How To Get Rid of IBS Bloating Fast
Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder that’s common among the population. It affects both the intestines and the stomach. This is the gastrointestinal tract, and it’s essential for good health. When people have this condition, it’s chronic and has to be managed for the long term.
IBS causes patients to get abdominal cramping and pain, constipation or diarrhea, gas, and bloating. It causes a change in the way bowel movements look and causes you to have bowel movements more often than before. Some sufferers also feel like they haven’t evacuated completely after they’ve had a bowel movement.
Most people who have this condition don’t have severe symptoms, but some patients do. When symptoms are severe, it’s likely that the patient needs to see a gastroenterologist for medication. Severe IBS can lead to rectal bleeding, weight loss, and nighttime diarrhea. No matter what the severity of the symptoms, there are things that people can do to help with their IBS bloating.
Causes of IBS
It isn’t currently known exactly what causes IBS. However, there are a few factors that may contribute to the condition. There are muscle layers inside the intestines. These muscles contract to move food material through. When these muscle contractions last too long or are too strong, this can lead to diarrhea, bloating, and gas. When the contractions are too weak, this can make food move too slowly and cause people to experience dry, hard bowel movements.
Being under a lot of stress is also thought to cause IBS. When the stress is felt early in life, it’s more likely that the person will eventually develop IBS. The condition may also be caused by nervous system issues. When your digestive system’s nerves have problems, it can cause diarrhea, pain, or constipation.
If you have a serious infection that causes a lot of diarrhea, you can develop IBS. In this way, IBS is related to gastroenteritis. If you have an overgrowth of bacteria in your intestines, this can also be a cause. If your gut microbe changes such as having changes in the viruses, fungi, and bacteria in this biome, it may cause IBS. People who have IBS generally have a different microbiome than those without it.
Triggers of IBS
It’s good to know what can trigger the condition so that you can manage it better. The main triggers are stress and specific foods. When a patient has IBS, they tend to get more symptoms or more serious symptoms when they’re under a lot of stress. This doesn’t cause the symptoms, but it does make them worse. The other trigger, food, can be more complicated. It isn’t yet understood what the relationship is between IBS and food intolerances and allergies. Many people with IBS have worse symptoms after eating or drinking specific things such as dairy products, cabbage, wheat, carbonated drinks, beans, and citrus fruits.
Bloating Symptoms
If you have IBS, you’ve probably experienced bloating before. It can be a real problem that can be an embarrassing symptom to live with. Bloating often causes abdominal distention that can be noticeable. In other words, the abdomen can stick out further than before. But it isn’t just about the way it looks. It’s also about the way it makes you feel. It can be highly uncomfortable to have bloating. It puts pressure on the abdomen and makes it always feel too full.
When people have IBS bloating, they often start the day with no distention only to have it get more and more distended as the day goes on. It can get worse slowly over the hours, or your abdomen can expand so quickly you can see it getting bigger. It’s often at its smallest after you’ve been lying down such as overnight. When people eat, it can make the symptoms worse. When a woman’s period is coming soon, this can also make the bloating worse.
What Causes Bloating?
Bloating happens when there’s a lot of gas in the abdomen. When foods that are full of fiber are eaten, this makes the amount of gas worse in the abdomen. The main causes of why people get gas and bloating aren’t always understood, but it’s believed that diet is a big part of it. As with IBS itself, there’s still a lot that we don’t know.
Treating and Managing Your IBS Bloating
There hasn’t been a proven therapy to get rid of all IBS bloating, but there are things that you can do to help. There are many solutions that can help you with abdominal pain and bloating by changing your lifestyle a little bit. These can offer a degree of long-term relief that can make the condition much easier to handle.
Get Regular Exercise
When you get regular exercise, you help your bowels to function better. Exercise has to be done regularly, at least a few times a week. It’s also helpful to move more when you aren’t exercising. With so many sedentary jobs, many people move little during the day. Your bloating can get worse if you stay in this position for many hours. Take regular work breaks to move around for the health of your gastrointestinal tract.
Keep Constipation at Bay
If you’re constipated, this often makes bloating worse. If you’re more regular, you can help with bloating and reduce the look and feel of it. It can be hard to get rid of constipation when you’re trying not to eat foods that will make your bowels more active. However, there are plenty of things that you can eat that can help you to move your bowels without stimulating them too much. You may want to talk to a dietician about preventing constipation without causing worse diarrhea.
Reduce Your Consumption of Fiber
There are a lot of foods that have a high fiber content such as leafy greens, nuts, oatmeal, many fruits, and more. Many of these foods are a part of a healthy diet and are nutrient-rich. However, they aren’t the best foods for someone with IBS to eat. It’s important to find alternatives to high-fiber foods that are also full of nutrients but without a high level of fiber. It takes a lot of balancing your diet to make sure you don’t eat a lot of fiber but also don’t get constipated, but many people are able to do it.
Eat Small Meals Regularly
Having a large meal can ramp up gas and bloating. Many people feel tempted to just not eat all day because they don’t want the bloating, but that isn’t a healthy way to treat the problem. It’s much more helpful to eat a small amount of food regularly throughout your day. You shouldn’t eat a lot of fat, and you shouldn’t eat your meals in a rush. Take your time and eat a diet that’s low in fiber and saturated fats to help with your bloating. There’s no single diet that works well for everyone, so you’ll have to experiment with various foods to see which ones are the best for your condition.
Try OTC Medications
There are a number of over-the-counter medications that may help with your IBS bloating. There are a number of OTC medications on the market that are made to decrease gas and reduce bloating. Some prevent you from having a lot of gas as food is digested, while others will lower the amount of gas you produce. Common ingredients in these medications include activated charcoal and simethicone. They have been found to be helpful, but they can’t be relied on as the only solution to your bloating long term.
Probiotics
A probiotics supplement contains live bacteria. Probiotics can also be found in certain foods such as yogurt. In your gut, there is a microbiome of bacteria that are important for your gut health. If you don’t have enough good bacteria in there, it can cause a number of intestinal problems. Taking a probiotic helps your gut to have a healthy level of microflora. This can help with some of the bloating if you take these every day. Ask your doctor about the amount of live cultures that should be in the probiotics you take.
Peppermint
People have been using peppermint oil for a long time to help soothe abdominal problems. It can offer some temporary relief from the bloating and the pressure it brings. You can take peppermint supplements or use mints that use real peppermint oil. You can also drink peppermint tea, and many people recommend this tea. It can help the muscles inside your intestines to relax, helping you with your IBS bloating as well as other symptoms. It can cause heartburn in some people, though.
Antibiotics
If you see a doctor about your IBS, you might be put on antibiotics. While having more intestinal flora is generally a good thing for gut health, the opposite can also be true. It may be that you have too much bacteria in your small intestines and need prescription antibiotics to get rid of it.
While science doesn’t yet know all the causes of this condition and the bloating it brings, there are things that have been found to help with that bloating. Not everything works for everyone, so try a couple of treatments and see which makes a difference in your bloating.
