Abdominal Pain Relief ~ 5 Ways to Change it
Hi, and welcome back to our channel.
Today's topic is all about abdominal pain and finding relief for something that's so uncomfortable.
So today we're going to walk through what is abdominal pain,
What are some of the symptoms,
What are some of the causes as well as ways that you can find relief.
We're also going to talk about abdominal pain and what different roles,
Specific syndromes such as IBS, play a role or even chronic stress.
And finally, we'll discuss what are natural remedies for finding relief from abdominal pain.
[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]
But first, before we begin, my name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a functional licensed nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic and at Oswald Digestive Clinic, we've worked very hard to help support you along your gut health journey.
And if you are in need of some support and some guidance, I'm going to link our website here where you can make initial appointment.
As well as I'll link our free guide, which is 5 Ways to Improve your Gut Health.
So with that, let's get back to our topic.
So digging back to our topic today, which is abdominal pain relief, and there's 5 ways that I'm going to discuss today, which you can find ways to make changes and I know all too well what abdominal pain feels like being someone who has struggled with digestive issues their whole life.
And finally, through my own education as well as different things that I've tried over the years, I'm really gut symptom free. And so with that, I work with a lot of people who also struggle with different gut issues, and of course, abdominal pain is right up there on the top of the list.
First,
What is abdominal pain and what are some of the causes and centers of abdominal pain?
Number one is going to be digestive issues, things that come along with maybe irritable bowel syndrome such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, that's all going to create abdominal pain.
And many of these symptoms have many underlying factors. And in addition to digestive issues, there's also inflammation factors, inflammation such as gastritis or ulcers or even gallbladder issues.
And in addition to gallbladder issues, there's also other organ problems that can arise that will cause abdominal pain such as pancreatitis or just issue with your pancreas as well as kidneys and your liver.
Those can all cause different types of abdominal pain.
And then of course there's muscle strain or muscle injury in the abdominal area that can also create a lot of abdominal pain.
And finally, one that we might not always think about, but stress and anxiety can also cause abdominal pain.
And so today, as I said, we're going to walk through some ways that you can find relief depending on the cause of your abdominal pain. Now, not only does bloating and gas and diarrhea or constipation create abdominal pain, but there's also just this fullness feeling that we can have.
Maybe you have nausea or vomiting that's causing abdominal pain.
Even having a loss of appetite is this cause or symptom of abdominal pain as well as fever and chills can be a symptom.
And so once we find what that underlying cause is, then of course we can address the root cause and address the symptoms.
Now as I mentioned, there's many underlying reasons for abdominal pain and one of them is going to be just having the flu.
So maybe you have a viral infection or a bacterial infection, and that's obviously going to cause some abdominal pain and hopefully it's just acute and so you kind of get the infection or the virus and it just dissipates over a few days.
Another reason that we may have abdominal pain is also going to be just food poisoning.
If any of you out there have struggled with food poisoning, you know how horrendous it can be in the first 24 to 48 hours.
And of course you're going to have a lot of abdominal pain, cramping, vomiting probably.
And again, that is usually an acute case, which over a 24, 48, maybe three day period, you're going to be free and clear of abdominal pain.
But then there's also the more chronic and long-term issues that cause abdominal pain, which one of 'em I mentioned earlier, which is irritable bowel syndrome.
IBS is just a catch hole term for many different symptoms of bloating, gas, just plain pain in your abdominal region, constipation, diarrhea, and of course having sometimes people with IBS have all of those symptoms at once, sometimes they come and go, but typically what will happen is that you'll be in a flare and you'll have many of these symptoms and you're trying to find ways to reduce that abdominal pain or symptom.
Another reason we may have abdominal pain is gastritis.
Gastritis is just an inflammation of the stomach lining and that can cause a lot of abdominal pain when our stomach lining is inflamed, every time we eat, we feel like it's just eating our insides or you feel this gnawing going on in your stomach.
So finding ways to support why you have the gastritis and then of course supporting the pain can help you lead a happier life from day to day. Other reasons for abdominal pain can also be kidney stones. And again, if you've had a kidney stone, how painful that can be.
Even kidney infection is going to cause a lot of abdominal pain.
Once you get that taken care of, typically then that pain dissipates. So usually more of an acute situation going on with that. Then there's also appendicitis.
We know that if you're having an inflamed or an infected appendix, that's going to cause a lot of abdominal pain and again, it's going to be something that can be dealt with very quickly typically.
And then those symptoms resolve.
And lastly, there's gallbladder issues and gallbladder issues can kind of come and go almost like an IBS flare in a sense.
Sometimes you'll have a gallbladder attack and that usually causes a lot of abdominal pain. You feel nauseous, sometimes people vomit, but really just in so much excruciating pain that you're just wondering what's going on.
And then pretty soon, a couple days later that kind of has subsided and goes away.
Now a gallbladder attacks can be caused from gallbladder stones or gallstones as well as just a gallbladder that's just not functioning properly.
So again, kind of assessing what your symptoms are, you can find more clarity around what is the root cause.
Now I know that IBS gastritis, gallbladder issues, kidney issues can all cause abdominal pain.
But like I said, sometimes what we don't realize is how much our chronic stress or anxiety is creating abdominal pain as well.
Now, you may be asking, well,
How does stress or anxiety create abdominal pain?
And what happens is that our gut and our brain talk through the vagus nerve.
And so if you are feeling chronically stressed or have a lot of anxiety going on, that is going to create a message being sent to the gut and vice versa that something's wrong and you can feel like your gut almost tightening or your abdominal area tightening and can cause some significant inflammation that can happen and exacerbating really other symptoms.
For example, if you do struggle with IBS, stress is oftentimes a trigger for a flare.
And if that is happening for you, you're going to have your symptoms, which could be even more exacerbated because of more stress.
And also we have anxiety that can actually change or kind of signal these hormonal effect in our gut, which creates a sense of nausea or dread diarrhea, constipation.
So it's really intriguing that just by having chronic stress or stress in general that's pretty high, you're creating this symptom within a physiological symptom, not just a mental health symptom.
So of course with a lot of these symptoms and reasons why we have abdominal pain, there are ways to find abdominal pain relief.
Abdominal Pain Relief
And we'll just start with the first one here because we just spoke about it, which is stress.
And if you're someone who has a lot of stress going on in their life or just chronic stress, just always feeling like you got to weight on your shoulders, it's time to kind of reflect and think about ways that you can mitigate your stress.
Of course, we're never going to get rid of it, but there are ways that you can find things that are going to calm you down. Of course, there's meditation, which we do talk about a lot of times, but I think even just taking a few moments of doing some breath work is just as helpful.
Just sitting back for two to five minutes and just really taking some mindful and thoughtful breath, you can really calm yourself down.
There's also, of course, just taking time for yourself. And it doesn't mean, I know when I say take time for yourself, sometimes you're thinking, I have no time.
What are you talking about?
And really, it doesn't have to be an hour of the day that you take for yourself, but maybe you find 10 or 15 minutes that it's just for you, whatever it is, going for a walk, just sitting down, reading a book for 15 minutes, writing in a journal for 15 minutes, whatever helps you, but just like knowing you have that time can just kind of bring that stress level down.
Now when it comes to more of that physical digestive issues that are going on like IBS, gastritis, gallbladder issues, you want to take a look at your diet.
Diet is so critical in the way that our gut is going to feel and you want to start paying attention to if certain foods are bothering you.
And just because you have gut issues doesn't mean you have a food sensitivity, but that's one place that you can begin to look.
Also taking out processed and damaged fats, thinking about getting rid of packaged foods and overprocessed things, ridding your diet or limiting sugar in your diet and sticking to whole foods.
Are you getting enough protein, good carbs, healthy fats on a daily and even meal by meal basis that you will be amazed at just by doing that, how much difference it can make.
And then sometimes after making that change is when you'll start to see some patterns in your gut health and your abdominal pain that you may be experiencing. Of course, there.
Another one is something is oftentimes overlooked as well, which is hydration, drinking water.
Are you drinking enough water in a day?
Now, typical standard is 64 ounces a day.
The gold standard is really half your body weight and ounces. And so if you are reaching that goal, that's awesome.
One thing to keep in mind that if you do drink any caffeinated beverages, you have to drink that much more in water because caffeine is a dehydrator and will dehydrate you.
But by being dehydrated, that can cause more abdominal pain just by your tissues. Not having enough hydration or fluids can cause more cramping and more digestive upset.
And another one too that often we don't think about but is even proper posture.
Are you slouching over when you're at your desk or are you slouching when you're standing?
All of these things can cause muscle strain in our abdominal area. And sometimes what happens is even if our low back gets really sore, that's telling us that our abs are likely not very strong or our hamstrings are too tight.
Of course there's other variables in that, but if you are really doing a lot of poor posture during the day, you'll find that you have more gut issues or more abdominal pain because you're going to be bent over. Your diaphragm can't open up, it should.
Your stomach's not digesting like you might end up more bloated.
So I think it's one thing that, again, like I said, we don't think about a lot, but is something to pay attention to.
Natural Remedies for Abdominal Pain
Now, what are some remedies, some natural memories that might help to help decrease abdominal pain?
If you're doing all the things I just mentioned perfectly, you're drinking water, your diet's on point, your posture's amazing and you're still having a lot of issues and you can't really find the root cause of things while you work with somebody such as someone at Oswald Digestive Clinic, myself, you can do things to find relief.
One of 'em can be just drinking herbal teas.
Some people find a lot of calmness with drinking a peppermint tea, even a ginger tea, which helps support digestion as well as even slippery elm tea, which is great for gastritis and just calming down that stomach.
Once that is feeling better, then that abdominal pain oftentimes relieves itself.
You can also try digestive enzymes. So if you are struggling with acid reflux or a lot of indigestion gastritis, you might want to throw in some digestive enzymes, which what I mean by that is just taking a capsule of digestive enzyme with every meal that will help break down the food in your stomach and have better digestion.
So if you're having a lot of upper GI stuff, that can definitely be helpful as well as lower gi, because when we break our food down properly, we tend to have a lot less gas and a lot less bloating.
If you are someone who is struggling with abdominal pain, first you want to find out why you're having abdominal pain, what is the reason behind it, or what are your symptoms?
If you are struggling with figuring it out again at the clinic with Oswald Digestive Clinic, I can certainly help you walk through those steps and together we can find a way to relief or even eliminate your abdominal pain.
And if it's ever so severe that you're just doubled over, you are feeling like you're going to die because it's so bad. And I know abdominal pain can feel like that.
Of course, you want to check that out with a physician just to make sure there's no physical thing going on in terms of organs or something's wrong with the stomach or something's wrong with your intestinal tract.
That is more needs to be diagnosed.
But if it is just kind of this in and out abdominal pain that you're getting with flares of IBS or the gastritis is flared up, know that we're here to help and know that there is help.
So thanks for watching today.
We'll see you next week.
If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.
Or you can just start by downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH
