In this episode of Rena Malik, M.D., Dr. Kumkum Patel delves into the common triggers and effective solutions for bloating.

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Science Behind Bloating: Triggers &amp;  Effective Remedies for Stomach Bloating ft. Dr. Kumkum Patel

let's talk about it what causes bloating because it's very uncomfortable a lot of people come in and they have bloating and they're worried it might be a Cancer and sometimes you know we do worry about that but I think generally what's the more common things that you see that cause bloating yeah so you know one of the most common things obviously for bloating is the fibrous foods that you're eating right A lot of people are like you know what I'm going to eat that salad I'm going to eat broccoli and asparagus because I've heard all over the internet that I need to have high fiber food so people start introduce to together they're like oh well me bloated well yeah those are non-digested you know plant sugars and because they're not digested they ferment and you know takes place in the second portion of the small intestine so now it's got to travel through and before it travels through it kind of makes you bloat okay the other thing is that you can have something called a visceral hypers sensitivity again like we talked about that stress is then um giving signals through the nerves the Vagas nerve down to the nerves in your GI tract that says okay well we are in a state of stress we need to either accommodate by making room because we're not sure when we're going to eat so we're going to make a lot of room so we can have a lot more food or we're going to start rumbling and pushing everything through as quick as possible and that can cause bloating so sometimes out of nowhere it can happen as well so it's called visceral hypersensitivity it can be a bacteria right there is a bacteria called H pylori helicobactor pylori that is very prevalent in some countries and and now it's all over the world truly because you can get it from anywhere from foods from utensils from one another and you know when ingested through Foods over time it can cause ulcers but it can certainly cause bloating and gastritis and so sometimes it can be bacteria other times it can just be an overgrowth of the bad bacteria you've taken an antibiotic and wiped out so many things because you had a cold or you had an infection and now you have a lot of bad bacteria that's fermenting in there and causing that bloating that's why you should never take antibiotics unless you absolutely need them yes so I'm a huge proponent because I see tons of women and men but more women than men who've had recurrent urinary tract infections and they're not really urinary tract infections or they you know they haven't been treated appropriately and so they've been on like 10 or 15 courses of antibiotics and that will completely wipe out all the good bacteria in your bladder and your God everywhere else yes absolutely and you know people think like oh I I'm doing myself a favor no it's actually altering to you know having Del effects so yeah yeah and then you know we did talk a little bit about constipation with kiwi helping and prunes helping you know people want to know what causes constipation and what can we do to prevent it or or get better so constipation is really you know I say it's multifactorial you know people just think it's just slow moving bowels but there's so much more to constipation than just slow moving bowels it can be that right because maybe you just haven't had enough fiber or you're on certain medications whether it's magnesium or calcium supplementation that can slow it down if you're on iron supplementation that can make you constipated if you have diabetes okay or are taking one of the new medications for weight loss or diabetes like OIC that actually slows down how your intestine is empty so that can cause constipation so that's one form there is something called IBS type c so irritable bowel syndrome that's constipation predominant and that's the one where your body reacts to the underlying stressors that it's feeling and says okay we are in a you know a low state of fight or flight and we are going to hold all of our contents in until we are in a state of Freedom where we can go to our toilet in peace and let it out and you'll often see like P my patients come in they're like I traveled to France for a business trip and the entire four days that I was there I didn't use a single toilet in Paris and I'm like wow that's terrible they're really nice bday there and and they I was like you didn't even use one once and they're like no but as soon as I got home I let it all out in four days where the stool came out I'm like my God that American toilet had it all so you know and that's a you know very classic form of IBS type c and that's a stress mediated and then last but not least there is pelvic floor dysfunction and these could all overlap by the way but pelvic floor dysfunction you have something like childbirth or surgery or trauma sexual trauma or stress or stress that where your muscles just don't necessarily want to coordinate with each other and allow for that poop to come out naturally and so that's almost fighting the urge to come out and so and then one other you know set of muscles is like okay let's just stay in let's just stay closed let's not let it out and so they're kind of you know not working together and so you get pelvic Flor dysfunction over time so the three can overlap you can have them simultaneously separately but there's all different reasons for why you can have constipation Yeah you mentioned magnesium so people sometimes take magnesium for constipation which type of magnesium I mean you go to the supermarket right there's like four different types of magnesium some are better for sleep some are better for bowels some are better for whatever so what do you recommend so magnesium oxide and magnesium citrate are the best ones in terms of constipation one of the newer studies recently showed that magnesium oxide can be one of your first go-to over-the-counter therapies for when you are you know about run-of-the-mill constipated because it's it's easy effective do have to be careful if you've got an issue with your kidneys and that are not working as well but that's one of the first things you can kind of turn to a counter so food fiber magnesium what else are some easy things people can do at home to help with constipation water water water water we don't get enough water in our day you know the first things often we wake up and we're like okay coffee I need to open my eyes I need to get ready because I didn't get enough sleep and so let me you know chug that Starbucks first water start with water first because if you can get enough water into your system around 64 to 100 ounces a day then you can also have enough things absorbed into your actual you know stool and allow for it to kind of move through your body so is it true that what coffee helps you go right like is that something that people like oh I need my cup of coffee or I won't poop or is it just the fluid that's actually making them go a little bit of both so hot coffee actually can stimulate the bowels so as can hot water so it doesn't have to necessarily be the hot coffee itself but coffee has caffeine which also stimulates your bowels to move so again it's the two in combination that a lot of people need in order to kind of stimulate the peristalsis or muscle muscle movement in the coldwood to have that bow movement but that's so interesting because even in Indian culture right people drink hot water in the morning yes and maybe that's part of the reason oh yes absolutely I mean people have FAL water hot water lemon water all those things are things that stimulate colonic contractions and so they they've got something you know in that based on science yes so if you're trying to avoid coffee in the morning or limit your caffeine I encourage you to try some hot water or or some like herbal tea which is warm that doesn't have the caffeine because that may be helpful yeah and even black coffee it's got chlorogenic acid in it it's helpful for the cells in your colon as well so what about movement movement helps with constipation oh absolutely I mean moving your body will move your bowels for sure so getting 20 to 30 minutes of you know aerobic exercise per day will one help that good bacteria start to ferment and helping that good bacteria start to ferment will help make more serotonin serotonin our happy hormone also modulates how we empty our bowels so it'll help keep things flowing as well man are these little bacteria are so sensitive it's so sensitive no matter how tough you think you are your bacteria still need you to do all the right things 100 yeah so

Dr.

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