Bloating
Introduction
Bloating is a sign that your gut is not as healthy as it should be. There are numerous reasons for your experience of bloating and discomfort, some of which might surprise you greatly.
Main reasons for bloating
- You are eating foods that your gut simply does not like. The obvious culprits are gluten, wheat, yeast, dairy and sugar. Try eliminating these food for a couple of weeks to see if the bloating subsides.
- You are eating foods that are very high in histamine including fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir) and bone broths. These foods can be great for some people, but for others they can cause bloating and even pain.
- You are taking the wrong probiotic for you. Probiotics contain strains of bacteria that can either increase histamine or degrade histamine. If you are feeling more bloated from a probiotic, it may mean it contains too many histamine strains for you.
- Prebiotic fibres including fructooligosacchardies (FOS) lactulose (LOS) and galactooligosacchardies (GOS), guar gum, slippery elm, pectin, psyllium husk can be great for feeding gut bacteria. However, these prebiotic fibers can lead to bloating in some individuals. If you experience this, you might have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which requires treatment.
- You are eating too much raw food plant food. Raw plant food contains undigestible fibre, which in large amounts can cause bloating.
- Parasites, yeast and bacterial overgrowth. These bugs can all cause bloating and discomfort. You may need to do a comprehensive digestive stool analysis to establish if you have any of these infections in your gut. If you do, don’t worry as they can be treated naturally with specific herbs and enzymes.
- Hydrochloric acid deficiency. If you don’t have enough hydrochloric acid, you are unable to break down your food properly which may cause bloating. People taking reflux medication will have low hydrochloric acid.
- Zinc deficiency. You need zinc to heal your gut as well make hydrochloric acid.
- Constipation – this will cause bloating and pain. It’s important to establish the root cause of constipation and treat accordingly as long term constipation will cause toxicity build up in the body.
- Hormonal imbalance – an excess of oestrogen compared to progesterone will cause both premenstrual and ovulation bloating. Correcting this hormonal imbalance gives lot of relief to many women.
