Bloating And Nonstop Burping -- Help

[Strawberry-Jam]

y'all may have seen my desperate acid reflux threads... well, here's a symptom that's been getting worse for me. It's that immediately after eating, I will bloat up and start burping nonstop. At work I have to take a 15-20 minute bathroom break halfway in just to burp nonstop until it's time to go back to work, otherwise my stomach will be soooo uncomfortable for the next few hours!

Basically I can get down breakfast, and then a decently-sized lunch, but I can't even eat supper because by this point my stomach is so full of air I can't put anything else in it, except, like, tea. This leads to me trying to put more food into my lunch so that I won't lose out on calories, which probably makes the problem worse.

I am fairly convinced that I have hypocloridia as the cause of my reflux, since after starting a program of ppis for two weeks I stopped feeling hungry and my stomach stopped emptying out (I only made it six days into the two week program) and my reflux seemed to get worse. I've started taking betaine HCl & digestive enzymes and noticed an improvement in my digestion right away... now I will actually be hungry for breakfast and lunch, rather than forcing food into my body because I know I have to eat or I'll start to waste away. My D has also stopped, which is partially due to the enzymes and partially due to my avoidance, for now, of large amounts of fats.

My reflux is much more mild than it used to be, but the gas has increased of late. It puts a painful pressure on my LES and also sometimes I burp up liquid and acid when I'm burping nonstop. I have a feeling that if I could get this gas to go away, my reflux would be pretty much gone!

I know I need to drink more water throughout the day, so I will try that first of all (even tho drinking water will lead to a certain amount of bloating in and of itself). I know water is important for digestion. I will also avoid tapwater for a few days because I read in a few places that people solved their gas problems by laying off tapwater for some reason? I don't remember where I read that, now.

I also re-started a probiotic. It contains 150 million lactobacillus sporogenes per tablet (these are apparently very resistant to acid, which is good if I'm going to be adding a lot of acid to my stomach) and a minor amount of fructooligosaccharides that they live in. I've been fructose-free for the past five or six days so I don't think my problems are fructose malabsorption, altho I will continue to lay off the fruits and sugars for now.

I also have glutamine but I stopped taking it because the capsule contains carageenan, but I doubt that's the cause of the bloating 'cause I haven't taken it in a while so maybe I'll start taking it again.

if anyone else has any ideas, please help! I was VERY bloated when I first went gluten-free, and after a month or two it subsided and only came back with food triggers. Now I'm eating pretty much only meats, fish, rice, hemp protein powder, buckwheat, and supplements, with small amounts of olive oil or sunflower oil for cooking.

[Skylark]

Gosh, it sounds like you're swallowing air.

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[Strawberry-Jam]

so the diagnosis is basically, "don't eat so fast"?

why would it be happening now, tho, and not a month ago?

[ravenwoodglass]

  On 11/24/2011 at 9:40 PM, Strawberry_Jam said:

so the diagnosis is basically, "don't eat so fast"?

why would it be happening now, tho, and not a month ago?

If it wasn't happening a month ago look back at anything you have added in the last month including supplements. Anything that is new drop and see if the problem resolves. If it resolves then add back in the new items, food and supplements one at a time for a week and see if any of them cause a reoccurance of the issues.

[Skylark]

  On 11/24/2011 at 9:40 PM, Strawberry_Jam said:

so the diagnosis is basically, "don't eat so fast"?

why would it be happening now, tho, and not a month ago?

I'm just trying to throw out safe/simple things to try since we're so stumped!

[Chad Sines]

I have had a significant reduction in intestinal gas since going low carb. It has been a little over a week and I am pleased with the change. Much less bloating. I did have massive carbs on Thanksgiving but no gluten.

Several experts feel one cause of reflux is intestinal gas which makes sense. Several feel too little stomach acid which also makes sense. Treating both is easy and will better your life.

[Strawberry-Jam]

I just want to update this post with a few things for potential future readers.

I was able to significantly reduce my burping gas--not eliminate, but reduce--by drinking more water in-between meals and less water/tea/liquids during meals. the stomach needs water to digest, but taking too much during meals will dilute the stomach acid needed to digest. So I drink a lot of water with my pills in the morning, then again in-between breakfast and lunch, and again before bed with my melatonin &c.

If I have tea, I have it in-between meals as well.

I've also been taking more probiotics (3 different strains), l-glutamine, and silicea for my reflux.

My symptoms are much more manageable of late. Not gone, but manageable. I also exercise twice as much as I used to, because I'm training myself up for long cycling forays into the country.

[T.H.]

Have you ever checked out gastroparesis with the other issues you've been looking at? I know you looked at super-sensitivity and fructose malabsorption, but I couldn't remember what else, I'm afraid.

Information on gastroparesis can take a little digging, as the most common presentation of this seems to be a reaction from people who have just had gastric bypass surgery. So information on what to do about it is frequently aimed at people who are expected to improve as their bodies heal.

However, I know of a couple people who developed it after other gut issues (or possibly it developed first and gut issues second) and they have more long term dietary needs.

Your mentioning the water made me think of it, as one of the recommendations I recall reading was drinking less (or not at all) during meals and more in between meals. I have seen some variation in dietary recommendations, but if you look up the gastroparesis diet on google, there should be some ideas, if you care to check it out. :-)

This article talks a little about some of the differences that can exist in presentation and dietary tolerance:

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You've been having so much trouble with this, I'm just hoping that you can find the answer and feel better!