Feeling Bloated? 6 Ways To Ease Your Discomfort, According To Doctors

Bloating is difficult to deal with for so many reasons, including the discomfort of having a puffy stomach. But bloating is a common challenge that many people face.

“Bloating can have two main causes: Too much gas and a problem with the movement of gas,” says Ashkan Farhadi, M.D., a gastroenterologist at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center and director of MemorialCare Medical Group’s Digestive Disease Center in Fountain Valley, CA. “Basically, you either generate too much of it or you cannot move it along, and the reasons for those can vary.”

“A wide variety of causes, which can range from benign to very serious,” can be behind bloating, says Richard Firshein, D.O., integrative medicine practitioner and founder of the Firshein Center. Those more commonly include clinical gut dysfunction, PMS, and food intolerances, he says. If bloating is a regular problem for you, we recommend you talk your healthcare provider to try to figure out what could be behind it. But, if you’re just dealing with occasional bloat, doctors say there are a few steps you can take to ease this, both immediately and overnight.