Why you get bloated and what to do about it

Part five – Inadequate Digestive Juices

Summary

• The mouth, stomach and small intestine all produce important digestive juices––saliva, stomach acid, pancreatic juices (bicarbonate and enzymes) and bile.
• These juices help to break down food and make the environment inhospitable to bad bugs.
• Low levels can hamper digestion and encourage bad bug overgrowth (e.g. SIBO, Candida), which in turn can cause bloating.
• Sometimes, excessive bile secretion encourages SIBO (the kind that produces hydrogen sulphide gas).
• Digestive juices can drop too low for many reasons, including H. pylori, stress, poor or unvaried diet, nutritional deficiencies, underactive thyroid.
• Simple action steps to try right away include: chewing your food thoroughly (20-30 times per mouthful), not rushing your meals, eating a wide variety of foods to stimulate your digestive system.
• You can use various testing methods to check your digestive enzyme level, and assess whether you re digesting fat and protein properly.
• Betaine HCL supplements, digestive enzyme supplements and other digestive aids can help, but they don’t usually address the underlying reason why the digestive juices are too low.

Watch the other videos in this series

Video 1 – What causes bloating––introduction

Video 2 – how bad foods can cause bloating

Video 3 – the important role of bad bugs can cause bloating

Video 4 – how bad toxins and gases can cause bloating

Video 5 – the role of low/inadequate digestive juices in bloating (you are here)

Video 6 – how a lack of good foods can contribute to bloating

Video 7 – the role of microbiome deficiencies in causing bloating

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Best,

Dave.