Case study: Bloated all day and night

By naturopath Margaret Jasinska

Jenny is a lovely long term patient of mine who I initially saw 8 months ago. She experienced amazing improvements in her health but due to a lot of stress in her life she fell off the wagon and came back wanting help again.

Jenny is a nurse and works long hours, odd hours and often does night shifts. She is also a single parent. This means she has an extremely busy life and usually doesn’t get enough sleep. To make matters worse, her quality of sleep has always been terrible.

When Jenny initially came to see me, she was around 15 kilos overweight, suffering with psoriasis and hay fever and a great deal of abdominal bloating. She woke up with a bloated belly, and as the day progressed she became even more bloated and uncomfortable. She was constipated too, which made her feel chronically tired and unmotivated. She had to force herself to get things done.

In 3 months, Jenny achieved a complete turnaround with her health. She lost weight, her abdomen flattened and she was bouncing around full of energy. Jenny was amazed at how much better she was sleeping; something she had not been expecting. Unfortunately, stress at work, problems with a former partner and moving house all contributed to Jenny’s return to some bad eating habits. She came to see me again because she desperately wanted to feel well again.

Jenny felt quite embarrassed about falling off the wagon but I quickly explained to her that it’s quite normal under the circumstances. She is certainly not the first patient to have reverted back to comfort foods and convenience foods while under pressure.

I had previously put Jenny on a gut detox and it worked so well that she wanted to repeat it. This is what I recommended:

  • A grain and dairy free diet. Grains and dairy products make Jenny’s abdomen puff up and they make her bowel sluggish. She was not able to digest these foods properly, so they ended up fermenting inside her intestines, creating gases and great discomfort.
  • I didn’t recommend a strict low FODMAP diet, but I asked Jenny to minimise the following particularly high FODMAP foods in her diet: onion, garlic, apples, pears and cauliflower.
  • I recommended Jenny take BactoClear capsules because they are excellent for helping to relieve abdominal bloating and flatulence. I asked her to take 2 capsules twice daily with meals.
  • I asked Jenny to take one tablespoon of Fibretone powder each evening in a glass of water. It was very important to get her bowel moving properly. Constipation is very harmful to the health of the bowel and to overall wellbeing.  It was critical to get rid of the waste that had been hanging around in her colon, poisoning her body from the inside. Clearing out the bowel is what helped improve Jenny’s sleep quality. She had been going to bed feeling bloated and queasy.
  • Most of the stress in Jenny’s life was starting to settle but there were still issues at work that left her feeling quite anxious and shaky. I asked her to take a teaspoon of magnesium powder with dinner each day, to help her sleep quality.

For more information on improving your gut health see Dr Cabot’s book “Healthy Bowel Healthy Body”.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email