Bloated Stomach Relief: Causes, Remedies and Home Treatments

Why Does My Stomach Feel Like a Balloon? The Real Guide to Understanding Bloating

We’ve all been there. Morning starts well, but by the time you’re back at your desk after lunch, your clothes feel tight, and your stomach is stretched out. It’s that uncomfortable, swollen feeling that makes you skip evening snacks and wonder if it was the meal. That may be bloating. 

Bloating is the most common digestive complaint reported in adults worldwide. While occasional bloating is normal, frequent episodes or persistent bloating often indicate an underlying digestive issue. 

Let’s understand why Bloating forms and how it affects your gut health in this article.

What Actually Is Bloating?

Before we talk about fixes, we have to define what we’re actually dealing with. 

People often confuse bloating with water retention or even weight gain, but they aren’t the same thing. Bloating occurs when excess gas accumulates in your stomach or intestine. It can result from swallowed air, slowed digestion, sensitivity to certain foods, poor gut health and many more. 

However, when we think of gas and sometimes the accompanying bloating, it is essential to realise that recurrent gas and bloating come with a story about your health. 

Causes of Bloating: Why Is This Happening?

Let’s look at the actual mechanics of why your gut is over-inflating and causes bloating. 

• Dietary considerations: Nutrition, specifically your dietary choices, plays a pivotal role in causing bloating. Foods like beans, lentils, dairy products, soft drinks and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower require specific enzymes for digestion, which our body may not always produce in sufficient amounts, causing disturbance in digestive health.  
• Food sensitivities: When we eat foods that our body struggles to break down easily, it leads to the production of gas and inflammation. For instance, lactose requires the enzyme lactase for proper digestion; however, when the enzyme lactase is low in the body, lactose remains undigested and fermenets causing bloating. Similarly, high FODMAP foods like dairy products, sweeteners, grains, etc., draw water into the intestine and increase gas production. 

• Digestive disorders: Certain digestive disorders, such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and celiac disease, directly affect the small and large intestines. The body often manifests any intestinal inflammation through symptoms such as bloating, gas, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain. 
• Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)- One overlooked player is Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), a condition that affects the balance of bacteria in the gut microbiome. SIBO occurs when there’s an abnormal increase in the bacterial population in the small intestine, resulting in various digestive disruptions, including increased bloating. 
• Disruption in the large intestine microbiome- The large intestine is home to trillions of bacteria responsible for digestion, immunity, and metabolic balance. When this microbial ecosystem becomes imbalanced, harmful bacteria, fungi, parasites, or viruses can overgrow in it. This leads to fermentation, gas, persistent bloating, and inflammation.
• Stress and anxiety: An evolving understanding of the brain-gut connection has shed light on the negative impact of stress on the digestive system. Stress and anxiety through the gut-brain connection slow down the stomach emptying, while increasing the large intestine activity, which leads to bloating, gas, and altered bowel movement. Moreover, stress alters the gut microbiome, causing increased sensitivity to normal gas, reducing digestive enzyme activity, and may also cause inflammation to the intestinal lining, all of which contribute to discomfort and abdominal distension. 
• Aerophagia (Swallowing excess Air): Eating too quickly, chewing gum, drinking carbonated water, or talking while eating can increase air intake. This excess air may accumulate in your stomach and lead to bloating.

How to Get Real And Lasting Relief

Managing bloating requires addressing its root cause rather than just popping a pill. It’s necessary to first consult with healthcare professionals to rule out the cause and manage bloating. 

You can book your consultation with our functional medicine expert for managing your bloating. 

Here is the simple hierarchy of relief, moving from “immediate” to “long-term.”

The Immediate Fixes

• Post-Meal Stroll: Just don’t sit on the couch after dinner. Take a 10-minute walk that can help move food and gas through your system. Multiple studies have found a relationship between increased physical activity and the release of trapped gas. 
• Peppermint Oil: This is one of the few natural remedies backed by significant clinical evidence. Peppermint is an antispasmodic; it relaxes the muscles of the gut, allowing trapped gas to pass through more easily.
• Heat Therapy: A simple hot water bottle on the abdomen can do wonders for relaxing the digestive tract and easing the pain of distension.
• Herbal Tea: Different teas can help our gut health. For instance, peppermint tea or peppermint supplements have been shown to help with symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in adults. 
• Apple Cider Vinegar (AVC): Acetic acid in vinegar is known to have many health benefits, and more specifically, unfiltered apple cider vinegar contains a mixture of enzymes, friendly bacteria, and proteins. This vinegar supports digestion and maintains a healthy gut microbe balance. Also, ACV, by increasing stomach acid, improves food breakdown and stimulates bowel movement, and reduces the piled-up undigested food, which ultimately helps with bloating. A tablespoon of ACV in water or tea before meals can help reduce symptoms of bloating and aid your overall gut health. 

The Behavioural Shifts

• Avoid Certain Foods: Carbonated beverages like flavoured sodas, flavoured gum, processed foods, i.e., snacks, cereals or salad dressings that come prepackaged. 
• The 20-Chew Rule: Digestion starts in the mouth with saliva. If you don’t chew your food into a paste, your stomach has to work twice as hard, leading to more fermentation and more gas. Try chewing every bite 20 times.
• Hydrate: Drink plenty of water throughout the day, but make sure to avoid chugging a litre of water during your meal. Too much liquid during eating can dilute your stomach acid, making protein digestion less efficient.
• Deep Breathing and Stress Management: Deep breathing exercises and journaling can alleviate stress, reducing the strain on the stomach and intestines.

Prevention: How to Strengthen Gut Health for Long-term Relief

Many digestive complaints, like bloating, gas, diarrhoea, etc., occur due to gut microbiota imbalance. So, supporting overall gut health plays a crucial role in reducing recurrent and persistent bloating. 

Here are a few suggestions to prevent bloating and strengthen gut health: 

• Mindful Eating: Adopt mindful eating practices, savour each meal deliberately, rather than multitasking, and try to concentrate only on your food. This aids in averting excessive air intake during meals and ultimately relieving bloating.
• Avoid triggers: Identify your food sensitivities and trigger foods to help you stay healthy in the long run.  
• Eliminate habits such as indulging in carbonated drinks, smoking, sipping through straws, and frequent gum chewing. 

At Nutra Nourish, we work on finding the root cause of disease by working with the individual and caring for your unique body and underlying mechanisms and then suggesting a supplement. 

Additionally, we at Nutra Nourish provide several tests as well to find out the root cause of your bloating, such as the KBMO food sensitivity test ( a simple spot blood test that evaluates food sensitivities by measuring IgG and immune complexes), SIBO test, gut microbiome test, and lactose intolerance test.

We have a wide range of gastrointestinal health supplements designed to support digestive health, fibre-rich, microbial balance, and mucosal support. When supplements are combined with healthcare professional guidance and lifestyle modifications, addresses bloating at its root rather than just masking it. 

Disclaimer: Occasional bloating is normal. However, persistent bloating along with pain, a change in bowel habits, or unexplained weight loss should not be ignored. These symptoms may be a sign of an underlying disease that requires professional evaluation. 

Conclusion

Bloating isn’t a major symptom, but it’s a sign that something is not going well in your gut health. If you will pay closer attention to how you eat, what you eat, and how you handle stress, identify your personal trigger foods, and move your body, you can manage the bloating.

Nevertheless, despite your best efforts, your gut needs a little extra support. That’s where we at Nutra Nourish can help, a multifactorial approach focused on root causes rather than quick fixes to make you healthy.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Does drinking water help with bloating?

Ans. Yes, drinking water helps with bloating, only if it is due to fluid retention. Staying well-hydrated helps excrete excess fluids and ultimately supports your digestive system. 

Q. Does walking after meals help with bloating?

Ans. Yes, even a gentle 10-15 min walk after meals can help move gas through the digestive tract and reduce your bloating. 

Q. Is my bloating from gas or water retention?

Ans. Gas-related bloating feels tight and may improve after passing gas. However, water retention bloating feels more puffy and may affect your hands or feet. 

Q. Why am I bloated even when I haven’t eaten much?

Ans. Bloating isn’t always related to how much you have eaten. Eating too fast, constipation, stress, drinking carbonated drinks, or poor digestion can lead to bloating even after you eat a little food. 

Q. Can food intolerance (like lactose) cause bloating?

Ans. Yes, food intolerance may be the reason for your bloating. Foods like lactose can lead to gas formation, bloating, and even diarrhoea. 

. 

Q. Do antacids help with bloating?

Ans. Sometimes, yes, antacids may help if bloating is caused by acid reflux or indigestion. But usually they don’t relieve bloating due to any other reason, such as gut imbalance. 

Q. Does peppermint tea or peppermint oil help with bloating?

Ans. Yes, peppermint helps with bloating as it can relax the digestive muscles and help relieve gas-related bloating. 

Q. Can stress/anxiety cause bloating?

Ans. Yes, stress can be a major cause of your bloating, as it can slow digestion and increase gut sensitivity, which may cause bloating, discomfort, and even irregular bowel habits.