Bloated and gassy every afternoon
Your belly feels flat when you wake up. By two or three in the afternoon, it swells. Your waistband digs in, and gas builds up.
Much of this ties back to food and how you break it down. The bugs in your gut feed on some carbs and make gas as they go. Beans, onions, wheat, milk and sugar-free sweets are common triggers.
Swallowed air adds to it. Eating fast, chewing gum and fizzy drinks all push air down. Stress, a slow gut, and the days before a period can hold that gas in.
When to see someone
See a doctor if you lose weight without trying, or spot blood in your stool. Get checked for pain that wakes you at night, vomiting, fever, or bloating that never eases. New bloating after age 50 needs a look, as does a family history of bowel or ovarian cancer.
The list below holds remedies people have long used for gut health. Each one carries a grade for how strong the research behind it is. A high grade means better studies, not a promise of what it will do for you.
4.8
