If you want to banish your bloat, you need to figure out the specific reason WHY you’re bloated, so that you can apply a specific solution. And keep in mind, there could be multiple reasons – and multiple solutions. Bloating is one of the commonest problems I deal with as a gastroenterologist, and the most important thing for you to know, is that there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to bloating. In fact, the title of my 3rd book – The Bloat Cure: 101 Natural Solutions for Real & Lasting Relief – is because there truly are so many different causes. In this episode we’re going to cover the top 10 reasons you may be bloated.
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If you want to banish your bloat, you need to figure out the specific reason WHY you’re bloated, so that you can apply a specific solution. And keep in mind, there could be multiple reasons – and multiple solutions.
On today’s show, bloating is one of the commonest problems I deal with as a gastroenterologist, and the most important thing for you to know, is that there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to bloating. In fact, the title of my 3rd book – The Bloat Cure: 101 Natural Solutions for Real & Lasting Relief – is because there truly are so many different things that can make us bloated. But we’re not going to go over all 101, although if you’re interested, I highly recommend you check out the book The Bloat Cure.
But on today’s show, I’m going to tell you about 10 of the most common causes of bloat, and also, I want to get you thinking about CATEGORIES, because that really is the key to banishing your bloat. You need to figure out: is this a food problem; or an anatomical problem; or a medicine cabinet problem? And of course, your bloating could be caused by more than one category: it could be a food problem plus a medicine cabinet problem.
To be a successful medical detective so that you can actually figure out the root cause of why you’re bloated and get relief, it’s really helpful to think in terms of these categories. So today I’m going to be covering five of the big ones, and that is going to include medicine cabinet, food, habits, hormones, and anatomy.
Now keep in mind these are not the only categories or causes. There’s plenty more. There are conditions like diverticulosis and fibroids and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and so many more causes to talk about, but my goal on the podcast today is to highlight some of the common ones and to get you thinking about what categories may be the culprit when it comes to your bloating. If you want the full Monty; all 101 causes and solutions definitely check out the book The Bloat Cure.
#1 MEDICINE CABINET:
1) Antibiotics: when you take an antibiotic, you may experience symptoms like nausea or diarrhea, after a couple of doses. But you may not realize that your long-term bloating could also be a direct result of antibiotics—those you took recently, as well as those from years or even decades ago. Antibiotics are supposed to kill pathogens, but they also indiscriminately kill off huge numbers of the good bacteria that are essential for a healthy gut. Undesirable gas-producing microbes multiple quickly to fill the void created by the loss of your good bacteria. Even benign bacteria, if their numbers increase too much, can become problematic. The result is dysbiosis, a state of bacterial imbalance and one of the most common causes of bloating.
2) Proton Pump Inhibitors: these are acid-suppressing drugs, and if you’ve been taking one of these medications for more than a few months, it could be the reason you’re bloated, especially if you’re having lots of indigestion and gas after eating. Stomach acid is an essential ingredient in digestion, and when you block stomach acid as these drugs so effectively do, you create maldigestion and you also interfere with the natural gradient of bacteria in your gut, and this can result in major bloating.
#2 FOOD:
3) Artificial Sweeteners: I can’t call artificial sweeteners food because they’re not – they are edible food like substances – and a common cause of bloating because they’re not absorbed in your small intestine, and they end up in your colon, where they get fermented by colonic bacteria, resulting in lots of gas. Studies also show that artificial sweeteners are harmful to your gut bacteria and can disturb the delicate balance between good and bad bacteria that’s an important part of staying bloat-free.
4) Soy: if you’re lactose intolerant like more than 50% of the world’s population, a soy latte may seem like a great idea, but processed soy can be a big contributor to your bloat. In Small amounts of unprocessed fermented soy like miso, natto, and tempeh can have health benefits, and can actually encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria. But large amounts of processed unfermented soy, that we consume in place of dairy or as filler in processed food can have the opposite result. Too much processed soy can also contribute to something called estrogen dominance that I’m going to be discussing in a minute, and it can also slow down thyroid function in some people, which can also contribute to bloating.
#3 HABITS:
5) Aerophagia: it’s normal to swallow a little air when you eat or drink, especially with carbonated beverages like seltzer or champagne. But as the day progresses, if you feel like the Michelin Man or Woman and you want to pop your belly with a pin to deflate it, you may be swallowing large amounts of air on a regular basis—a condition called aerophagia, which can lead to a massive buildup of gas in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract and major bloating. This is an incredibly common, but it is also very underdiagnosed. Most people with aerophagia complain of three main symptoms: bloating, burping, and abdominal distension. If you have chronic sinus problems, a deviated septum, or a history of allergies or asthma, you may be a mouth breather rather than nose breather, which predisposes you to aerophagia. Chewing gum, sucking on hard candy, smoking, eating too quickly, talking when you’re eating, drinking lots of liquids with your meals, or holding your breath when you’re anxious can all cause aerophagia.
6) Late night eating: you may not realize that your digestive tract has a bedtime. Its muscular contractions are tied to the light-dark cycle, known as the circadian rhythm, so your GI tract most active during the day, and least active at night—which is when you’re probably consuming the majority of your calories. To make matters worse, after filling your sleepy stomach with food at night, you may be reclining on your sofa or bed, so you don’t have the benefit of gravity and movement to help transport things from north to south. Eating large meals at night is a sure way to feel bloated, and it can also cause or exacerbate acid reflux.
#4 HORMONES:
7) Estrogen dominance: as you approach menopause, your levels of both progesterone and estrogen start to decline, but progesterone decreases more than estrogen, leading to a state of estrogen dominance, a condition highly correlated with bloating. Exposure to xenoestrogens—compounds produced outside the body that have an estrogen-like effect—also contribute to estrogen dominance. Xenoestrogens are widespread in the environment: in hormones given to many commercially raised animals, in pesticides, and in lots of the plastics and chemicals in everyday use. If you’re significantly overweight, you may be more likely to experience estrogen dominance because androstenedione, a hormone made in the male and female reproductive organs and the adrenal glands, gets converted to estrogen by fat cells. Birth control pills (BCPs) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are also forms of xenoestrogens and they can be a major cause of bloating.
8) Stress: stress can worsen virtually every digestive condition, and bloating is no exception. It disrupts the normal hormonal messages throughout your gut that are important for maintaining bowel regularity. It increases stomach acid; it shunts blood away from your intestines; it decreases enzyme secretion; it slows down stomach emptying—all of which can add up to some serious bloating. Stress also creates changes in your gut that can affect your immune system, including increased intestinal permeability associated with leaky gut and food allergies, greater susceptibility to inflammation and infection, and overgrowth of harmful bacteria. If you think you may be anxious or overly stressed, it’s a good idea to have your mental health assessed by a professional, especially if you’ve been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and told that stress is partly to blame. Not feeling well psychologically makes it much more challenging for you to have a healthy, bloat-free digestive tract.
#5 ANATOMY/PHYSIOLOGY:
9) Voluptuous Venus colon: three big differences between the male and female colon explain why bloating is such a problem for women. The first is that women have longer colons than men—on average four to five inches longer. That may not seem like a lot, but it translates into plenty of extra twists and turns. In medical literature, the twisty-turny female colon is often described as redundant, tortuous, or spastic, but I prefer to think of it as a voluptuous Venus colon. Unfortunately giving it a nicer name doesn’t prevent the products of digestion from getting stuck in all those curves, leading to lots of gas and bloating.
The second difference is that women have a wider, deeper pelvis than men. That causes the female colon to drop down into the pelvis, where it competes for space with the uterus, ovaries, Fallopian tubes, and bladder. The result is lots of looping, crowding, constipation, and bloating. Men’s reproductive organs take up much less space in their pelvis, so they’re much less likely to suffer from bloating. The third difference is due to hormone levels: men have higher levels of testosterone, which makes them more muscular overall, including a tighter, more well-developed abdominal wall—sort of like a built-in Spanx. As a result, there’s much less tendency for their colon to form loops and protrude. Overweight men may complain of a beer belly, but they rarely complain of being bloated, because underneath all that belly fat is a nice, tight abdominal wall. And despite these anatomical differences, keep in mind that men can have a voluptuous colon also. Check out episode 3 of the Gutbliss Podcast on the Voluptuous Venus colon for solutions to decompress a curvy colon.
10) Belly fat: first, the burning question: how can you tell bloating from belly fat? Bloating is usually caused by gas, and it generally ebbs and flows: some mornings you’re as flat as a pancake and then by dinnertime you look six months pregnant. Or things are fine for a while and then you have several days when you can’t button your pants. For most people, there’s lots of variation in their bloating, whereas with belly fat, you never really deflate.
If you’re not sure whether your bulge is bloat or belly fat, this is what I want you to do: measure around your waist using a tape measure first thing in the morning and at bedtime every day for several days in a row. If you’re bloated, you’ll typically see that the number varies quite a bit. Whereas if it’s belly fat, the measurement shouldn’t change by more than an inch.
While you have the measuring tape out, I want you to use it to measure another super-important number: your waist- to-height ratio, also known as the index of central obesity. You absolutely need to know this number, and here’s why: if your waist circumference is more than half your height, even if you’re not over weight, you’re more likely to have metabolic syndrome, a deadly combination of risk factors present in up to 25 percent of Americans that dramatically increases your chances of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Those risk factors include high blood pressure, high fasting blood sugar, low levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol), elevated triglycerides, and an increased waist circumference. This is the type of bloating that can be deadly if not addressed.
I want to leave you with three takeaways that can help you figure out why you’re bloated and get you to the right solution:
1. Become a medical detective by thinking about categories for what’s causing your bloating. Is this an anatomical problem because you were recently diagnosed with fibroids. Is it a food problem caused by the soy milk you’re putting in your oatmeal every morning?
2. Your bloating may be caused by more than one thing. And that means it may require more than one solution. It may require a dietary change, plus a lifestyle change, or it may even require some medical intervention if this is an anatomical problem that needs to be addressed.
3. Do not accept the idea that you’re bloated, and this is just normal. Even if there’s not anything seriously wrong, that still doesn’t mean everything is right. Bloating is important feedback that your digestive tract is giving you and you need to work to figure out why, rather than just accepting this as the status quo for your body.
So that’s it for this edition of the Gutbliss Podcast on Top Ten Causes of Bloating. If you want to go deep and wide into all the different causes of bloating plus get detailed solutions, check out my book, The Bloat Cure: 101 Natural Solutions For Real and Lasting Relief.
Coming up next week on the Gutbliss Podcast: Uninvited guests. Could a parasite be the cause of your digestive distress?
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