What Causes Bloated Stomach And How To Get Rid Of It

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What is Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness?

Bloated stomach or stomach fullness is nothing but swelling of abdominal area and is caused because air is stuck around the abdominal area causing abdominal pain. Instead of having actual fat mass in the belly, this bloated stomach makes it tighten, swollen and large because of formation of gas in the digestive track.

What are the Symptoms and Associated Symptoms of Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness?

A bloated stomach or stomach fullness with swollen and tight belly is a real painful and irritating symptom, but there are some other symptoms along with this gassy painful stomach.

• Constipation
• Fever
• Any allergic reaction with itchy throat and watery eyes
• Skin rashes
• Sudden unintentional weight loss
• Hormonal imbalance with irregular periods
• Trouble in concentrating with brain fog.

What Causes Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness?
It is often thought that bloated stomach happens because of water retention or water weight. However, water retention or fluid accumulation happens not only in abdomen, but also in other body parts like face, feet and even ankles.

The reason for bloated stomach or stomach fullness is having gas or air in your stomach or abdomen, but there are also so many other reasons behind it and all are related with the digestive track. Many factors actually contribute to the situation and it is hard to filter out the actual culprit behind this bloated stomach or stomach fullness. The reasons could be like, hormonal imbalances, thyroid dysfunctions, troubles with gut microbiome and many more. Let us see them in detail.

• Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness Caused Due to Digestive Disorder: It is found that a number of people are dealing with gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), ulcerative colitis with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)and ulcer symptoms in digestive track, and celiac disease due to disruption of inner cell lining of GI track. These all have the symptoms of bloating, gas distension etc. According to some reports, 23 percent to 90 percent people are found with IBS, where 50 percent are diagnosed with dyspepsia and 56 percent with constipation.
• Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness Caused Due to Dehydration: If the body runs out of hydration, then there is a high chance of having bloated stomach or a feeling of fullness in the stomach. Body may also be dehydrated due to having more salty food and consuming alcohol. Drinking more water and water rich foods like fruits and vegetables can help your stomach and digestive track not to bloat. The liquid helps in draining out the stools from the large intestine, so no gas will form from the excretory stool substances due to bowel disorder. This will also help to stay away from constipation problem as well.
• Constipation is Known to Cause Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness: It is an obvious reason of suffering from the bloated stomach. Constipation causes stool to remain inside the intestines with formation of gas, which makes an individual feel tightening of stomach, discomfort and gas. This constipation is caused mostly due to not having enough fibre in regular diet. Vegetables and fruits content fibre, which helps to excrete the stool. Not only that, but drinking more water also helps to remove those stools from the intestines. A person suffering from constipation must try to regularize the bowel movement; otherwise it may turn into a chronic problem.
• Food Allergies: There are many foods and food products that cause food allergies leading to bloated stomach or stomach fullness. Body sometimes becomes sensitive to some types of food products. The most common amongst them is lactose intolerance. The dairy products due to lactose intolerance forms gas; foods that contain gluten also fall in this category. This is why many dieticians prefer and prescribe to take Gluten Free/ Casein Free Diet. There are dozens of products which can trigger intolerance or allergic conditions like, shellfish, nuts, eggs and many more. So, it is better to eliminate those things from your diet to keep your digestive track well and not sensitive. This will reduce or prevent the issues with bloated stomach.
• Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO): Human intestine and colon are full of bacteria. There are a number of good and helpful bacteria to help in the digestion; however, a number of harmful bacteria are also present. Different strains of these bacterial populations are in proper balance. This helps in nutritional absorption and proper digestion. When this balance is disrupted and harmful bacteria take over and damage the stomach lining that may cause bowel disorder due to abnormal digestion. Intake of some foods causes SIBO symptoms which lead to the stomach bloating or stomach fullness with bowel disorder.
• Infection: Inflammation in gastrointestinal (G.I) track due to infection can be a reason for the stomach bloating. The stomach can become bloated, swollen and tight because of infection caused due to the elevated level of white blood cells around urinary, pelvic and GI (Gastrointestinal) organs.

Home Remedies to Get Rid of Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness

Various kinds of home remedies are there to get rid of this painful, uncomfortable feeling of bloated stomach or stomach fullness. Here are some of the home remedies and the ways in which you can have them to get relief.

• Ginger: A recipe with ginger helps to pass the gas from stomach and intestine making it an effective home remedy to get rid of bloated stomach or stomach fullness. Ginger is carminative and helps to release the pressure of gas. Not only that, but it also helps to improve the blood circulation even in stomach and intestine.

Simple Ginger Recipe to Get Rid of Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness:

• Grate a piece of fresh ginger root
• Use a teaspoon of it anytime for an instant relief from bloating.
• Alternatively, you can use it in cooking as one of your cooking ingredients to prevent bloating of stomach.

• Use of Caraway Seeds: Like ginger, caraways seeds also have the carminative properties and helps in passing gas from the bloated stomach making it a useful home remedy to get rid of stomach fullness. It also prevents the gas formation as well. Since the gut bacterial overgrowth can also be a reason of bloated stomach, so the antimicrobial properties of the caraways seeds help to restore the bacterial imbalance in gut to keep the digestion and nutritional absorption well.

Simple Recipe Using Caraway Seeds to Get Rid of Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness:

• Just chewing a pinch of these seeds numerous times a day really helps to avoid gas formation
• Chewing caraway seeds is not a big deal, but caraway seed crackers can also help in same way.

• Peppermint: Use of peppermint to relax the digestive track and releasing gas is another easiest and affordable way. Peppermint has menthol oil and this helps to relax the digestive track. So, the GI tract becomes normal without forming gas and other bowel problems.

Home Remedy for Bloated Stomach or Stomach Fullness with Peppermint:

• Pluck and wash some peppermint leaves.
• The leaves need to be dried in sun and then minced.
• In a cup, take a little amount of honey and sugar with these minced leaves.
• Pour some hot water in the mixture.
• Let this mixture settle for 15-20 minutes
• Now it is ready to drink.
• Drink it 1 or 2 times on a daily basis to get rid of bloated stomach.
• A little note is there. Peppermint tea bags can also be used as an alternative.