How to Eliminate Bloating Naturally: Powerful Tools for Relief

Posted On July 18, 2022

Oh, bloating…such an uncomfortable symptom that so many of us are all too familiar with.

Abdominal bloating can be experienced in a variety of different ways and can have an array of possible underlying causes.

Here we will explore what bloating is, what it feels like, the many possible causes of abdominal bloating, and how to eliminate bloating naturally.

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What Is Bloating?

Bloating is an uncomfortable feeling of fullness, tightness, and/or pressure in the abdomen. It can be present in the upper, middle, or lower abdomen.

Bloating can cause abdominal distention, where one experiences a visual distension of their abdomen.

This symptom can be experienced due to a build up of gas within the intestines (with various underlying causes discussed below), as a sensation resulting from hormone imbalance, fullness resulting from constipation and/or intestinal parasitic presence, from water retention, and more.

The literal cause of the feeling of fullness depends on the underling cause of the symptom overall.

What Does Bloating Feel Like?

Everyone experiences bloating a little differently, and the specific sensations vary depending on the underlying cause.

I have a great deal of experience with this symptom, as the several health conditions that I have had all cause bloating in their own ways.

In general, it can feel like you have a balloon trapped in your abdomen. The hormone imbalance causes (including endometriosis, estrogen dominance, low thyroid function, and adrenal imbalance), for me, resulted in a feeling of heaviness, fullness, and pressure in my lower abdomen.

I’ve also experienced a severe intestinal parasitic infection, fungal overgrowth, and low probiotic levels in my gut. The bloating resulting from these causes was more in the middle of my abdomen and felt like a churning pressure is the best way I can describe it. At points, I had such severe abdominal distention from gut imbalances that my clothing wouldn’t fit.

The bloating I’ve experienced from digestive imbalances (such as low hydrochloric acid production, low digestive enzyme production, poor bile flow, etc) was all over my abdomen and felt like a general feeling of fullness and pressure mostly after eating meals.

Causes of Abdominal Bloating

Some of the most common causes of abdominal bloating include:

Low probiotic levels in the gut
Low hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) production
Low and/or poor bile flow
Low digestive enzyme production
Gut infection: intestinal parasites, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth/SIBO, and fungal/candida overgrowth
“Leaky gut”
Constipation
Food sensitivity (commonly to dairy/lactose, gluten, yeast, and soy)
Food allergy (commonly to dairy/lactose, gluten, yeast, shellfish, soy, strawberries, and more)
High FODMAP foods
Biotoxin Illness/Mold Toxicity
Hormone imbalance: estrogen dominance, thyroid imbalance, adrenal insufficiency, and more
Endometriosis
Mineral imbalance
Copper Toxicity
High carbohydrate/high sugar diets
Carbonated beverages
Overeating or eating too fast
Menstruation
Chronic stress
Medication side effect
More

As is clear here, there are many possible causes of bloating, and oftentimes, one is experiencing a combination of these which can compound their abdominal symptoms and worsen bloating.

How to Eliminate Bloating Naturally

The main way to eliminate bloating is to identify and treat the underlying cause of this symptom. This involves addressing the above mentioned causes thoroughly. Once the underlying cause is balanced and treated, the symptoms of that cause will be eliminated.

Some of the natural ways to address bloating can include:

Hydrochloric Acid

Hyrdrochloric acid (HCL), or stomach acid, is a very important digestive fluid that is produced in the stomach. It has several key functions including helping to break down and digest protein, assimilate key nutrients such as vitamin B12, eliminate ingested pathogens (bacteria, parasites, etc), signal bile production from the liver, and more.

Many people experience low stomach acid production for a variety of reasons including chronic stress, high sugar diets, infection, zinc deficiency, and more.

Symptoms that can result from low hydrochloric acid production are bloating, heartburn, constipation, and more.

Aside from identifying the underlying cause of one’s low HCL production, one of the best ways to address this is to use a high quality hydrochloric acid supplement that can help to resupply the body with this imperative digestive component.

Uni Key Health’s HCL +2 is a high quality hydrochloric acid supplement that can be used for this purpose.

HCL +2 also includes several other powerful digestive supports including ox bile and pepsin. Ox bile is a supplementary form of bile, which is a digestive liquid produced in the liver that helps to digest fats, supports detoxification, and more.

Pepsin is a digestive enzyme that helps to break down protein along with HCL.

Dosing: the amount per dose is unique to the individual, yet the standard dose for this supplement is 1 to 2 capsules during or immediately following meals that contain protein.

As soon as I started supplementing with HCL, I noticed a reduction in post-meal bloating basically immediately.

Click here to check out the HCL +2 supplement.

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Repopulating the Gut With Probiotics

Probiotics are the good bacteria found throughout your body, with large concentrations found in the intestines.

Probiotics have many important functions including helping to digest your food, maintaining gut motility, maintaining gut lining integrity, keeping pathogens at bay, and producing key vitamins and nutrients such as folate and short chain fatty acids.

Many common causes reduce the level of probiotics in your gut which results in gut imbalance and many symptoms including bloating, constipation, poor digestion, gut infections, and more.

Some of these causes include prescription antibiotic use, gut infections such as intestinal parasites, and high sugar/high processed food diets.

Repopulating the gut with probiotics with high quality probiotic supplements is a key step in nurturing your gut health and a powerful natural way to eliminate bloating.

Click here to check out my top probiotic recommendations, all of which have helped me tremendously and have played a big role in reducing bloating.

Digestive Enzymes

Enzymes are proteins in our body that help to catalyze and speed up a large array of biochemical reactions and processes.

Digestive enzymes help to break down the food you eat and aid in the assimilation of nutrients throughout the body.

Our digestive enzyme production can decline due to zinc deficiency (very common), pancreatic dysfunction, chronic stress, and more.

When we are not producing enough digestive enzymes, our digestive capacity declines, resulting in many symptoms such as nutrient deficiencies, constipation, diarrhea, and most certainly, bloating.

Using a high quality pancreatic digestive enzyme supplement is a powerful way to supply the body with the enzymes that it is lacking.

The pancreas is located just behind your stomach and produces enzymes called pancreatin, which includes amylase to digest sugars, lipase to digest fats, and protease to digest proteins.

Uni Key Health’s Digesta-Key is an excellent digestive enzyme supplement that includes pancreatin and a number of other enzymes to help support your digestive capacity, reduce inflammation, and more.

Digesta-Key includes:

Pancreatin 10X: amylase, protease, and lipase enzymes which help to digest sugars, proteins, and fats.
Papain from papaya: a proteolythic enzyme that helps to digest proteins.
Rutin from Sophora leaf: a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
Bromelain from pineapple: a proteolythic enzyme that helps to digest proteins.
Trypsin from porcine: an enzyme that helps to digest proteins.
Serrapeptase: helps to break down proteins and is a powerful anti-inflammatory.
Chymotrypsin from porcine: a pancreatic enzyme that helps to digest proteins.

Dosing: the amount per dose is unique to the individual, however the standard dose for this supplement is about 2 capsules with each meal.

After I began supplementing with digestive enzymes, I quickly noticed an improvement in my ability to fully digest foods as well as a marked reduction in bloating following meals.

Digestive enzyme supplementation can also help to break down and assimilate the nutrients from your other nutritional supplements which enhances their ability to benefit your health.

Digest-Key can also be used as a systemic enzyme product, which means that if you take it on an empty stomach instead of with food, it will help to cleanse the blood, reduce inflammation, support the immune system, and more. More on systemic enzyme therapy can be found here.

Digest-Key is also fungus free which is important because many enzyme supplements can contain ingredients derived from fungus. I always make sure a product is fungus free before I use it these because fungus can be inflammatory for those who are sensitive to it.

Click here to check out Digesta-Key.

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Altering the Diet

The food that you eat is one of the most influential factors when it comes to your health.

Food can heal the body and the wrong foods can also have negative effects on the body.

For example, diets that are high in sugar, carbohydrates, and processed “foods” can lead to imbalanced blood sugar/insulin resistance, systemic inflammation, gut imbalance/infection, leaky gut, and much more.

These imbalances have an array of symptoms including autoimmunity, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, hormone imbalance, digestive impairment, and most certainly, bloating.

Furthermore, eating foods that you are allergic to or have a sensitivity towards will also cause bloating and other digestive upset symptoms.

To address this, it is important to build your eating plan around whole foods including vegetables, good quality proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. Much more on what goes into a healthy eating plan can be found here.

Furthermore, if you suspect that you are sensitive to or allergic to various foods, an elimination diet may be helpful. This involves removing a wide variety of foods from your diet for a short period of time, and then adding them back in gradually and monitoring symptoms to determine which foods are causing your symptoms such as bloating.

Foods that are high in FODMAPs, which stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols, can cause bloating for those who are sensitive to them. All of those long words refer to a form of carbohydrate and fiber found in certain vegetables such as cabbage, garlic, and onions.

Gut imbalances of various forms can cause FODMAP sensitivity which is addressed by temporarily removing high FODMAP foods from the diet, treating the gut imbalance, and gradually reintroducing higher FODMAP foods back in.

Much more on FODMAPs and following a low FODMAP diet can be found here.

Balancing Estrogen Dominance and/or Treating Endometriosis

Hormone imbalance is a common underlying cause of bloating, especially an imbalance called estrogen dominance.

This is when there is an imbalance between the 2 primary female sex hormones progesterone and estrogen, with too little progesterone in relation to estrogen.

Estrogen dominance causes many many symptoms such as heavy menstrual flow, weight gain, hair loss, and bloating, among others. Balancing estrogen dominance will result in a cessation of these symptoms.

Much more on estrogen dominance can be found here.

Furthermore, endometriosis is a common condition amongst women and can lead to many symptoms such as severe abdominal pain, menstrual irregularities, bloating, and more.

Much more on endometriosis and ways to address this condition can be found here.

Eliminating Intestinal Parasites, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, and/or Candida Overgrowth

Common gut infections such as intestinal parasites, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth/SIBO, and candida overgrowth can all lead to bloating.

These infections cause gut inflammation, probiotic imbalance, leaky gut, digestive upset, and more, all of which can cause symptoms such as abdominal pain, systemic inflammation, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and much more.

Candida is a fungus/yeast that typically resides in the intestines and is kept at bay when there is sufficient presence of probiotics. However, when probiotic presence declines due to prescription antibiotic use, high sugar diets, chronic stress, the birth control pill, and more, candida can overgrow.

A key step in addressing fungal overgrowth is to use a high quality and effective natural anti-fungal supplement.

Dr. Jockers Candida Elim includes a powerful anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory formula to use for candida overgrowth and its effects.

Candida Elim includes:

Oregano Extract
Sodium Caprylate
Ginger
Turmeric Extract
Olive Leaf Extract

Oregano extract and olive leaf extract are both excellent herbal anti-fungals.

Sodium caprylate is a compound derived from caprylic acid, which is also an anti-fungal as well as an overall gut support, as it encourages optimal bacterial balance in the intestines.

Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory and has antioxidant properties. It is also soothing and nurturing to the gut and can help relieve nausea as well.

Dosing: the amount per dose is unique to the individual, however the standard dose for this supplement is 2 capsules per day on an empty stomach.

Click here to check out Candida Elim.

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An additional, highly effective anti-fungal formula is Primal Herb’s Ex-Candida supplement.

This supplement contains a precise formula of top quality botanical herbs that all house potent anti-fungal properties.

Ex-Candida includes a combination of the following ingredients:

Sweet Wormwood Extract
Caprylic Acid From Coconut Oil
Black Walnut Hull Extract
Clove Extract
Organic Olive Leaf Extract
Ceylon Cinnamon Extract
Monk Fruit
Black Pepper Extract (to increase bioavailability of the above ingredients)

Each of these ingredients have powerful anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.

Dosing: the amount per dose varies per each individual case, however the standard dose for this product is 1/2 teaspoon, 1 to 2 times per day. This can be mixed with any liquid of your choice, as it is in a powder form. It can also be added to your fresh vegetable juices or smoothies.

This can be taken any time of day, with or without food.

One container of Ex-Candida lasts about 2 to 3 months at the standard dose.

After taking Ex-Candida for about 2 weeks, I noticed a dramatic decrease in my fungal overgrowth symptoms, especially bloating. My symptoms continued to resolve with continued use.

Click here to check out Primal Herb’s Ex-Candida.

Systemic enzymes, probiotics, and a low sugar diet are all also key for healing candida overgrowth.

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth/SIBO is addressed by the use of systemic enzymes, natural antibiotics such as oil of oregano, probiotics, a low sugar diet, and more.

Much more on intestinal parasites and powerful natural ways to address this imbalance can be found here.

Treating Biotoxin Illness

Our environment has a tremendously powerful impact on our health, yet it is often forgotten as something to consider when investigating the underlying cause of illness.

Biotoxin Illness/Mold Toxicity is a chronic illness that can develop as a result of prolonged exposure to mold in one’s environment.

This condition has a very wide variety of possible symptoms, one of which is bloating.

For much more on Biotoxin Illness and ways to heal, click here.

Improving Bile Production and Flow

Bile is a fluid that is made by the liver and stored in the gallbladder that plays several very important roles in the body. These roles include aiding in digestion and nutrient absorption, facilitating detoxification, maintaining hormone balance, and supporting the immune system.

Bile production and bile flow can become impaired due to a variety of reasons including chronic stress, chronic inflammation, poor diet, liver congestion, dehydration, low hydrochloric acid production, and more.

Reduced bile production and flow can cause many different symptoms including pale colored stool, hormone imbalance, impaired ability to detoxify, digestive upset, upper abdominal pain, bloating, and more.

Much more on the importance of optimal bile flow and powerful natural ways to support bile production and flow can be found here.

Address Mineral Imbalance and Copper Toxicity

The balance of your body’s minerals is of tremendous importance for your health and wellness, both physically and mentally/emotionally.

Common mineral imbalances such as Copper Toxicity can cause an incredibly wide variety of symptoms including adrenal fatigue/insufficiency, thyroid imbalance, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, gut imbalance, digestive upset, bloating, and more.

Much more on Copper Toxicity and ways to address this imbalance can be found here.

The best way to assess your body’s current mineral level status is by acquiring a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis/HTMA.

This is a specialized method of testing that involves using hair samples to determine your unique mineral levels and mineral ratios.

Rick Fischer is a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis practitioner who has been in clinical practice for many years. He is also a health coach, speaker, author, and leader in the field of mineral balancing and Copper Toxicity education and research.

Mr. Fischer offers HTMA services with Trace Elements, Inc. through the mail, worldwide.

Mr. Fischer’s HTMA services can be found here.

Use code MEGANHEALTH at checkout for 5% off HTMA services. You will also find additional discount codes highlighted in yellow on the above HTMA services page

Mr. Fischer has been a colleague of mine for many years and I highly recommend his services, as he is very well versed in everything Copper Toxicity and mineral balancing in general. He is passionate about this field and natural health in general and has a strong dedication to his clients.

To learn more about the huge significance of minerals and your health, click here to receive a free copy of the Mineral Secrets for Optimal Health ebook!

Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

While it is key to address the underlying cause in order to eliminate bloating, apple cider vinegar can be a helpful tool to use as a symptom reducing aid in the meantime.

Apple cider vinegar contains acetic acid and pectin, both of which serve to help balance the gut and nurture a healthy bacterial presence in the intestines. This can help to relieve bloating.

Make sure that you use organic, raw apple cider vinegar with “the mother,” which is where the acetic acid is found. I prefer Bragg’s, which you can find at most grocery stores.

I prefer to put about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a little bit of water and drink this shortly before a meal, once a day.

You can also add apple cider vinegar to your homemade salad dressings, put it in smoothies, or add it to various other beverages.

This can help to improve digestion and lessen bloating.

In Closing…

As we’ve explored here, bloating is a common and uncomfortable symptom with many possible underlying causes.

For the most part, eliminating bloating involves identifying and addressing its underlying cause/s which will result in the cessation of this symptom.

Using powerful natural tools is an excellent way to gently and effectively relieve this symptom and find relief.