You have most likely experienced that feeling before. You have a full meal and feel satisfied but moments later, you start to feel uncomfortable. You get a feeling of tightness, pressure or fullness in your belly. It may or may not be accompanied by a visibly distended (swollen) abdomen. The feeling can range from mildly uncomfortable to intensely painful. If you experience this, you are possibly suffering from a bloated stomach. It usually goes away after a while, but for some people, it’s a recurring problem. Digestive issues and hormone fluctuations can cause cyclical bloating. If your bloated stomach doesn’t go away, you should seek medical care to determine the cause.
Causes of bloating
Gas is a natural byproduct of digestion, but too much intestinal gas means your digestion is gone awry. While you can ingest gasses by swallowing air or drinking carbonated beverages, these gases mostly escape through belching before they reach your intestines. Gases in your intestines are mostly produced by gut bacteria digesting carbohydrates, in a process called fermentation.
If there’s too much fermentation going on, it’s because too many carbohydrates weren’t naturally absorbed earlier in the digestive process, before reaching those gut bacteria. That could be for several reasons. Maybe you just ate too much too fast for proper digestion. Or you might have a specific food intolerance or gastrointestinal (GI) disease.
Another reason you get bloated could be because of digestive contents which include solids, liquids, and gas. These can build up in your digestive system when there is a backup or restriction in your digestive tract or when the muscles that move digestive contents along are somehow impaired. Any build-up of digestive contents along the digestive tract will leave less room for normal amounts of gas to process through. It also leaves less room for other things in your abdomen, including circulatory fluids and fat, making everything feel tighter.
For some people their stomach bloating follows a different cycle — their menstrual cycle. As many as 3 in 4 women say they experience abdominal bloating before and during their menstrual periods. Bloating is also a common complaint during the hormone fluctuations of perimenopause. Female hormones deserve a special mention when it comes to stomach bloating because they can affect bloating from many angles — fluids, gas, digestive back-up — and also your sensitivity to those things.
If your bloated stomach doesn’t go away or gets worse, or if you have other symptoms of serious illness, such as fever or vomiting, you should seek medical attention to rule out other medical causes.
Care and treatment
If your bloating is due to something you ate or drank or to hormone fluctuations, it should begin to ease within a few hours to days. If you are constipated, it won’t go down until you start pooping. Here are some ways that can help ease the bloated feeling.
Herbal teas, including peppermint, chamomile, ginger, turmeric and fennel can aid digestion and help process gas. Dandelion tea can help relieve water retention.
Antacids have been shown to relieve inflammation in the digestive tract and help pass gas more easily. Antacids often include the active ingredient simethicone, which works to pass gas by grouping smaller gas bubbles together. Simethicone is also available separately.
Magnesium supplements help to neutralise stomach acid and relax the intestinal muscles. Magnesium has a natural laxative effect, which can be helpful from time to time but can be habit-forming if you use it too often.
Probiotics can help supplement or rebalance your gut bacteria. Some will help you digest your food better in the first place, and others may actually help absorb excess gasses. You may have to take them consistently for a few days or weeks to really notice a difference.
Regular exercise with a focus on core body strengthening can help combat abdominal bloating.
To prevent stomach bloating, eat enough fibre, drink enough water, do some exercise, avoid processed foods and take notice of the foods you are sensitive to so you can reduce or avoid eating them altogether.
