Discover the reasons behind persistent belly bloat even after going gluten-free. Explore common triggers and tips for relief.
Understanding the Hidden Causes of Persistent Bloating Beyond Gluten Intolerance
Dr. Emily Kiberd addresses the ongoing concern of belly bloat in individuals diagnosed with Hashimoto’s who have adopted a gluten-free diet and are on thyroid medication. She emphasizes that despite eliminating gluten, many still experience discomfort due to underlying issues that extend beyond food sensitivities. A deeper investigation reveals hidden culprits such as H. pylori, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and low stomach acid, which can significantly impact both digestion and thyroid function.
Dr. Kiberd provides valuable insights into diagnosing and treating these infections, highlighting their roles in exacerbating bloating. By understanding these factors, individuals can take informed steps towards improving their gut health. Additionally, she introduces her upcoming free Gut Masterclass, which promises to delve deeper into gut health and healing strategies specifically tailored for Hashimoto’s patients.
Unraveling the Mystery: Beyond Gluten-Free—What Else Could Be Causing Your Belly Blues?
What’s up beautiful ladies Dr Emily kyberd here today we are going to dive into why you still have belly blo despite going free and taking your thyroid meds let me know if this sounds like you this might resonate on a very deep level I know it did when I was first diagnosed with Hashimoto you’ve cut out the gluten the dairy maybe even.
The process foods you still wake up feeling bloated by the end of the day you look like you swallowed a balloon or maybe you’re six months pregnant like what gives today we’re going to dive into the culprits behind belly bloat that go Way Beyond food sensitivities and trust me this is something that most doctors miss.
When it comes to Healing with Hashimoto we are going to focus on H pylori which is a bacterial infection highly transmissible in the stomach how this can lead to slow stomach I acid and why that can affect and drive up your thyroid antibodies we’re going to focus on sibo small intestinal bacterial overgrowth if these words sound like a.
Foreign language it’s okay I got you we’re going to talk about why eliminating gluten is not enough there is tons of research around why to eliminate gluten but if you’re still having belly bloat despite eliminating gluten there could be an underlying root cause there could be one of these infections driving.
Inflammation in the body driving your TSH up driving your thyroid antibodies up and preventing you from fully healing fully feeling like yourself fully feeling like your best self so if this episode resonates with you I’ve got something big coming up next week next Tuesday it is my gut master class and normally this is a paid master class for.
$27 and then it gets bumped up to $97 and this time around we’re going to do it for free because so many women need this information we’ll go deeper into how to heal your gut beat the bloat for good how to test not guess you know I’m a big test not gu girl how these gut infections could be.
Driving could be The Driver of your Hashimoto’s and so instead of chasing after hormones more thyroid hormones more HRT if you address this things in this episode and the things we’re going to talk about in this gup Master Class thyroid hormones could come back into optimal range into balance I’m.
Going to drop the link in the show notes go check it out it’s free it’s when 100% free so if you just show up digest learn get more information you can then start to ask better questions I’m a big believer that the better questions you ask the better ANS answers you get so if you go to a doctor’s appointment and you’re not getting good answers but you.
Don’t know because you aren’t asking the right questions this is where frustration compounds I’m such a big believer that education is Empower all right so let’s break it down this myth of just go gluten-free if you have Hashimoto and all your bloating will magically disappear well cutting.
Out gluten can be helpful 100% there are so many research articles showing that gadin the protein founding can lead to leaky gut that there’s actually testing you can do with a GI map that can look at gadin antibodies is your body creating antibodies to gadin the protein inside gluten but just know cutting out gluten.
Can be helpful but it’s not the whole story and so many women with Hashim motives still feel bloated because food sensitivities are only a little piece it’s like the tip of the iceberg in terms of the healing Hashimoto puzzle and really the bigger issue is gut dysfunction So today we’re going to cover three hidden gut infections that.
Be could be causing your bloat and if you’re like eh aren’t you going to talk about this in the master class we are but I’m going to give you a little snippet today so that when you come to the master class you’re not like whoa this is like a foreign language you’ve already heard some of the terms you will have already heard some of the language.
And when you come to the master class you be like oh okay oh this makes even more sense oh yes yes yes I get it so the first one I want to address is H pylori H pylori helicobactor pylori we’re going to start with this one because this starts high up in the digestive tract it starts in the stomach it’s a bacterial infection that burrows.
Think of it is like a little spiral it Burrows into the stomach lining and will lower our own stomach acid production why does that matter when we eat food we need our stomach acid to break down the food so that as the food is going through the intestine it’s not going through as these big chunks and making it really hard.
For uh the rest of the digestion to happen the stomach acid breaks on the food stomach acid also helps kill off things we don’t want in our gut bacteria um viral load all the things so why does hpylori cause floating hpylori this bacteria that burrows into our stomach lining can slow our digestion it creates as overgrowth of bad bacteria.
Some of the symptoms might be burping acid reflux bloating after meals those are like the most common signs so anytime someone comes to me in my one-on-one functional medicine practice and they’re like I’m burping I get some reflux after I eat I get bloated after I eat on to the differential diagnosis goes H pylori some of the signs would be.
Chronic reflux or gird nausea burping feeling full even after like the smallest meal a history of stomach ulcers so in a very small percentage H pylori can lead to peptic stomach ulcers even stomach pain and then in an even smaller percentage can lead to stomach cancer so it is so important to rule out to figure out okay do I have.
This is this inside of me it is highly transmissible you can get it from kissing someone from sharing utensils from going to a restaurant and they don’t wash their utensils properly and the person who used the spoon before you had H pylori and now there’s H pylori on that spoon it can even be passed there’s a article that came out recently showing.
That h Lori can get pushed up into the air if someone did a number two and flush the toilet and your toothbrush is in near the toilet and then those H pylori particles that are aerosolized go up into the air and get on your toothbrush you brush your teeth and now you have H pylori gross right so here’s how you test for it there’s different.
Ways there’s a stool test called a GI Map There’s a breath test and there’s a more inv Bas of test which is an endoscopy with a biopsy that last one is the gold standard I think it’s a little invasive I like to use a GI map to check for hpylori in the clients I work with how do you address hpylori you can use herbs supplements like mastic.
Gum um DGL licorice root and then there is also a conventional treatment of two antibiotics and a proton pump inhibitor the supplements are a longer treatment 60 to 90 days the conventional meds shorter treatment 10 to 14 days there’s different reasons to choose one or another it’s another conversation for another.
Episode and then because H pylori decreases our own stomach produ acid production sometimes we need to help support that stomach acid production with some Bane HCL or helping produce digestive enzymes by either taking digestive enzymes for a supplement or something to help produce our own digestives like a little bit of apple.
Cider vinegar 10 minutes before you eat so if this is you oh I’m burping out of nowhere I have some reflx some gird I get bloated after meals even if they’re itty bitty you will want to address H pylori and why is this important important for Hashimoto there’s a lot of research out there showing that women with Hashimoto are more susceptible to.
An H pylori infection because we have low stomach acid I have seen in my personal practice with clients that when you address hpylori energy comes back brain fog lifts fatigue goes away bloating goes away thyroid antibodies come down thyroid Labs come back closer to an optimal range and we didn’t really do.
Anything else we didn’t touch thyroid hormone we didn’t touch any sort of medication we just addressed hpylori so there is a big interconnection between the two number two hidden rote cause a belly bloat we’re going to talk about stomach acid as you heard very closely related to hpylori but when stomach acid is too low to break down food this can.
Lead to gas bloating and fermentation of your F food if food sits in the stomach too long which can happen with Hashimoto because thyroid hormones when they are under underactive make everything slow down including our digestion when food sits in the stomach too long like food’s not moving through our digestive tract quick enough fermentation happens.
Bacteria starts to eat that food for a longer period of time and then we get fermentation which leads to gas which leads to bloat this can trigger this slowness of the food slow motility through the digestive tract can trigger sugar a bacterial overgrowth called sibo small intestinal bacterial overgrowth can also.
Lead to malabsorption the inability to absorb the nutrients from the foods that we’re eating so here’s some signs that you might have low stomach acid bloating or fullness right after you eat signs of undigested food in your stool chronic iron in B12 deficiencies so how do we start to.
Address this a little bit of the Band-Aid approach but is still necessary would be two things one chew your food thoroughly eat slowly put yourself in a regulated nervous system State before you eat I know this is very challenging for the mothers I’m a mother where your kids are like wanting to sit on your La they’re.
Fighting during dinner and you’re just like oh my God can I just eat in peace but it’s so important because digestion starts high up it is a north to south process as my girl Alice and Mars food by Mars says it actually starts in the mouth and it actually starts in the brain so when we are in this calm regulated State we chew our food.
Thoroughly to Baby mush 30 to 60 chews per bite who does that very few people myself included and we’re eating slowly and we’re in this calm State digestion is better bloating gets better even with that one little tip ways to supplement would be to add pan HCL stomach acid the first 10 minutes we.
Eat another way to help produce our own stomach acid to help stimulate it would be apple cider vinegar 10 minutes before if you are having any sort of histamine response like you’re living in mold which 98% of the women I see in my functional medicine practice have mold exposure um I wouldn’t recommend something that is more High histamine.
Like a vinegar something that’s fermented like apple cider vinegar so those would be the two with a little bit of a caveat and super important those are a little bit of Band-Aids you always want to get to what is the root cause driving low stomach acid that’s then leading to your.
Bloat one of those we mentioned in number one H pylori so going back to 30,000 F view top three hidden causes of belly bloat we talked about H pylori a stomach bacteria highly transmissible number two low stomach acid potentially caused by H pylori or sibo or malabsorption and number three is sibo.
Which is guiding you along the path so sibo small intestinal bacterial overgrowth what is this this is a bacteria this is when our natural bacteria in our small intestine our large intestine should migrate into the small intestine and when there is slow motility like food is moving slowly.
Through the digestive tract this can cause fermentation gas and bloating why is it causing bloating the bacteria in our gut breaks down food it can break it down too early producing excess gas this gas is in the form of a hydrogen or a methane gas yes bloating can get worse throughout the day especially after eating high.
Fiber or high carb foods so this is a very key differentiator if you’re eating a carb high carb food or you’re eating a high fiber food so I hear this all the time women come to me and they’re like oh my God I get so bloated when I eat vegetables but everyone says to eat the rainbow have lots of diversity eat lots.
Of vegetables to get the fiber but every time I do I bloat a little alarm in my brain goes D we got to check for sibo so signs you might have sibo bloating after you’re eating especially carbs or when you’re increasing your fiber constipation diarrhea or both which I.
Like to call conera where you’re swinging between constipation and diarrhea gas and burping that is chronic so those would be some very definitive signs that now you’re like okay need to go check for SEO this small intestinal bacterial overgrowth how do we test for it there is a sibo breath test it is a.
Lactulose or glucose test typically in the doctor’s office they’ll do a two-hour test where you drink this glucose solution it’s gross and then you breathe into a bag every 15 minutes for two hours I like to do a three-hour test it’s a little more sensitive definitely don’t do a one-hour.
Test so how do you start to address sibo you can start to do dietary changes looking into a low VOD map or Elemental diet there are antimicrobials that you can use there’s also antibiotics like refaim the data shows that about 55% of people who address their sibo have a reoccurrence and it comes back again and.
Again and here’s the thing that no one’s looking at there is natural bacterial overgrowth or bacteria in our small intestine ask the question why why is it in overgrowth is it getting put into a place of disbiosis or unbalance due to a parasite see that.
Often is it getting driven by mold exposure those are the two that if someone is treating sibo again and again I often say sibo is a symptom get to the root cause don’t just address it again and again with antimicrobials and antibiotics that is the Band-Aid approach look at what is the driver mold parasites are often the common too so.
Going back to top three hidden causes of belly bloat it is more than just going gluten-free it is more than just food some of the the top three causes that we start to look at and there’s obviously more but I just don’t want to overwhelm you would be H pylori low stomach acid sibo and so just know like food is not the enemy if you’re still.
Bloated after going gluten-free your gut health is probably the real issue sibo H pylori Lum low stomach acid are all major causes of bloating that are often overlooked by conventional medicine but you know when I work with clients these are non-negotiables that we look at to get to the root cause of Blu because often times we look at our.
Belly is that is that atap POS tissue am I getting a muffin top because I’m fat or because I’m bloated right and so sometimes our new Norm of uh my belly fat is actually bloating and you can actually lose weight just by addressing the blood testing matters test don’t guess get a sibo breath test a GI map stool.
Test for hpylori try a ban HDL challenge which I do with oneone clients so if you suspect gut issues start tracking your symptoms write them down work with a provider like myself to test not guest your gut and then begin supporting your digestion with simple steps like chewing your food using the just of bitters to your advantage and if.
You want to go deeper join me for the gut master class next week it is a deep dive into gut health we’ll go step by step on how to heal test rebuild your digestion we’ll talk about belly bloat how to get rid of it for good we will also talk about.
How there’s so much more we can do that is outside the conventional realm more than just get a endoscopy get a colonoscopy yes those are important those are tools but they’re not the only tools and so to get really clear on the data of what you’re working with it’s really a testone guest.
Approach which is what I do with my clients but we’ll talk about this in the gut Master Class check out the link the link is in the show notes thank you for tuning in if you found this helpful educational inspiring subscribe share with a fellow Hashimoto sister maybe it’s your actual sister CU it’s genetic maybe it’s your mama any anyone who’s.
Struggling with bloat and I will see you inside the gut master class next week it is free until then keep listening to your body stay strong and I’ll catch you in the next episode
