.
Whereas you can actually feel bloated without having very much distention. Sometimes people will describe feeling very bloated, and maybe have a slightly bigger stomach, but it doesn’t necessarily equate to a huge swelling.
Where do you feel the bloating?
I also want to think about maybe you can think about this for yourself. is where that swelling or that bloating and distension is coming from.
Is it at the top of your stomach just under your ribs quite high up. Or is it down by your hip bones a bit lower in your abdomen? The two examples that in the intro about somebody who had a lot of swelling around their bra strap area. And also somebody who felt like they were getting palpitations and an arrhythmic heartbeat from the bloating.
Really just shows how sometimes it can be very high up in your body. That pressure can really affect your whole upper torso as well as your lower abdominal area.
Where to get SIBO information?
If you think that your bloating might be caused by SIBO, that’s small intestine bacterial overgrowth, listen to episode 11 and episode 12 where I talk about SIBO and what you can do about it.
And also episode 40 about eating well with SIBO, about SIBO diets.
If your bloating is caused by this overgrowth of bacteria, one of the only ways you can get rid of it is to address the bacterial overgrowth.
SIBO needs treating
Sometimes the low FODMAP diet can reduce your symptoms but it doesn’t reduce the cause of the bloating. It doesn’t reduce the gas producing microbes.
And that is what you need to treat with either antimicrobial herbs, antibiotics, and also some gut motility work.
Is constipation causing your bloating?
Now, the next cause of bloating that I want to talk about is constipation. If you are not having a regular bowel movement, by which I mean ideally daily, then food is becoming a little bit stagnant in your gut. And can ferment and that this is a major cause of bloating.
If you are going regularly, but you’re not completely clearing your gut. Or you’re not having a large enough bowel movement, you can also still be constipated. Even if you feel like you’re having a bowel movement every day. If it’s hard and pebbly like that type one on the Bristol stool chart. Or you’re not completely emptying your bowels every day, you can still get constipated and that can still be a big driver of your bloating.
Support constipation through exercise, fibre and hydration
Some of the ways we address constipation is through regular exercise, Eating a higher fibre diet and more varied fibre, which is really challenging if you are already backed up. Obviously all the basics like hydration, making sure you’re drinking enough water and thinking about your stress levels, but also trying to think again about gut motility.
How can you increase the motility of this gut?
Obviously, if you’re getting regular loose diarrhoea type symptoms and you’re more the IBS diarrhoea predominant type, you don’t need to worry about this, but if you’re someone who has hard stools, irregular stools, maybe you need to think about how to get this going.
Because this is one of my constipation tactics with clients. To try get the gut moving first and then when the bloating’s reduced. Then you can eat a bigger variety in your diet and eat more content as well.
Tips for reducing bloating
So to try and address the causes of gas, the gas build up, some of the things I would suggest you can look through your life and think about. Not all of these will be relevant to everybody, but these are just some generic tips and things that I’d like you to consider if bloating is really out of control for you.
Avoid tight clothing
Firstly, reduce any tight clothing. So don’t have any tight waistbands, really tight jeans that are pressing on your abdomen. That can increase bloating throughout the day.
Eating mindfully
Try to change your eating pattern so that you’re eating more slowly. You are chewing your food really well. And if you’ve listened to this podcast, you know that I’ve said this loads of times, but it is a massive difference in my clients I can see. The changes when they sit down at a table to eat, eat sitting upright, chew their food really well and try not to be too distracted whilst you’re eating. It can definitely help address the bloating.
Avoid ingesting air
Then you want to avoid anything that’s going to help you gulp down and swallow air like fizzy drinks and carbonated water, even chewing gum, smoking. These things also make you swallow down more air so you don’t really want to do that if you’ve got a lot of bloating problems.
Consider a digestive enzyme
You might like to trial taking a digestive enzyme to help you break down some of the foods that I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. You can get enzymes that are just for dairy.
So when you have like a creamy dairy meal, maybe you want to take a lactase enzyme. Or, there are particular enzymes which help you break down beans. This is something called alpha galactosidase, and it’s not in all digestive enzymes. Check when you’re buying a product whether it has this enzyme called alpha galactosidase.
Trial the low FODMAP diet
Other things you can do is to trial an elimination diet, like the low FODMAP diet. Where you are taking things out of your diet that could be the most fermentable.
Increase your fibre intake
You could also look at trying to increase your fibre, so the exact opposite of this, very, very slowly trying to increase your fibre. Particularly if you’re someone who has a slow digestion, you feel like maybe the constipation is a cause.
Actually trying to increase your fibre and hydration and all of those things, to reduce the bloating.
Quick remedies for a bloated stomach
But obviously those are long term strategies and if you’re in the moment right now with the bloating, what can you do?
Peppermint oil capsules
Some things that work for my clients are peppermint capsules, so peppermint oil, These have to be enterically coated, which means they should only open in the small intestine.
They have a certain coating on these particular capsules that mean that they won’t open in your stomach. If you get peppermint oil opening into the stomach, not only can it cause a bit of gastritis or like that very raw sensation, it can actually really increase reflux. Because it It opens the sphincter at the top of the stomach into the oesophagus. That can raise your risk for having reflux or regurgitation of your food.
But peppermint oil capsules, the way they help is that they can ease the spasm of smooth muscle. In the UK, there’s a product called Colpermin. You can get any product as long as it says it is a timed release or enterically coated.
Activated charcoal
Other products that sometimes people use to reduce bloating is charcoal, activated charcoal.
This has got mixed research, I would say, in whether it’s actually effective. But the one problem with taking it regularly is that it can reduce the absorption of medication and reduce your absorption of key minerals such as iron or zinc.
The way peppermint oil and charcoal work is different, so peppermint oil is It relaxes the smooth muscle of your small intestine, which allows food to travel through it faster, and also will allow the gas to pass easier because it’s not constricted.
Charcoal may support bloating
Activated charcoal is slightly different. It is reducing the size of gas bubbles and making them smaller and therefore easier to pass through the gut. Activated charcoal is very porous. The reason it can absorb a lot of minerals is it’s so porous, it kind of sucks things into it.
But also the liquid and gas in your stomach is probably passing through it, which is then making the particles of air smaller. And that is making it easier for it to pass through your digestion.
Don’t take charcoal for too long
The only thing is I wouldn’t take charcoal regularly or take it for longer than a couple of days at a time because of the reduction in absorption from key nutrients.
Simethicone can ease wind
There is also a product called simethicone which is a supplement that you can get from a chemist just over the counter. You don’t need a prescription for it. In the UK it’s sold as a pill. couple of products, but the one that’s most commonly in the chemist is Windease.
And what this does is it doesn’t actually reduce the amount of gas that you produce, but it causes the gas bubbles to kind of loop together. And then pass more easily through your digestive tract. It doesn’t necessarily get rid of the gas, but it just allows it to be passed a little bit easier.
This product is okay to take. If you’re someone who gets really worried about excessive gas and bloating before a certain event, it’s okay to just take it ad hoc.
You can take it every now and again. And some people do find it effective.
Take anti-bloating supplements
With all of those products, so simethicone, peppermint oil, and activated charcoal, you can take them before a meal, but most effectively they’re taken after a meal.
So sometimes with the charcoal and peppermint oil, you can take them before a meal and after, but often it’s best to see Are you getting bloated? Like, do you actually need it after every meal?
And then just take it when you need it, rather than taking it preventatively. Because I try to get people not to take too many supplements unless you really need to.
So, we’ve done dietary changes, things that you can sort of take in the moment.
Herb teas for bloating
Oh, I also meant to mention there peppermint tea and like ginger tea, fennel tea. These really good soothing herb teas are always helpful, although it’s not going to have as an effective dose, for example, as the peppermint oil capsule. But a lot of people do find that warming water and just is really soothing on your gut and just can help relax it from the inside.
Keep moving to prevent bloating
Then last thing I want to come on to is movement, because one of the things you can do to help prevent gas build up is to move more during the day. Often I find my clients mostly sitting at a desk all day. Don’t even go out for a walk, don’t leave the house.
And then when you start to move around, you suddenly notice after lunch, Oh, I’m getting really bloated and gassy.
If you go for a walk throughout the day, or you don’t even have to leave the house if you can’t. It’s just to do more movement within the house. It allows the gas to move and escape.
Get outside to walk every day
The good thing about going for a walk outside is that if your gas is a bit smelly or you’re embarrassed about the noise, then at least you’re outside and people can’t hear it or smell it.
So walking, I would say 100 percent is something to try and get in every single day if 15 minutes. A lot of people don’t go outside for this much time.
Getting access to daylight can also really help with your wake sleep cycle, beneficial for IBS because IBS is a real gut brain connection disorder. And when we get better sleep, we feel a bit calmer and you know, it clinks all these little cogs into place.
Yoga positions for bloating
And then within the category of movement, I’ve put together a little handout that you can download that shows you different positions that are particularly beneficial if you’ve got excessive gas and bloating.
The best positions for bloating in yoga are anything where you put your bum up in the air or where you are twisting your body.
- You may be sitting up cross legged on the ground and you’re twisting to one side
- Or you’re lying on your back bringing your knees into your chest and letting your legs drop one way and your arms spread out across the floor. You’re lying on your back. And your knees go out to one side your head twists to the other side that is going to give you a little internal massage just by the twisting.
- And then of course anything like downward dog or child’s pose where you’re sort of putting your bottom in the air as well
- cobra and upward facing dog where your stomach is flat or on the floor. And you’re pushing up so you’re lying on your tummy your arms push up. And your tummy’s on the floor that is also going to help just to move things around.
Yoga before bed can help reduce gas problems at night
So these kind of positions I suggest doing before bed if you often wake up in the night with gas. Problems with bloating later on in the day. As well as getting that walk in every day. And a lot of my clients are surprised at how over a course of a few days just doing a 30 minute walk in the day really makes a difference.
Walking is simple but very effective
It is also one of the things people put off the most they don’t want to do that. Often, we kind of want an easy solution. I’m not saying that taking supplements or changing your diet is easy, because I know it’s not all the time.
But going for a walk is probably more beneficial in lots of ways, and yet it’s much harder to do because it involves physical activity. It involves time, and we just want something quick.
I’m acknowledging it’s difficult and I’m also saying it’s one of the best things that you can do.
Start from where you are now
If you can’t manage a 30 minute walk, can you manage a 15 minute walk or a 10 minute walk? Don’t worry about hitting these particular targets or hitting 10, 000 steps. It’s just about starting where you are now and seeing what you can add in a way that feels comfortable for you.
So I’ll leave it there for this week. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Inside Knowledge. Better digestion for everyone.
DOWNLOAD the free Yoga for bloating handout here – https://mailchi.mp/goodnessme-nutrition.com/yoga-for-ibs