Dr. Oz: Why Women Feel Bloated More Often
Dr. Oz asked his audience to blow up a balloon with the amount of gas they feel is bloating inside of them. Then Dr. Oz let his audience let go of the balloons, causing a lot of weird noises. To help his audience with their bloating problem, he talked to Dr. Robynne Chutkan, the founder of the Digestive Center for Women.
She explained that women have a longer colon than men, with lots more twists and turns. Because women have so many parts in their parts, the colon has to wrap around the uterus, the fallopian tubes, the ovaries, and the bladder. This makes what Dr. Chutkan called a “playground for bloating”. It also turns out that women make more gas than men.
Dr. Oz: Happy Abs Massage
Dr. Oz talked about the causes of bloating in women and what we can do to speed up our systems and find out the cause of our bloating. (Mathias Rosenthal / Shutterstock.com)
Dr. Chutkan recommended something called the Happy Abs Massage to help women with their bloating. Take a light weight of 1 or 2 pounds and rub it around your belly button, moving in a clockwise direction. This will help push the products of digestion to where they need to be. Just do it for a few minutes and try to relax.
Dr. Oz: Slow Transit Problems
Dr. Chutkan said that when it takes women to take a while to digest their food, it’s called a “slow transit problem”. She explained that some people are tall and some people are short, just like some people digest quickly and some digest slowly. Dr. Chutkan’s test for patients is called the Corn on the Cob Test. Eat corn on the cob and then wait to see when the kernels appear in your stool. One or two might show up quicker than the bulk of them. Look for when the majority of them come out. If it takes longer than 36 hours, you’re suffering from slow transit.
So what’s the cure? Psyllium Husk Powder, what Dr. Chutkan calls the “transit accelerator”. It’s important to drink this with plenty of water. Take a tablespoon of psyllium husk with a big glass of water in the morning and you should be cleared out.
Dr. Oz: Why Do We Accumulate Gas Throughout the Day?
Dr. Chutkan explained that we accumulate gas throughout the day due to swallowing air. Talking on the phone, chewing gum, sucking on hard candy, eating, and drinking can all cause you to swallow air. Dr. Chutkan said you can go up as much as two dress sizes by the end of the day due to this.
Dr. Oz: Sad Gas Bloating Cure Diet
Dr. Oz talked to Marianne, who suffers from “bedtime bloat”. In the morning, she’s nice and skinny, and by the end of the day, she has a big belly from the bloating, almost pregnant-looking. She has the air swallowing problem.
Luckily, Dr. Chutkan had a cure for bloating. She said it came down to eliminating “S.A.D. G.A.S.” or “Sad Gas”, which is an abbreviation for six types of food. S is for soy. Soy products have an estrogen-like effect on the body. A is for artificial sweeteners, which produce bad-smelling gas. D is for Dairy. More than half the world is lactose intolerant.
G is for gluten, which can be irritating to the small intestine. A is for alcohol. Alcohol might be nice going down, but it can be irritating to the lining of stomach and reduce production of our digestive enzymes. S is for sugar, which can increase the production of gas.
Dr. Chutkan said we should eliminate Sad Gas for 10 days and then add them in one at a time to figure out which one is the culprit. Dr. Chutkan has a book called Gutbliss which has a lot more information about this.
Karen Marsack says
It is disgusting how much I bloat. I started eating Kind Bars and if I eat them daily I have loose bowel movements. Bloating is a lot better….