5 Common Root Causes of Chronic Bloating and Constipation (that have nothing to do with food)

Chronic bloating that persists even when you're eating a clean diet is frustrating! In this episode of The Nourished Way Podcast, I uncover the 5 most common root causes of chronic bloating and irregular bowel movements that you probably haven't explored.

If you’ve tried eliminating foods, taking digestive enzymes, adding in more fiber, probiotics, or other supplements and you’re still bloated, this episode is for you. 

We’re going to discuss reasons that are not related to food including low stomach acid, bacterial imbalances, nervous system dysregulation, and suboptimal thyroid function. Some of these are going to surprise you!

The juicy goods in this episode:

• Certain processed foods can trigger bloating but when it's chronic, there are usually deeper imbalances going on
• Poor digestive function including low stomach acid and enzymes lead to bloating even if you're eating cleaner than anyone you know
• Microbial imbalances including candida overgrowth, and bacterial overgrowth is a common cause of chronic gut issues
• Chronic stress and living in fight or flight directly impacts digestion and the microbiome
• Constipation (less than 1 complete BM a day) can cause gas, bloating, and recirculation of toxins and hormones
• Elimination diets can temporarily reduce symptoms temporarily but they don't address the root causes and are not sustainable

Links: 

Book a strategy call with Danielle here! During this call, you'll discuss your gut and hormone symptoms, health goals and how functional testing with personalized coaching will help you achieve balance and symptom resolution

Interested in working together with functional lab testing? Check out my 1-1 program here. 

Click here to join The Period Protocol 

If you have questions, let's chat! You can contact me on Instagram or by email at info@thenourishedway.ca 

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not individual or medical advice. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider regarding any medical conditions or treatment plans.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Nourished Way podcast. In today's episode, we are diving into the five most common root causes of constant bloating and constipation that have nothing to do with food. If you're new here, I'm Danielle. I am a registered holistic nutritionist and founder of the Nourished Way. This is my holistic nutrition practice where I help women get to the bottom of their chronic gut and hormone issues. And we do this by taking a whole body approach and really digging deep to understand the underlying causes of issues like bloating, constipation, IBS, food sensitivities, acne, hypothyroidism, and painful periods. Bloating is one of the most common complaints that I hear from new clients. Some of them describe waking up bloated. For some of them, the bloating gets worse as the day goes on. Sometimes they're bloated after eating certain foods, or they're bloated no matter what they eat, which is obviously really frustrating. These women often tell me they look five months pregnant by dinner time. They have to unbutton their pants or change into stretchier pants, and they're obviously really uncomfortable. Usually these clients have experimented with removing different foods from their diet. So they've tried taking out gluten, they've cut out dairy, high FODMAP foods, beans, sugar. These are some of the most common foods that people tend to remove when they're having gut issues. Taking out foods might provide some short-term relief in terms of symptoms, but these elimination diets really aren't sustainable for most people long term, and they don't address why you're having reactions to these foods in the first place. Of course, it's natural to assume that food is the culprit if you're bloated, especially if you feel bloated pretty quickly after you eat, or if you notice reactions on your skin, maybe you get some pimples, you get acne breakouts or eczema after you eat certain foods. But here's what I want you to know healthy, whole foods should not be causing symptoms. And when they do, this doesn't mean that the food is bad. I want you to think of these reactions or symptoms as signs from your body that tells us there's a deeper imbalance going on in your gut, which is causing these symptoms. So the goal in my work is to address these imbalances and get your digestive system working properly so that it can do what it is naturally supposed to do, which is break down and digest foods so that you can absorb and use those nutrients. Diversity in our diet is extremely important for our gut microbiome. If this is a new term for you, the microbiome is the community of microorganisms like bacteria that live in the gut. And these bacteria play a really important role in our immune system and in our overall health. The majority of your immune system is actually inside your gut microbiome. And the microbiome really thrives when you eat a diversity of foods. So elimination diets can actually do more harm than good in the long run. Now, there are what I like to call food-like products, so ultra-processed ingredients like refined carbohydrates that have fillers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and seed oils that definitely contribute to inflammation and bloating. So while this episode is going to focus on non-food sources or causes of bloating, food, of course, does play an extremely important role in our gut health. If you're eating too many packaged or processed foods, if you are drinking too much alcohol, consuming too many artificial sweeteners or sugar, this is all going to disrupt the gut microbiome. So there are absolutely ultra-processed foods that I recommend my clients limit from their diet. But I also want to stress that aiming for a 100% clean diet is absolutely not realistic and it's not necessary to be healthy or to heal your gut. No one's diet is perfect. Mine certainly isn't. I don't expect or want my clients to try and eat a perfectly clean diet. This just adds more stress to their life. So ultra-processed foods can definitely contribute to bloating and to irregular bowel movements, but foods like dairy, vegetables, and beans shouldn't cause digestive symptoms. When they do, this happens because the digestive system isn't working the way that it's supposed to, and there are imbalances in the gut that are impacting digestion, which is what we're going to unpack today. I have a lot of clients who can't really pinpoint which foods are causing their bloat. Sometimes clients can tell me that certain foods like dairy, gluten, or beans just don't agree with them. But then a lot of clients also have this random bloating and they can't seem to figure out which foods have caused it. And this is because it's not the food, it's their digestive system. Sometimes we do need to take out certain foods temporarily from the diet to minimize symptoms. So if you're bloated or you're gassy every time you eat dairy or beans or you get pimples after you eat these foods, obviously you're not going to want to eat them. But when I'm working with a client and we take out some of these whole foods, the goal is always for this to be short term while we address the root causes of these symptoms and get their digestive system working properly. I work with a lot of clients that have chronic gut issues, but I also work with a lot of women who are dealing with hormone imbalances. They have issues like acne, painful periods, or hypothyroidism. On our initial call, I ask a lot of questions to really understand what's going on with their health so that we can get to the root of their symptoms. Most women have no idea that their hormones and their gut are so connected. This was something that I didn't learn until my late 20s on my health journey. I think we have this disconnect because we've been conditioned largely as a result of the way that our medical system is constructed to look at each of our bodies' organs and systems in isolation. So when someone has an issue with their hormones, they go to a gynecologist or an endocrinologist. If they're having an issue with their gut, they go to a gastroenterologist. If they're having an issue with their heart, they go to a cardiologist. You get the point. But everything in our bodies is so connected. And the real transformations happen when we look at things in a holistic way and make connections between the different systems in our bodies. An imbalance in one system can cause a symptom with another symptom system. But we're never going to know that if we're not looking at the whole picture. So an example of this would be if someone is dealing with heavy and painful periods, they might go and see a gynecologist to figure out what's going on with their hormones. But if that doctor doesn't ask them if they're having a bowel movement every day, she's not going to make the connection that her hormones are off, at least in part, because her body isn't actually eliminating her estrogen because she's constipated. And this is contributing to those period symptoms. So if you have tried eliminating foods, taking digestive enzymes, adding in more fiber, taking probiotics or supplements like L glutamine, and you are still bloated all of the time, this episode is for you. We're going to uncover the common root causes of both bloating and constipation. These are factors that are within your gut, but also outside of your digestive system. And I know that some of these are definitely going to surprise you. So, diving in with number one, this one is pretty obvious. It is constipation. If you are not having at least one complete bowel movement every day, you're probably going to be bloated and uncomfortable. I really believe one reason constipation is so common for women is because so many of us were told as kids that girls don't poop. And we would hold it in if we had to go to the bathroom at school or if we were in public. We were afraid or we were embarrassed to go in a public bathroom if we weren't, you know, in the comfort and privacy of our own home. And for a lot of us, this is something that we still believe as adults. We don't want to go when we're at work or we don't want to go if we're out in public running errands. And over time, this can actually lead to chronic constipation. I've heard so many women say that they grew up thinking that having a bowel movement every few days is totally normal, especially if their mom was constipated and also thought that this was normal. I've had so many clients tell me that until we started working together, they had no idea that having a bowel movement every other day isn't actually normal. The good news is even if you've dealt with this for your whole life or you've dealt with this for many years, our bodies are incredibly resilient and we can actually retrain our digestive systems to eliminate daily. This is extremely important for our hormones, for detoxification, our skin, and our overall health. You can Google the Bristol stool chart online to see what an optimal bowel movement should look like. I tell my clients it should look like a smooth snake or a sausage, which is a three to four on that chart. And I want to see my clients having at least one complete bowel movement every day. So this means they have fully evacuated their bowels, they don't feel like they could still go. There is not rabbit pellets, they are fully emptying their bowels at least once a day. Constipation is a problem for a couple of reasons. So, number one, it's obviously really uncomfortable and it can cause a lot of gas and bloating, even pain. I recently had a new client tell me she plans her travel around bowel movements because she goes so many days in a row without having a bowel movement, and she's super uncomfortable and doesn't want to be traveling during those times. When food sits for too long in the colon, bacteria start to ferment it. So they start to break it down. And this produces gas as a byproduct, which increases bloating and overall abdominal discomfort. The second reason constipation is a problem is that when waste sits in the colon for too long, toxins and hormones that should be leaving the body through bowel movements can be reabsorbed. And this can create a lot of inflammation, and it's actually a big driver of hormone imbalances. So, for example, when estrogen doesn't leave the body every day, it can accumulate, it recirculates in the body, and it can contribute to issues like PMS, heavy and painful periods. These are all symptoms of estrogen dominance, which happens when estrogen isn't cleared from the body properly. So this is why we look at the body in a holistic, interconnected way, because everything in our bodies is so connected. Number two, second reason for chronic bloating and constipation is going to be reduced digestive function. This just means that the digestive system isn't breaking down food well or moving food and waste through the digestive system properly. If you're eating mostly whole foods and you are still dealing with bloating, we need to look deeper at how your digestive system is functioning. And a big piece of this is the production of digestive juices that are needed to break down foods. These digestive juices are stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and bile. And these break down food into smaller pieces so that your body can absorb the nutrients and excrete the waste. These juices keep everything moving through the GI tract from the mouth to the other end. If you are eating a really clean, healthy diet, but you're not breaking down your food well, you're going to be bloated. It's also really common to see low energy skin issues and hormone imbalances show up as a result of poor digestion because we need the nutrients from our food for energy, for good thyroid function, for skin health, and to produce and detoxify our hormones. These digestive juices, stomach acid in particular, are especially important for breaking down proteins into amino acids. These amino acids play a really important role in the immune system, in neurotransmitter production, brain function, tissue repair, liver detoxification, just to name a couple of functions of amino acids. And protein requires good levels of stomach acid to be digested. So when stomach acid is low, which is extremely common, you might feel heavy, maybe even tired or sluggish after you eat high protein meals, or you might feel like food is just sitting in your gut. It's not moving. Something I have noticed over the past couple of years is that there is this big push, particularly on social media, for women to eat more protein, which I do love because most women are under-eating protein unintentionally. They're not getting enough protein. The problem that I am seeing though is that when we increase protein too quickly and the digestive system is not ready for it because it's not able to properly break this protein down, a lot of women are seeing more bloating and more constipation. So when I have a client coming in and I look at her protein intake for a couple of days, if I notice she's eating 60 grams of protein on average per day, but her ideal target number would be 120 grams a day, I'm not going to increase her right away to that number. We're gonna go really slowly and we're also going to work on her digestion so that she can properly break down that protein and use those amino acids. When stomach acid is low, we can also have nutrient deficiencies because our digestive system isn't able to extract the nutrients from our food or supplements. So it's really common to see low iron and low B12 if someone has low stomach acid, especially if they are eating enough food sources of these nutrients. This is typically an absorption issue in the gut. The stomach should actually be quite acidic. And when stomach acid levels are low, food is going to sit in the digestive tract for longer than it should because it's not being properly broken down. So it's not moving from north to south at the speed that it should. If you feel like food just sits like a rock in your stomach, especially after you eat higher protein or higher fat meals, this is a pretty good sign that you don't have enough stomach acid. So I want you to picture putting some frozen fruit into a blender and trying to blend it up to make a smoothie without putting in enough liquid. We've all done that, we've all been there, but think about what happens. The fruit kind of spins around the blender, the engine is revving, and you end up with this chunky smoothie with little bits of frozen fruit, but it's not smooth and creamy. This is really similar to what's happening in our gut if we are trying to break down our food, but we don't have enough stomach acid. Digestive enzymes are another really important part of the digestive process because they help to break down our food. And when these are low, we tend to see a lot of the same patterns that we see with low stomach acid. So a few common signs that digestive enzymes and stomach acid are low is going to be bloating that's either constant or gets worse throughout the day. Constipation, loose stools or alternating between constipation and more diarrhea. Food feeling like it just sits like a rock in your stomach, feeling full very quickly, having low iron or low B12 or vitamin D because these nutrients are not being properly absorbed in the gut, burping after meals, having undigested food in the stool, having food sensitivities or intolerances, being tired after meals, having sticky stools or needing to do a lot of wiping after bowel movements, not having complete bowel movements, so maybe you're going, but you just feel like you could go more, but you're not able to. And having some nausea with supplements. This happens because your gut is trying to break down or break open the capsules and you don't have enough stomach acid to do that. Digestive enzymes are actually released by the pancreas after stomach acid is secreted. So a really common reason for insufficient digestive enzymes is low stomach acid. Stomach acid really kicks off the whole digestive process. Supplementing with enzymes can be helpful in the short term, but we really want to get to the root of why your body isn't able to break down your food properly and help it to do what it is naturally supposed to do. Chronic stress is a big trigger. Nutrient deficiencies are another big trigger for both low stomach acid and low digestive enzymes. The body needs specific nutrients like amino acids, vitamins, and minerals to make these digestive enzymes, to make stomach acid, and also to keep everything moving through the gut. Okay, number three is microbial imbalances in the gut. So when we have this partially digested food that sits in the gut, it becomes food for bacteria and for yeast like candida to feed on. And when these microbes are fed, they grow. So this can lead to an overgrowth in the gut, which causes more bloating, more gas, constipation or loose tools. It also creates a lot of inflammation in the body. So a really common scenario is that we have this food that isn't being broken down. So it's causing bloat, and then this partially digested food is feeding microbes in the gut, which leads to an overgrowth of these microbes, which then leads to more bloating, constipation, looser stools, or other digestive symptoms. Stomach acid also provides really important protection in the gut from microbes, so from bacteria, viruses, and parasites that we all come in contact with through our environment, but that can cause problems when they overgrow or when there's not enough good bacteria to balance them out. So think of stomach acid like a bouncer at the club. It's very selective about what is allowed to enter and it kills off what we don't want in the gut. So if you're not making enough stomach acid, you're going to be more susceptible to bacterial, viral, and parasitic overgrowth. The best way to assess if you have microbial overgrowth in your gut is with a GI Map stool test. This is the test that I run with clients, and it essentially takes a picture of the gut microbiome so that we can see any microbes that are overgrown and we can target these appropriately and clear them out of the gut. We can also see how well your body is making digestive enzymes. We can see how well you're breaking down fat. There are markers for inflammation in the gut and detoxification. It also shows us what your levels of good bacteria are. And these good bacteria play such a key role in your gut health, your immune system, and your mental health because most of your neurotransmitters are actually produced by your gut bacteria. When there is an overgrowth of bad bacteria and low levels of good bacteria, which is a really common pattern that we see on stool tests, it's likely that we're going to experience leaky gut, which leads to a lot of inflammation, food intolerances, bloating, irregular bowel movements. And there are actually certain bacteria that are connected with constipation that tend to cause constipation and other types of bacteria that can cause looser stools. A lot of my clients have this combination of low stomach acid, low digestive enzymes, low good bacteria, and overgrown bacteria or uh yeasts like candida that tend to cause problems. This is why testing is so beneficial because we can see exactly what is going on with your microbiome and address those imbalances. Okay, number four. I'm sure you know that we can't talk about poor digestion without talking about chronic stress. The reality is we live in a culture where most of us are overstimulated and pulled in a lot of directions. Our society has really normalized being overstimulated, having really packed schedules with little downtime, being sleep deprived, eating a lot of processed foods, spending a lot of time on our screens. And this has all contributed to the collective sense of over. Overwhelm that so many women are experiencing. This is obviously a really deep topic, and we're just going to scratch the surface in this episode. But the reality is when we are in a state of fight or flight, most of the time, our body is not going to prioritize digestion because it is on high alert. When the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, this is your rest and digest state. So the opposite of that fight or flight mode. The body feels calm, it feels relaxed, and the digestive system puts energy towards breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and elimination. So this is the opposite of that fight or flight state that so many of us spend so much time in. In this state, the body is stressed, it's hurried, it's overwhelmed, everything feels urgent, and we are in this go-go-go mode for a lot of our day. One of the first things that I ask clients who are constipated is what their morning routine looks like. Because if we get up, we hit the ground running, we are on our phones, checking emails, messages, rushing out the door with a coffee in hand, maybe a quick little something for breakfast, we are unintentionally activating our fight or flight state. In this state, our bodies are not going to be relaxed enough to have a bowel movement. Your body is only thinking about getting you through the stress. It's not thinking about elimination and it's actually going to produce less stomach acid and less digestive enzymes, which is obviously going to impact digestion and our motility is typically going to slow down. Obviously, we live in a very fast-paced society that demands a lot of women. And if you are listening to this and thinking, yeah, I spend a lot of time in this fight or flight state, I completely get it. I personally have to put a lot of intention into regulating my nervous system and minimizing how much time I spend in this fight or flight mode. A lot of people find great benefit with meditation, but if that's not your thing, there's a lot of really helpful little micro practices that you can bring into your days to help your body spend more time in that rest and digest state. So if you tend to rush everywhere, this is activating your fight or fight response. So look at your schedule. See where you can give yourself extra time to get places or where you can delegate things on your schedule. Ask for help. This is all going to give yourself a little bit of extra breathing room. And this is so helpful in regulating and calming the nervous system. A little exercise that I do with clients, and I do this with myself as well, is I ask them to give me a number on a scale from one to 10 that describes how fast they tend to move through their day. So how fast are you doing the dishes? How fast are you getting ready in the morning? How fast are you washing your hair in the shower? Typically, clients will tell me that they are uh anywhere from an eight to a 10. And I tell them to picture a speed dial. And when you are going throughout your day, I want you to turn that speed dial down. If you're at a nine, turn it down to a six or a seven. So you can incorporate this exercise when you are typing on your computer, washing dishes, folding laundry, literally anything in your day. You're just slowing yourself down to a reasonable number and you are telling your nervous system that there is no emergency that's requiring you to urgently get your tasks done. When you're doing this exercise, you can also pay attention to your breathing. This is another tool that I use to slow myself down while still getting things done. And this really helps me to get out of that fight or flight state. So you can do this while you're working, driving, showering, etc., literally anything in your day. Simply you are just paying attention to breathing in through your nose, noticing your belly fill up with air, and relaxing your shoulders while you exhale. You are just drawing attention to your breath and away from the hundreds of tabs that are probably open in your brain. What I love about both of these tools personally is that they don't require any extra time in my day. You can naturally incorporate these into your routines. And I really find this helps me to get things done without this constant sense of urgency. So chronic stress is one of the main root drivers of low stomach acid. At the same time, when we are on the go all of the time, when we are working through lunch, when we are eating in a hurry, when we really just don't have a second to breathe in our day, we're probably not going to chew our food well when we eat. And this is actually a really important part of digestion. Chewing your food well is the mechanical part of digestion. It signals the release of stomach acid and digestive enzymes in your gut and saliva. So this is a really simple thing that you can do if you are dealing with bloating and constipation is slow down at your meals and really chew your food. Try and avoid eating while you are at your desk, while you are answering emails or scrolling on your phone and just focus on chewing your food and enjoying your meals. Okay, number five. This one might surprise you. This is under-eating and slow thyroid function. This is a perfect example of the interconnectedness of the various systems in our body. The thyroid regulates the speed of food and waste moving through the gut. So when it is running slower than optimal, motility in the gut slows down as well. So this means that food and waste sit in the gut for longer than they should, which is a big contributor to bloating, gas, and irregular bowel movements. So thyroid function plays a really important role in digestion. Slow thyroid function is something that I see with a lot of clients, even when it doesn't show up on their blood work. Standard reference ranges for thyroid numbers on blood work are extremely wide. And levels that might feel good for one person can actually be really suboptimal for another. So this means that a lot of women end up being told that their thyroid is normal, even though they have a lot of hypothyroid symptoms. In addition to chronic bloating, constipation is a really common sign of a sluggish thyroid function. When the thyroid is sluggish, digestion is also going to be sluggish. Hair thinning always being cold. So having popsicles for hands and feet, having really cold hands and feet, having brain fog, fatigue, afternoon energy crashes, painful periods, and anxiety are other really common signs that the thyroid is running slow. When I'm working with clients, we support the body as a whole and we really listen to how the body is communicating through symptoms. Because symptoms are your body's only way of communicating with you. This means if someone is experiencing a lot of the symptoms that I just described, we're going to support their thyroid, even if their thyroid numbers look normal on their bloodlapse. Undereating is one of the biggest drivers of hypothyroidism. I see this in the majority of the women that I work with, even the women who are struggling with weight loss resistance or slow weight loss. Over time, undereating, underfueling, undernourishing slows down the thyroid. This slows down our metabolism, which not only makes weight loss difficult, but it also slows down digestion. Women have been the primary targets for every diet for literally decades. And most of us have experimented with at least one, if not a handful, of low-calorie, low-carb, low-fat diets. And over time, this really slows down our thyroid function and it slows down our metabolism. High stress, being in that fight or flight state, also impacts our thyroid. It can cause our hunger cues to go down and we tend to push through in that fight or flight mode, even though our body is not signaling hunger. So we're not eating as much, but we are just pushing through because of the extra cortisol that we have in our system. Most of the women that I work with don't even realize that they are undereating until we take a good look at their food intake. And when we identify that they're not consuming enough calories for their body, we can make the connection to their slow thyroid symptoms and to the gut issues that they're having, to their bloating and their constipation. Everything in our bodies is so connected. Okay, that was the fifth and final common root cause of chronic bloating and constipation that we're going to cover today. If you feel like you've tried a lot of things for your gut, maybe you've been to your doctor, maybe you've done some testing through the mainstream medical system, but everything came back normal and you are still frustrated and spinning your wheels. I want you to know that you don't have to accept that this is just the way that your body is. You just need a different approach that's going to look for the deeper root causes, which are typically a combination of what I talked about in today's episode. Mineral imbalances are another common contributor to these gut issues, which will be an entire episode on its own. But most women are depleted in essential minerals like sodium, magnesium, and potassium that play really important roles in digestion and motility. These minerals are also extremely important for good thyroid function. Testing is really key in helping us to know exactly what is out of balance in your gut. And this is going to help you get results so much quicker than taking a probiotic or a digestive enzyme that might not actually be targeting what is causing your symptoms. This is the work that we specialize in. We help clients identify and address the root causes of both chronic digestive and hormone issues inside of our one-on-one program. We use a combination of functional testing. So we do the GI MAP Stool test and HTMA or hair tissue mineral analysis testing. Nutrition, supplement, and lifestyle strategies are a huge part of our protocols. And we walk you through your protocols step by step with a big emphasis on education and making it all very realistic and sustainable for you. I hope this was helpful. I hope you are walking away with some clarity around why you might be feeling like you eat the cleanest diet in the world. You eat cleaner than anyone that you know, but you are still bloated. You still don't have regular mouth movements, you are still exhausted. There are so many factors outside of what we eat that contribute to these chronic gut issues. Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you on the next episode.