What’s Troubling Your Tummy?

Are stomach troubles cramping your lifestyle? Gas, bloating and diarrhea can be embarrassing and debilitating. Find out what’s causing your gastric gremlins and how to ease the discomfort…

Gastrointestinal disorders like bloating and diarrhea are uncomfortable, upsetting – and on the rise. Hospital walk-in visits for heartburn, for example, increased 2,000% between 1975-2004, according to a 2008 government report.

What’s to blame for our rising stomach problems? Lots of things, including age, weight gain and stress. And women are at particular risk.

“The population is aging,” says David Rubin, M.D., co-director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

“As women age, the pelvic floor relaxes,” he says. “That changes the digestive organs’ positions, which can cause constipation, gas and bloating.”

When age and menopause relax the pelvic floor, the position of the colon shifts in relation to the rectum – and that spells tummy trouble. If osteoporosis compresses the back bones, it gets worse.

Not to mention that as you get older, the large intestine doesn’t squeeze and move things along as well as it once did.

Obesity and stress also contribute to stomach troubles, according to Rubin.

Fat, particularly if concentrated in the chest and abdomen, worsens heartburn and increases other stomach symptoms as well, although doctors don’t yet know why.

Stress also leads to poor eating habits and weight gain – and can also deprive you of sleep, which may brinon heartburn.

To tune in to your tummy, learn doctor-recommended tricks to treat the top 6 gastrointestinal complaints:

Tummy Trouble #1: Heartburn

What it is: The burning you feel in your chest after meals – especially if you lie down – is heartburn (also known as acid reflux or acid indigestion), a sign that the stomach’s contents are rising into your chest.

Why you get it: When your lower esophageal sphincter (the band of muscle around the bottom of your esophagus) relaxes, it lets stomach acid flow back into your esophagus, causing a burning that’s often mistaken for a heart problem.

“But some people have no symptoms, or atypical symptoms, like a chronic cough, jaw or ear pain, sinus problems or asthma,” Rubin says.

Age, weight, pregnancy, high blood pressure medications and lack of exercise increase your risk of heartburn.