{"id":31864,"date":"2025-02-03T18:16:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T00:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=31864"},"modified":"2025-02-03T18:16:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T00:16:46","slug":"bloated-with-every-meal-maybe-its-abdominophrenic-dyssynergy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/03\/bloated-with-every-meal-maybe-its-abdominophrenic-dyssynergy","title":{"rendered":"BLOATED WITH EVERY MEAL? MAYBE IT\u2019S ABDOMINOPHRENIC DYSSYNERGY!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Never heard of this one, right? A real mouthful to pronounce, too. ‘Abdomino\u2019 is easy. \u2018Phrenic\u2019 is the nerve from your spinal cord attached to your diaphragm, the large muscle that separates your lungs from your abdomen. Your phrenic nerve controls breathing. \u2018Dyssynergy\u2019 simply means things are functioning out-of-whack.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More and more gastroenterologists have come to realize that Abdominophrenic Dyssynergy (let me abbreviate APD) can be a main culprit in BLOATING.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019re one of those many people, usually female (90%!) who eat a meal (or sometimes just have a few sips of water) and within a few minutes you\u2019re aware of that really uncomfortable feeling of \u201cbloat”. The gender predominance has several theories, none proven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re a victim of APD, almost minutes to an hour after a meal, you\u2019ll see your tummy swelling right before your eyes. Standing in front of a full-length mirror, you might even say, \u201cI look pregnant!\u201d, but fortunately a few hours later, the swelling\u2019s gone down. Very likely, before\u00a0halfway decent pregnancy tests were invented in the 1960\u2019s, many young women got married for being bloated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years as your bloating worsened, you tried eliminating certain foods but doing this wasn\u2019t really helpful. Your Breath Test for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)<\/a> was \u201cpositive\u201d but the treatment with the antibiotic used for this condition (Xifaxan) only gave temporary relief and your symptoms were back in a couple of months. You tried the low FODMAP diet but weren\u2019t impressed, only deprived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some aspects of your bloating you discovered by yourself. If you ate too quickly, your bloating was worse so you deliberately slowed down for every meal. You avoided carbonated beverages. Both helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stress made your bloating worse. When they announced layoffs at work, which turned out not to affect you, you remember your bloating went into high gear. So you enrolled in a Yoga class, and you\u2019re really not sure if it helped your bloating but overall you do feel better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have discovered there\u2019s a definite hormonal component to your bloating. You\u2019ve picked up that your bloating is definitely worse at the midpoint between your periods (ovulation) and in the week before your period starts (PMS). Your best week is the week after your period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So like any sensible proactive patient you went online and read about the brain gut connection. You discovered how the longest nerve in the body, the vagus nerve, connects the two, and how a large muscle, the diaphragm, which separates the lungs and the abdomen, can be thrown out of kilter, setting the stage for an impossible to pronounce condition called ABDOMINOPHRENIC DYSSYNERGY whose main symptom is BLOATING. We\u2019ve agreed to call it APD for short. APD is a \u2018dysfunction’, not a \u2018disease’. It doesn\u2019t lead to a \u2018disease’, like ulcerative colitis, Crohn\u2019s, or cancer. It has never been nor ever will be a line item on anyone\u2019s death certificate. That APD is profoundly annoying is an understatement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what goes wrong with APD:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you eat anything (or even that sip of water), there\u2019s supposed to be a wondrous coordination of muscles in swallowing, breathing, your diaphragm, and the muscles of your abdominal wall sending your food into your intestines to absorb the nutrients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDyssynergia\u201d is defined as any disturbance in muscular coordination that causes abrupt and uncoordinated movements. Many women see Pelvic Floor Therapists to treat the chronic pelvic pain of pelvic muscle dyssynergia. They want to have sex, but it\u2019s too painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APD is a lack of coordination between your diaphragm and your abdominal wall muscles. The end result of every meal is that you swell like a balloon, that\u2019s the \u2018bloat’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what I suggest you do: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule an appointment at WholeHealth Chicago<\/a>. Although there is no specific diagnostic test for APD, you want to make sure you don\u2019t have SIBO. Have your practitioner order a breath test for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch this YouTube video<\/a> as a physical therapist teaches Diaphragmatic Breathing. This will slowly reverse the APD. A referral to pelvic floor therapist and an acupuncturist would be very helpful as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been very few clinical trials of medications used for APD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gastroenterologists generally prescribe medications like Lyrica (for symptom control), antidepressants, and the prokinetic Reglan (to help with intestinal motility). The best prokinetic can be ordered from Canadian pharmacies is Domperidone. We can order it for you (easy to remember because of the champagne Dom Perignon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended supplements: <\/p>\n\n\n\n