Help!! I Have Gas

So the next question comes from a reader who left a voicemail but not her name. You can wonder why. Let's listen.

She says, hi Dr. Hyman, I have a problem with excessive gas and I sure would like to know how you can get rid of it. Thank you and I hope you'll answer my question next week.

So the caller's question is how do I get rid of excessive gas? We've all experienced it. It's uncomfortable, it's embarrassing. So let's talk more about this. what causes gas? Well, most of you don't know, and I didn't really know this either, is that humans don't make gas. Humans don't produce gas. Bugs in your gut produce the gas. So there's a lot of things that can trigger it, and a lot of it has to do with bad bugs in the gut and poor digestive function. So it could be food sensitivities like dairy causing lactose intolerance. It could be other things. It could be problems with not functioning digestive enzymes, too many bad bugs. So how do you deal with that? Well, there are billions of good bugs. In fact, probably trillions of good bugs that are supposed to be living in your gut helping to break down all the food and allow the nutrients to get in and get maximum absorption. And these good bugs actually do help you, but the bad bugs can create a problem. So the bad bugs really are causing fermentation. It's like a brewery inside that ferments the food and the things that get fermented are mostly sugars and starch. Protein a little bit, but sugars and starch actually they drive trouble with your gut flora. That results in all kinds of yeast issues, bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine and that creates this fermentation. So if you feel bloated after you eat, if you don't feel like you digest your food, you really have to get on this and you probably should Follow some of the guidelines that I put out in some of my blogs on how to fix your gut and also the 10-day detox diet can be very helpful. But if you're not getting better, you probably need to see a practitioner and get help with getting rid of the bad bugs, putting in the good bugs, helping you with digestive enzymes. All these things can really, really help. You also might want to try a special diet, which is called the low FODMAPs diet. And FODMAPs are fermentable starches. Now, Nobody probably knows what this is or has heard of it, but it stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. That's basically starch, different kinds of starches, and sugar alcohols. Now, I'll try to say that 10 times fast. Basically, there are types of sugars found in a bunch of common foods like wheat, beans, milk, apples, honey, sugar snap peas, peaches, plums, cauliflower, sugar-free treats, especially the ones with sugar alcohols. Now, that's Not a comprehensive list, but you're gonna learn more about the FODMAP diet in the link below. But there are strong links between high FODMAP diets and bloating and gas. But if you fix your gut flora, you might be able to fix it so you don't have to restrict your diet. The idea is to get it back in balance. Also, you could supplement with enzymes that help break down some of the foods you're eating. You can avoid dairy and you can add fiber and prebiotics. That can all help. But make sure that if you don't get better, you go see someone, 'cause that's not just symptomatic. of gas, there's other imbalances going on. So we all occasionally have gas, but it's a natural byproduct of our digestive machine that's in our intestinal tract. But when it becomes too much, it's kind of unbearable. And I would give these easy fixes a try. If you aren't feeling better, go find a functional medicine doc to get to the root of the problem. All right, well that's all the time we have for today. If you liked this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. And if you have any questions, You can tweet them to me or send video submissions to DrHymen.com and maybe next week, I'll make a house call to you. Thanks for watching.