While there are over-the-counter medicines for bloating, acupressure, a traditional Chinese treatment, is effective for relieving gas and bloating, without causing side effects.
Reasons:
- Dairy products can increase gas formation. Traditional Chinese Medicine explains this as a weakness of the spleen which is the case with most adults. Modern medicine explains it as a decrease in presence of enzymes necessary for processing lactose (dairy sugar) contained in dairy products.
- Badly digested food can promote the increased formation of gas as well. Good examples of such foods are cabbage, beans, yeast, nuts, potatoes, sunflower seeds, fruit, sweets, soda water, and certainly any fatty products.
- Eating too fast causes ingestion of air that also contributes to stomach bloating
Hand Acupressure for Stomach-bloating
The first step is to identify the areas on your hand that corresponds to the stomach, duodenum, and gall bladder.
There are 2 points in your hands:
Acupoint: PC-6 (Other Names: Pericardium-6/Nei Guan/Inner Pass)
This ‘Inner Gate’ point can be located 3 fingers below your hand on your wrist. You can easily target this acupoint at any time of day.
You should use this point if you are experiencing nausea, stomach pain, and it is one of the most valuable pressure points for indigestion.
Acupoint: LI-4 (Other Names: Large Intestine-4/He Gu/Joining Valley)
It’s located in the back of the fleshy area connecting your thumb and pointer finger. The ‘Large Intestine 4’ point is also known as ‘Union Valley’.
It’s a critical point for those who have IBS, as IBS sufferers have impaired colons that are a crucial part of their large intestines. Applying pressure on this point regularly will alleviate the symptoms of IBS.
Once you found the areas you need to stimulate those areas. You can use a little stick with a not too sharp edge (e.g., a toothpick with a broken sharp edge, ball pen without ink, etc.) Try to find the most painful point in these areas. Press these points with moderate effort and begin a slow rotation of the stick in two directions.
If you didn’t find painful points simply massage whole areas. You can also use your fingers to do the massage. Massage these areas with constant moderate effort while slightly rotating a finger, without moving it.
Advice to avoid having stomach bloating in the first place.
- Walk after meals
- Do not hurry to eat your meals; instead, carefully chew your food.
- Limit the use of milk. Drink lactose-free milk and yogurts instead.
- Avoid the use of excessively hot or cold food.
- Reduce consumption of stimulating substances. Coffee, tea and chocolate can lead to stomach bloating.