Is Bloating A Normal Part of Aging? I Think Not!

How many times have we seen this: a TV show, a magazine article or a piece on the news about how “low back pain is just part of again- why not take X medication to help dull the pain“‘, or “has your digestion slowed down as you age?  Try ‘X’ pill to help regulate things!”?

As though there is nothing we can do but sit back and settle with living in a state of sub clinical illness, simply because it’s ‘part of growing older’!

I beg to differ.

The latest thing I saw in this vein was a piece about how women growing old (and they focused on the ripe old age of 35; um, excuse me?  I’m 38, so I suppose I’m a senior, then?) might regularly suffer from bloating and that it was ‘all caused by hormones’ going haywire.  Then, the cure- just chug some fresh pineapple juice.

Oh, dear.

Yes, of course, a little bit of pineapple after a meal does indeed help digestion, thanks to its content of the enzyme bromelian, but to first say that ‘most bloating is a natural part of hormonal changes at and after age 35’ and not to even mention that, maybe, just maybe, it could be the fact that your body is tiring of eating things it cannot digest like gluten, soy and dairy, just as three examples, is beyond remiss.

A listener to that program could easily take away that they needn’t take a closer look at what they’re eating and how (if) they’re exercising, and just by simply swigging some pineapple juice, everything will be just fine.

Perhaps a slightly better band aid and with less side effects than relying on Prilosec or Tums but still… a band aid.

Bloating is not normal and it is not something anyone should walk around experiencing on a day to day basis.

If you’re bloated all the time, take the initiative and figure out what is going on!  The first thing you can do, and it won’t cost you time or money to see a doctor, is clean up your diet and go Paleo and see if that doesn’t resolve everything on its own! (It did for me, after being ill with stomach issues for over twenty years.)

If you’re still having issues, go see a naturopath or functional med doc and ask for help testing for things like parasite, fungal or yeast in the gut.  

Keeping looking for answers until you get one that makes sense- and then you can fix the root of the problem and not mask it.

None of us should just settle for feeling anything less than fantastic simply because we believe the silly idea that ‘it’s just part of again’.

Nonsense!