Battle of the Bloat: Using Yoga to Help You Reduce Bloating

The best way to get a flat belly is to reduce your weight and increase your fitness, but yoga can also play an important part too. Not only is yoga great for your emotional wellness and wellbeing, which can help make dieting easier, but some yoga can help to assist with a distended and uncomfortable belly, reducing bloating.

 

There are various poses that can help to aid digestion and reduce bloating, one of them being the bow pose. This pose strengthens and lengthens your torso, engaging all of the muscles in your belly. To get into it, start in Downward Facing Dog, and then bring your knees to the mat and lie down on your tummy. Bend your knees and grasp the outside edge of one ankle and then the other. Once you have a tight grip on your ankles, keep your toes together, choosing to point or flex your feet as you wish. Pull your feet up as high as you can manage, and shift your weight forwards so that you are resting on your tummy and not on your pelvis. Hold for the count of five and then release.

 

A wide-legged forward bend can also help to reduce bloating because folding yourself in half like this squeezes the belly and helps things to get moving along. If you are suffering from tummy pain that is related to stress, this pose can also help to reduce the tension.

 

To do the wide-legged forward bend, start by standing with your feet three or four feet apart, turning out your heels so that they are slightly wider than your toes. Put your arms behind your back and clasp your fingers together, pressing the heels of your palms together to form a fist. Bend forward, folding at the hips and drawing the crown of your head and the hands towards the floor. Stay there for five breaths and then engage your quads and stand up.

Categories: Belly, bend, bloating, Feet, reduce, reduce bloating, tummy, wide legged, yoga

Bloated and Gassy? Stop Feeling Sofa-Bound and Try Yoga!

Feeling bloated and gassy is one health concern that affects everyone at some point in life, and, man, is it embarrassing. Gas and acid reflux can really have a negative impact on your overall sense of wellbeing, causing you to reach for the Tums and lie on the sofa until it goes away . However, according to Boston-based yoga instructor Zayna Gold, long-time Crohn’s disease sufferer and creator of Healing Through Movement, a more subtle, natural way to deal with that bloated feeling is yoga. ‘Fifteen minutes of yoga will help ease your pain,’ she says. But how exactly does yoga benefit your digestive wellness?

 

Gold points out that starting from a reclining position ‘gives you a chance to take a deep breath and feel energized.’ After this, she recommends that you progress from seated to standing positions, such as the bridge pose that stretches your body and stimulates your abdominal organs. Once you’ve done a few stretch poses, you should move on to twist poses that tone your abdomen – which is essential for eliminating gas, bloating and constipation. The other poses work and relax your nervous system, which is comprised of your back, neck and spine. Gold explains, ‘You will feel less stress when your nervous system is relaxed. The health benefits will spread to the rest of your body and ease your digestion.’ So which poses should you try?

 

1. The Apanasana: This is a great starting pose in which you lie on your back, relax, inhale and place your hands on your knees. From there, you exhale and hug your knees to your chest. To maximise the stretch, rock your knees from side to side and stay for five to 10 breaths before you release your knees, and repeat the movement a few more times. To vary the stretch, you can do one side at a time, leaving the other leg extended. This simple stretch is also known as the wind-relieving pose, as it helps you to gain relief from bloating and gas pains.

 

2. The Spinal Twist: You might want to try this pose if you need to soothe and tone your abdomen. Again, start by lying down, hugging your knees and breathing in. Then, as you exhale, drop your knees to the left, using your left hand to push them down gently. From here, turn your head and stretch your arm out to the right, staying for five to ten breaths. Once this is completed, inhale, return your hands and knees to centre and repeat on the other side. For variation, you can have a go at the one-legged seated spinal twist which, as you do it from a seated position, gives you more control over your stretch.

 

3. The Bridge Pose: Also known as the “Setu Bandha Sarvangasana”, a mild inversion like the bridge pose helps your blood flow, making you feel more energised and get over that post-dinner bloat. Lying on the floor with your knees bent, arms beside your body and feet flat on the floor, move your hips up so that you give your chest a good stretch. For an even better aid to digestion, Gold recommends the following variation, ‘Press one hip up and hold the pose. Take five breaths, then switch to the other side.’ However, this isn’t the only modification you can try. For another version of the Setu Bandha Sarvangasana or Bridge Pose, start as you did before but keep your hands under you as you arch your back and open your chest. It’s also a good idea to clasp your hands and interlace your fingers under your back.

Categories: bandha sarvangasana, bloating, bridge, bridge pose, gas, Knees, pose, setu bandha, spinal twist, stretch, yoga

Warning: Bloating Could be the Reason You’re Overweight

You have probably seen the adverts on television, where women find that bloating is the reason behind their weight problems, and also find that miracle product that helps them shed the pounds faster than any fitness regime. It is important for women to remember, however, that a certain amount of bloating is a normal part of everyday wellness, and that they will find a certain amount of bloating occurring naturally as part of their monthly cycle.

 

If you find that your wellbeing is affected by bloating during (or just after) your menstrual cycle, you need to look at ways to control the bloating as well as any other weight-loss plan that you are following.

 

Research has shown that eating foods that are high in complex carbohydrates, including some types of bread, can be part of be part of the problem and can lead to increased bloat. This is part of the reason why women who are dieting are advised to steer clear of complex carbs as much as possible.  In addition to this, women should also avoid drinking alcohol, as a lot of research has linked bloating to the consumption of alcohol.

 

Prescription medications have also been linked to bloating, as they can cause you to retain water, but of course there may not be a way to avoid medication that you have been prescribed!

 

In addition to any dietary elements, bloating can also be caused by inactivity. If your job involves sitting down for a lot of the day (such as at a desk, in front of a computer) you may find that you struggle more than most with bloating issues. Make sure that you take regular breaks and take a bit of exercise to get your blood circulating, even if it’s just walking up and down stairs a few times. This will get your circulation going and improve your digestion, to reduce bloating.

Categories: bloating, complex, health, nbsp, reason, weight, Women

IBS: Could It be Affecting Your Lifestyle?

The cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is not known, but many people suffer with this gut condition. The symptoms vary but tend to include bloating, abdominal pain, and even constipation or diarrhoea. These come and go though. You can’t be cured of IBS, but there are ways to ease your symptoms such as taking medication or from avoiding foods which make it worse. IBS is considered a functional disorder, which means that there is a problem with part of the body and the way it functions, but nothing wrong with the structure of the organ itself.

 

One in five people in the UK have IBS at some stage in their life, and it can affect anyone at any age. It’s common in young people and teens though, and it twice as common in women than men. Pain and discomfort are common and will probably vary in where the symptoms originates. This is because it usually goes away when you pass stools or wind. Most people with IBS state that their pains feel colicky or like spasms, and the severity can vary both between people and depending on the time itself. Bloating is also a common symptom of IBS, and you may find that you pass wind more than usual. Other people complain of nausea, headache, poor appetite, tiredness, muscle pains, heartburn and bladder symptoms.

 

There are no specific tests but you may be asked to come in for a Full blood count blood test to rule out anaemia, as this is connected with some other gut disorders, and a CRP test to show if there is any inflammation in the body. There are more complex tests such as an endoscopy which examines the bowel with a specially designed telescope, but this is rarely needed. It’s not clear what actually causes IBS, and researchers have little evidence to support any previous theories. The most common through is that it is connected to over-activity in the gut, which occurs when the contractions in the intestines become abnormal or overactive – this is when constipation or diarrhoea may develop.

 

Stress or emotional turmoil play a big part in the role of the gut, so people with IBS may find that their symptoms become worse when they’re stressed or anxious. Foods are also a trigger, so it may be beneficial to keep a food diary to keep track of any ingredients which lead to a worse bout of IBS. Another cause may be an infection which can trigger it – around one in six cases of IBS are the follow-up to a bout of gastroenteritis, although the condition isn’t caused by an infection. Understanding IBS and how it works can help you manage the condition more easily, and reduce symptoms in some cases. If your symptoms are mild, it may be possible to maintain them purely by making lifestyle changes. However, if they’re more serious then you may require medication.

 

For natural treatments, fibre is a good place to start. This nutrient is a vital part of a healthy diet anyway, but where bowels are concerned it takes on an even more important role. You can get roughage from fruit, vegetables and whole grains. A healthy diet on the whole can keep your body functioning on top form, so it’s advised that you ditch the junk food and sugar in place of a more nutritiously-beneficial diet. This means eating regular meals and taking your time to digest them, drinking plenty of water to hydrate the body and aid digestion, and restrict tea and coffee as caffeine can be a trigger for some people. Alcohol should be limited, as it can cause bloating which can make your symptoms worse, as can fizzy drinks.

Categories: bloating, common, healthy diet, ibs, people, Symptoms, worse