Most abdominal bloating comes from gas and pressure building up in your digestive tract, usually from swallowed air, foods your gut ferments, constipation, or a food intolerance.
What is driving it changes the fix. Fizzy drinks, chewing gum, eating fast, and smoking push extra air in, while beans, onions, wheat, dairy, and sugar alcohols like sorbitol feed gas-producing bacteria. Constipation is one of the most common causes, since stool sitting in the colon leaves gas nowhere to go. Irritable bowel syndrome, lactose intolerance, celiac disease, and hormonal shifts around your period also produce a bloated, distended feeling. Eating slowly, drinking more water, building fiber up gradually, and walking after meals help many people within a few weeks.
The causes worth knowing
Common questions
What causes Abdominal bloating?
Bloating usually means gas and stretching in your gut. Common drivers are swallowed air, foods that ferment (beans, onions, wheat, dairy, carbonated drinks, sugar alcohols), constipation, lactose or fructose intolerance, and irritable bowel syndrome. Hormonal changes around your period and slow stomach emptying can add to it. Less often, celiac disease or an ovarian condition is behind it. Eat slowly, cut back on carbonation and sugar alcohols, increase fiber and fluids gradually, and stay active. Talk with a clinician if bloating lasts three weeks or more, or comes with weight loss, vomiting, blood in your stool, or trouble swallowing.