I feel nauseous and my stomach bloats whenever I eat. Why?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am 20 years old. My weight is 110 lbs with a height of 5 feet 9 inches. I smoke cigarettes. I cannot eat properly. When I eat, I feel nausea and it started five days ago. I ate pasta, yogurt and garlic and drank a mountain dew. After two hours, I feel nauseated and tried everything to stop it. I drink lots of water, chewed mint. Since that day I do not feel myself fine. When I eat, I get bloated and burp so much with an urge to drink water. I drink 3 liters of water a day. I think it as a gas problem and I cannot breathe through my nose (my nose is broken and I only use mouth for breathing) maybe it is the cause. But when I bloat, chewing mint gum helps. I also drank ginger tea with honey but did not see any effects. I am almost suicidal that I cannot bear this anymore. Please help.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Well, I can understand the level of your anxiety related to this new-onset symptom. After all your description of the problem, I also think that bloating, and excessive burping is secondary to mouth breathing. The gas gets accumulated while you breathe, or while you eat, and starts emitting out when there is no more space in the food pipe or stomach to accumulate. The cause of all this quite clear given your condition that precludes you from nose breathing.

The second reason may be the diet and food like pasta, ginger, and yogurt, they all have some tendency to disturb the gastrointestinal tract and can prone you to develop excessive of small bowel gases and hence excessive burping, and bloating.

I suggest you two things, since I am not in a position to help with your nose related problem, for which you should seek an advice from an ENT surgeon.

1. Try to eat slowly, often take a small bolus of food. Do not rush taking meals.

2. Avoid carbohydrate rich foods like dew, soft drinks, energy drinks, milk, excessive of coffee, and sugars. There are certain high FODMAPs diet which you should avoid.

3. Do not exercise on full stomach. Do some walk afterward instead, but slowly.

4. Avoid excessive water intake while you have meals.

I think with this precautions, your symptoms will settle soon. If you need any further assistance, let me know, I can order some investigations and can consider giving you some pills for temporary relief.