What’s Causing My Bloating?

Does bloating and gas have you embarrassed and wanting to hide away? It’s nothing to be ashamed about. However, there are some ways you can avoid bloating and discomfort, which will allow you to enjoy every moment of your day…even after eating your meal.

There can be various causes to your bloating. While it can be annoying to look 5 months pregnant after eating a meal, it can also be painful!

Not only that, but bloating can be a subtle sign from your body that something isn’t right. If you ignore these signs, it could lead to more serious health issues.

So let’s get to the bottom of what’s causing all that gas build-up so you can feel your best at all times of the day. First off, this gas build-up can be a result from methane, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide. It all depends on the root cause.

Here are a couple of underlying causes that lead to belly discomfort, stomach distention, and flatulence from gas build-up.

Causes of Bloating

  • SIBO
  • Dysbiosis
  • Food sensitivities
  • Stress
  • Low stomach acid

SIBO

SIBO, which stands for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, is when bacteria that usually resides in your large intestine, starts to travel into your small intestine. Bacteria feed on your undigested food particles, and as a result, causes fermentation and gas build-up. The type of bacteria that overgrows will determine the type of gas that forms.

Dysbiosis

Dysbiosis is when imbalances occur within your gut microbiome. The harmful bacteria take over, and beneficial bacteria diminish. 

Keep in mind that your beneficial bacteria play a role in digestion, hormone regulation and balance, and keeping your gut lining and mucosal barrier strong. If you don’t have those beneficial bacteria, then your digestion could be off due to impaired peristalsis, contributing to your bloating and discomfort. 

One way harmful bacteria can take over is from a poor diet…or a lack of a diverse diet. Processed foods that are high in sugars, additives, and pesticides have become the staple to our meals. Unfortunately, these play a big role in contributing to dysbiosis. 

Food Sensitivities

Food sensitivities can be a little tricky because symptoms may not appear right after you consume a particular food that you are sensitive to. Symptoms like bloating and gas could occur hours, or even days, after you digest a food that your body is sensitive to. These foods can cause inflammation and damage to your gut lining, constipation, and even headaches. 

The most common food sensitivities I see with my patients are gluten, dairy, and eggs. If you can address and eliminate these foods for a period of time (you may not have to say goodbye to these foods forever), you will see a huge reduction to your bloating.

Stress

Ahhh who doesn’t deal with stress these days, right? Stress can have huge health consequences- short term and long term. While stress can contribute to bloating, constipation, and headaches, chronic stress can even contribute to more serious chronic diseases. 

When you are stressed, your body goes into “fight or flight” mode. This is when your sympathetic nervous system gets activated. Your detox, reproductive and digestive functioning get put on hold.

Since your body isn’t moving food optimally through your digestive system, it can cause gas build up and let food sit stagnant in your gut- not good!

Low Stomach Acid (Hypochlorhydria)

A healthy stomach secretes hydrochloric acid (HCl) and pepsin in response to ingestion of a meal or even a small amount of food. 

Stomach acid serves as a barrier protecting against various microorganisms that might otherwise colonize the GI tract. So low stomach acid could lead to more complications like SIBO, discussed above.

Symptoms of low stomach acid may include, indigestion, heartburn, belching, bloating after meals, excess gas, chronic diarrhea, constipation, or feeling unusually full after small or moderate sized meals.

Tests to Address Bloating

  • Food SensitivityTest: This test, which requires just a finger prick, can test 96 different foods to see if you may be intolerant or have a sensitivity to them. It can detect your specific food IgG reactivity levels.
  • Breath Test for SIBO: The breath test measures the amount of hydrogen and methane in your breath. You’ll breathe into a special balloon, or collect your breath in small glass tubes over several hours, so your doctor can see the levels of key gases in your breath, some of which may indicate a bacterial imbalance.
  • Comprehensive Functional Medicine Stool Test:This test allows us to see what bacteria, yeasts, or fungi are present in your stool that may be contributing to your bloating symptoms. 

Comprehensive tests are generally only ordered by functional medicine practitioners. If your traditional doctor orders a stool test, it will likely not be comprehensive, and not give the full picture.

Lifestyle Modifications to Combat Bloating

Pay Attention to Your Diet

Eat a well diversified diet. Incorporating a bunch of organic colorful fruits and veggies to your diet can help colonize your gut with those helpful bugs. It can also inhibit the harmful bugs from overgrowing and causing havoc! 

Get Tested

After you get tested, you’ll know which foods to avoid if you’re sensitive to them, allowing your gut to rest and restore itself. When your gut is healthy, your body is happy.

Practice Stress Management

Stress will always be in our life. While we can do our best to avoid it, it will still be present. However, we can learn how to respond and deal with it in a healthy way so that we don’t set off our fight or flight response 24/7! Start incorporating some stress management techniques into your daily routine. 

These can include:

  • Yoga
  • Meditation
  • Breathing exercises
  • Spending time with uplifting people 
  • Spending time outdoors exercising

Get in Contact with Annapolis’ Functional Medicine Doctor, Dr. Skye Stewart

If you are tired of constantly struggling with bloating, please schedule a Free 10-minute Consult or New Patient Appointment with Dr. Skye Stewart at Whole Health Integrative Medicine. She is currently accepting patients for in-person appointments at the Annapolis office as well as virtual appointments for patients throughout Maryland. 

Don’t ignore these bloating symptoms for too long, because they could be your body telling you something deeper is going on.