Given our current western lifestyle, bloating is a very common concept. So what is bloating? Bloating is used to describe gassiness & feeling of fullness in the region between chest & waist. Sometimes bloating also represents swelling around the gut. Another variation of bloating can be when your clothes seem smaller than they did yesterday or ring in your finger becomes tight. This is nothing but fluid/water retention.
In this part we are going to discuss three causes of bloating:
- Alcohol: So have you faced a situation when your clothes appear too short for your body after spending night at town drinking a lot of alcohol? Is that for real or you are being paranoid. Alcohol consumption causes dehydration in your body since it shuts antidiuretic hormone that manages & controls water level in your body. This is the reason you go to the washroom a lot when you drink. The very next day you would have water retention since your body organs hoard water which is required for carrying out basic metabolic processes. Consuming alcohol also disturbs your digestive tract & modifies activities of your stomach & small intestine muscle which explains why you feed pooped up next day. Beverages with high alcohol content slows down your digestion process, leading to prolonged fermentation of food by your gut making you feel gassy. Besides, high consumption of alcohol on a regular basis not only damages the liver but also impacts your immune system, digestive processes & gut lining (resulting in leaky gut). Chronic & regular drinking in large amounts can change your gut microbiome, make it less diverse & can lead to dysbiosis (we have discussed briefly about dysbiosis in our earlier blog).
How to tackle this: Make sure that you drink plenty of water when you are consuming alcohol & very next day( this will not hold true if you drink in excess regularly), avoid binge drinking & stay away from caffeine since it can multiple the antidiuretic impact on causing dehydration.
- Jet Lag: When you are flying far ( specifically across time zones), changes in cabin pressure coupled with sitting at one place for a longer period of time can cause a combination of water/fluid retention & bloating. Although the plane cabin is pressurised, it is less than desired as compared to that found on ground level. Your body naturally contains gases besides the one that leaves from the back door. When the air pressure is decreased, gases expand causing bloating & creating pressure on the gut leading to bad odours in the flight cabin. To add to the problem, when the gases expand, they attract fluid in these spaces, leading to fluid/water retention. Since the cabin air is dry, it prompts you to drink more. When you drink beverages having diuretic effects such as caffeine or alcohol, it leads to dehydration thereby further creating fluid retention.
How to tackle this: Get moving in the flight as frequently as possible to ensure a stable blood flow. Avoid caffeinated beverages & alcohol & make sure you drink plenty of water. When you get off the plane, make sure that you walk down to passport control/exit rather than taking travelator.
- Constipation: Components of western lifestyle such as processed foods & sedentary lifestyle signals constipation. Diet high in processed foods are generally low in fibre. Fibre is really important since it lets poop travel to the digestive tract by adding bulk. Besides, lack of workout further compounds the problem. Physical activity improves your metabolic rate which reduces the time your body needs to process & breakdown the food. If you do not workout, food spends more time inside your body. When you digest, your gut absorbs liquid from your stool. Therefore longer your food sits inside, high the water the absorption & harded the poop. One of the important reason for constipation is dehydration since water is leached from stool making it harder for stool to pass. Besides there are other causes of constipation such as irritable bowel syndrome.
How to tackle this: Make sure that you walk 30 minutes every day at lunch time before you consume your meal rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains & legumes & drink a lot of water.
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