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Stomach Bloating, Pain and Discomfort After Eating
A lot of people suffer with general stomach discomfort despite having normal test results. Scopes, ultrasounds, CT scans, blood tests and more all come back normal leaving many disappointed and longing for answers.
Functional Dyspepsia
Functional dyspepsia is one of the most common gut issues out there. It’s essentially a fancy name for indigestion. It’s used to describe a number of uncomfortable digestive complaints that occur when there is no concrete gut issue (like an ulcer, GERD, gallbladder diseases etc.).
Postprandial Distress Syndrome
Postprandial distress syndrome (PDS) is a common type of functional dyspepsia that involves feeling unwell after eating meals. People with PDS feel uncomfortably full after eating and feel full quickly. This happens even with normal sized meals that aren’t excessively large. Bloating, nausea and excess burping after meals can occur as well.
These symptoms could be caused by problems with the flow and movement of the digestive tract as well as inflammation or potentially an h.pylori (or other) infection in the gut. A number of other factors are likely involved.
Medications are sometimes prescribed for this and there are natural options that can provide relief such as acupuncture, stress management strategies, remedies that help with moving things along in the gut, reducing inflammation and so on.
Epigastric Pain Syndrome
Sometimes PDS is paired with another syndrome called epigastric pain syndrome (EPS). This is a type of functional dyspepsia that involves pain and burning in the upper stomach area. It can happen independently of eating a meal and is often misdiagnosed as acid reflux.
Feeling Better
It’s common for people with PDS and EPS to also experience anxiety and depression. In my practice, I often see a lot of digestive issues associated with mental health concerns.
Naturopathic doctors are a valuable resource for managing functional dyspepsia. It’s an area where we can really make use of all the tools available to us: dietary changes, lifestyle changes, herbal medicine, nutritional supplements and acupuncture.
Gut troubles can take a serious toll on your mental health and wellbeing. If this is an issue for you, reach out and get help.
Focus on Mental Health to Reduce Heartburn
Heartburn from acid reflux or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) can seriously interfere with your quality of life. It can make the very thought of eating or drinking a trigger food a source of distress. Going to bed at night can start to become something you dread because you know a burning stomach and chest will be keeping you up for a large chunk of the night. Not only are these symptoms annoying, acid reflux can lead to inflammation in the esophagus which, if left unchecked, can have more concerning consequences.
Acid reflux is often a stubborn thing to manage. It requires tackling the situation from a number of different angles. Mindfulness mediation is one of those angles that is starting to be explored by researchers. While there are multiple promising studies on mindfulness for IBS, research on how mindfulness can improve acid reflux symptoms is still emerging. Hopefully more, larger studies will be coming out in the near future. That being said, there is minimal risk in starting mindfulness meditation, and much to be gained even beyond potential benefits to your reflux symptoms.
A number of studies have found an association between acid reflux symptoms and anxiety. Researchers are proposing that stress and anxiety management should be included into treatment plans for acid reflux. As a naturopathic doctor with a practice that focuses strongly on mental health, I constantly see improvements in digestive symptoms when strategies like mindfulness meditation are prescribed to patients.
But how can stress and anxiety lead to acid reflux? Acid reflux can happen when the barrier between the stomach and the esophagus is not working well enough. The barrier is not doing a good job of staying closed when it should, so acid sloshes back up from the stomach to the esophagus. It’s possible that increased anxiety and stress can interfere with the effectiveness of this barrier. High stress and anxiety could also make you more sensitive to the sensation of acid in the esophagus.
In practice, I encourage all of my patients with these symptoms to practice at least 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation and deep belly breathing daily. I also encourage additional meditation or belly breathing during episodes of heartburn. When combined with other recommendations, adding stress management into the mix may be a key way to get a better handle on heartburn.