Gas and bloating: the causes and how to stop it | Dr. Will Bulsiewicz

[Music] hello and welcome to Zoe shorts the bite-sized podcast where we discuss one topic around science and nutrition I'm Jonathan Wolfe and this week we have a new expert joining me will ball switch is a board-certified gastroenterologist author of multiple New York Times best-selling books on gut health and Zoe's U.S medical director and before this podcast I actually looked up gastroenterologist to understand what it really meant and the dictionary defines this as a medical practitioner qualified to diagnose and treat disorders of the stomach and intestines and since today's subject is gas and bloating it seems like will you are the perfect person for the job it's great to be here today I'm super excited to talk about this topic it's an important topic issues related to gas and bloating are incredibly common one in six of us will experience bloating but the symptoms that lead to bloating are far more complex than we often give them credit for thanks will and I have children so I know that this is often a subject to much entity and entertainment for my kids but it's also a very serious topic and so this week we're going to try and find out what it is that's causing gas and bloating I think there's some pretty great research that explains why we experience bloating and we may even have some ideas about how to combat it sounds good to me so when it comes to gas and bloating we did some research and it's actually one of the most common problems that people report so about one in five people in the United States report experiencing bloating and it probably goes further than that so I think anecdotally a lot of people will get dressed in the morning and by the afternoon their belts may feel a little tighter or their genes are maybe uncomfortable around the waist and that feeling of being bloated is incredibly common even if we're not going to see a doctor about it it is sporting is the feeling of an increased abdominal pressure usually related to gas and while for some people this building is actually visible like they almost can look like they're pregnant others will feel the discomfort of bloating while displaying minimal or no distension of their stomach and well I think a lot of people attribute bloating to days when they've had like a big lunch or perhaps this idea that their body is just producing excess amounts of gas because of something they ate is is that what's going on what's happening with your body is a bit more complicated that's the thing that people need to understand if we if we want to get better at managing the bloating issue we have to actually understand the Nuance that's what's going to allow us to get there so you're saying there's quite a lot of different things that might be going on that ex that explain why I might be suffering from it exactly in fact I would say there's four main causes of bloating that are worth discussing the first is swallowed error second constipation third is a struggling microbiome gut microbiome specifically and then the last is our food choices well why don't we start at the beginning uh with the swallowed air so I can think of many ways that air can get into the body but I I think we should probably start with the most obvious way which is through the mouth yeah I I think the most obvious way for her to get into your body is this air that's being swallowed so any air that enters your body through your mouth is ultimately going to have to be expelled one way or the other so you can belch it out up top or it has to wiggle its way through your intestines to come out the other side as you pass gas from Below so that makes sense and the air we breathe in you know has to go somewhere uh we did some research on this and there's actually a condition called aerophagia which occurs when a person swallows too much air it's actually quite common and can be displayed through things like frequent gulping many people won't even realize that they're doing this air swallowing and it's the cause of their discomfort if they suffer from regular bloating absolutely these people suffer with intractable belching as well the the person who they can like literally belch their way through the ABCs have you ever seen like a teenage kid do that the air that that comes out when you belch is actually air that entered at some point when you swallowed so that is not air being produced by your gut microbes or something like that this is the reason why it doesn't smell nearly as bad but other common sources of swallowed air that people need to be aware of include carbonated drinks sipping through straws chewing gums sucking on hard candies and then also some people uh they swell air when they eat so they're aggressive eaters they eat fast they drink fast they do big gulps and their air enters their body when they do that so you know the bottom line is that if the air gets in it has to come out one way the other and it may work its way through the 20 to 25 feet the six to eight meters of intestines before it comes out your bottom on the other end that's that can be extremely uncomfortable so if we're discussing entrances and exits you know I think naturally we should talk about the other end and talk about the bowels how do they relate to gas and bloating yeah we definitely need to talk about this so the the bowels are actually extremely important to uh this type of manifestation of gas and bloating and specifically in people that have soil bowel movements which otherwise is known as constipation this this can lead to intestinal gas retention symptoms of bloating abdominal discomfort in my experience as a gastrologist the number one cause of gas and bloating that I've seen is actually constipation and in people who are constipated the most common symptom that they experience is gas and bloating so it's sort of this connection that exists um so these two are very sort of tied together well yeah they're very they're very much intertwined and you know we actually have research Jonathan showing that people who are constipated they produce more bowel gas so I think it's worth noting that people with irritable bowel syndrome and chronic constipation they may experience difficulties with regard to gas and bloating and and these challenges that exist it can come from many different sources which could include difficulty relaxing their bottom difficulty having a good complete evacuation or bowel movement and so you know no matter what it is if you're suffering from constipation there's a high likelihood that you're gonna be suffering with gas and bloating at the same time so in these cases if you can remedy the constipation you can hopefully offset some of the unpleasant side effects of bloating yeah that's actually what I typically will strive to do as a gastroenterologist is from my perspective um I want to get them into a rhythm and get their bowels more regular and if you can accomplish that what I typically have seen is that the gas and bloating goes away got it and so I guess fiber also uh can fit into this right so fiber can hold on to water can soften stool you know a high fiber diet in general is correlated with quicker sort of transit times of food generally helping people without with more regular bowel movement movements uh yes but there's a bit of a caveat so I mean I am the world's biggest fan of fiber but I also believe in keeping it real and people who you know the thing you have to understand is that people have mild constipation they will generally improve when they increase their fiber intake and oftentimes they can do little things like take a walk through their neighborhood or have a few glasses of water all that gets them there but the people who have more moderate or severe constipation the people that are suffering with sort of a daily challenge when it comes to constipation these people actually may find that fiber makes their constipation worse so my approach to this situation it's not to say that fiber is bad it's more so to say that I like to focus on getting their bowels moving first and then I will ramp up the fiber second so move the bowels first and then the fiber helps to maintain the bowel Rhythm once you've done that got it so speaking of fiber you know and gut health what about the role of our gut microbiome so we've got these trillions of bacteria munching away on our food presumably that's going to generate a lot of gas yes or a gut microbiome plays an important role in processing and digesting our food and this is particularly true with the high fiber foods so when the gut microbiome is impaired or injured it may struggle to process and Digest particularly high fiber foods and when this happens this is when you can experience side effects like gas and bloating so well we've discussed a lot about our bodies but what about the things we eat how do external factors like the food we choose lead to gas and bloating this is definitely a part of the equation you know there's certain foods that are more common in terms of producing gas and bloating so we need to be aware of those and from your experience well what would you think are the two biggest areas of concern if somebody is experiencing chronic gas and bloating and listening to this yeah I have advice that I routinely would give to people who come in with gas and bloating like literally on the first visit and that would be to eliminate non-fermented Dairy and artificial sweeteners fascinating because we just did an episode about artificial sweeteners and we're probably going to do some more in the future so can we start with with those yeah people have traditionally thought of artificial sweeteners as being benign I mean I have certainly been guilty of this myself 10 years ago I was dropping a couple packets of Splenda into every single coffee um and I think so that's a lot of straightener yeah yeah and I've moved out I drink my coffee black now I've gotten used to it but the thing is they're not absorbed by the intestinal system they don't contain calories and and for these reasons people think of them as just being completely benign but actually it's a lot more complicated than that they still come into contact with our gut microbes and because they're coming into contact with our gut microbes they can be fermented or they can have different effects on our digestive system that ultimately cause gas and bloating and also people should be aware they can cause diarrhea so that makes sense on sweeteners what about Dairy why would um why would you look to eliminate that well I think first of all Jonathan let me sort of make a distinction there's dairy products that are fermented and then there's dairy products that are not fermented and fermented dairy products are things like hard cheeses or kefir or yogurt and the fermentation process is unique because it actually the microbes the bacteria that are living as a part of the ferment they consume the lactose and well could you just what is lactose lactose is a sugar so it's the rare example where an animal product you know in this case Dairy actually contains a carbohydrate so um lactose is a sugar that is specifically found in cow's milk and around 70 of the world is actually intolerant of lactose so what that means is that I mean there's a certain amount that can tolerate it's not an allergy but when they sort of exceed what their body is capable of consuming then the digestive symptoms kick in they get gas and bloating and once again similar to the artificial sweeteners they may they may actually get diarrhea so you know for these people if they were to lower their intake of these lactose containing Dairy Foods they would find their digestive symptoms would improve very quickly brilliant so so there we have it uh it turns out like so much on this podcast that gas and bloating is a lot more complex than just having tight trousers and that there's a lot of reasons why you might experience said so you know when we sum this all up well if somebody is experiencing gas and bloating what steps do you think they should take to remedy the situation help help us to pull it all together I think for the person who's at home you know what what I really want to encourage you to do is to think about these four specific things because it could be a combination of them so do a personal intake if you're suffering with gas and bloating do you do you like uh sip through straws chew gum drink carbonated drinks eat fast do you uh have constipation do you eat foods that are known to cause a lot of gas and bloating and the last thing is is there any sort of history of irrele bowel syndrome or damage to the microbiome and this will help you to sort of get closer to what's going on and then once you understand it then you can create plans that are more targeted in terms of your approach I will you know I find I do experience some bleaching and gas sometimes particularly when I'm ramping up some new phone some new food that Zoe thinks is great for me but has lots of fiber in it do I just need to avoid that food no so the answer is not to avoid we don't want to avoid uh what we want is we want to include that food but we also want to understand that our body may take time to adapt to it so if you haven't been eating that food in the past then you're just not ready to consume large quantities of it but you absolutely could be in the future so you just start low and you go slow and over time by increasing the amount and giving your body a chance to adapt to what you're doing you're going to find that you're able to tolerate it so there you have it I think some fantastic advice including don't exclude start small and build up because you know diversity I think is uh is what you and so many other experts are talking about um we hope you've learned something new today on the podcast we can't promise to remove gas or bloating at Zoe but if you'd like to understand more about your own gut bacteria and how to improve your overall health you can certainly try Zoe's personalized nutrition program and get 10 off by going to joinzoe.com podcast I'm Jonathan Wolfe and I'm will bossowitz join us next week for another Zoe podcast [Music] thank you

Channel: ZOE

Views: 431,830

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Id: oZT2lkbaLXo

Length: 13min 52sec (832 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2022