If you’ve ever experienced that full and painful feeling in your stomach after a big meal, you’re not alone. Roughly 10 to 25 percent of healthy adults say they occasionally experience stomach bloating – many with moderate to severe symptoms.

Bloating, while a common issue, can stem from various factors such as food intolerances and digestive disorders. It’s important to understand what triggers your bloating so you can take steps to prevent discomfort.

What causes bloating?

One common cause of bloating is excess gas created when your body cannot fully absorb carbohydrates before they reach the bacteria in your gut. Under normal circumstances, your gut will absorb some carbohydrates through a process known as fermentation. This is a routine part of digestion and essential for breaking down complex carbohydrates into simpler, more easily absorbed molecules. However, when fermentation occurs in excess, it can lead to overproduction of gas, causing the painful, full feeling we associate with bloating.

Several factors can contribute to excessive fermentation and subsequent bloating, including ingesting air while eating, drinking carbonated beverages, eating too much at once, or eating too fast. Other causes of excess gas and bloating include:

• Constipation: Difficulty in bowel movements can lead to a buildup of waste in the intestines. This causes digested food to remain in the intestines for an extended period, leading to stomach expansion. The resulting reduced space for normal gas passage causes discomfort and pain.
• IBS and gut sensitivity: Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, can cause a variety of painful symptoms in the digestive tract. The exact causes of IBS are not entirely understood, but it's believed to be related to issues with the communication between your brain and gut, affecting the normal functioning of your digestive system.
• Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth: This condition occurs when bacteria from the colon overflows into the small intestine, disrupting the balance of beneficial bacteria.
• Bowel obstruction: In serious cases, your bowels can be blocked by things like scar tissue, tumors, or hernias. Additionally, with diseases like Crohn’s disease, damage to your small intestine can make it difficult for waste to pass through.
• Hormones: People who experience menstrual cycles may often experience bloating. The hormones estrogen and progesterone, which significantly influence the female reproductive system, can cause bloating around your menstrual period. These hormones can affect the motility or movement of food through your digestive system, leading to gas and bloating. Additionally, estrogen can cause water retention, making your abdomen feel bloated.

Stress, certain medications, and weight gain can also cause you to bloat. Often, symptoms are predictable and follow a similar pattern each time they occur.

Relief from bloating

Typically, minor bloating caused by eating, drinking, or hormones will go away on its own in a few hours or days. However, there are ways you can relieve the symptoms, particularly if they are caused by constipation. This includes:

• Probiotics: Although not an immediate solution, probiotics help balance your gut bacteria. This can help your digestive process and help reduce excess gas.
• Herbal tea: Certain types of teas, such as peppermint, ginger, chamomile, and fennel, have been known to support healthy digestion.
• Peppermint oil can help relax the muscles in your digestive system, helping you pass waste and gas.
• Fiber supplements promote regularity and help you pass waste more easily over time.
• Antacids can reduce inflammation and help you pass gas.

Other pain management techniques may help soothe the pain associated with mild to moderate bloating. Those include:

• Heating pads or a warm bath can help relax the muscles in your stomach, potentially helping with trapped gas.
• Light exercise can help move trapped gas through your system, relieving pain.
• If the pain from bloating is causing stress and anxiety, deep breathing exercises and meditation can also support calmness and relaxation.

Ways to prevent bloating

Understanding the causes of bloating can help you make lifestyle changes to reduce discomfort. Identifying food sensitivities and intolerances and avoiding those food items can help reduce the likelihood of bloating. Avoid chewing gum, carbonated beverages, and drinking through straws to prevent you from swallowing excess air. By eating slowly, chewing thoroughly, and moderating your food intake, you can help control the amount of gas produced in your gut and minimize bloating.

If bloating is a consistent issue, your provider may recommend exploring a low FODMAP diet. FODMAP stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols, which are types of carbohydrates that can be difficult for some people to digest, leading to bloating and other digestive issues.

The low FODMAP diet involves initially eliminating high FODMAP foods such as dairy products, beans, wheat, and certain fruits and vegetables from your diet. After this elimination phase, which typically lasts about 2-6 weeks, you then gradually reintroduce these foods back into your diet one at a time. This reintroduction phase allows you to monitor your body's response to each food. By doing so, you can identify which foods trigger your bloating symptoms so they can be limited or avoided in the future to manage bloating and other symptoms better.

Typically, occasional bloating isn’t a cause for concern. However, if you are experiencing frequent, severe bloating that impacts your daily life and activity, it may be time to consult your healthcare provider.