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Episode 7: The Culprits of Cramping
If you suffer from stomach or intestinal cramping, bloating and gas pains, this episode is for you. We are going to be summarizing the 10 most common culprits that cause cramping. This episode is meant to be an overview instead of a deep dive into specific triggers. Cramping is one of the most complex inflammatory symptoms to decode because it is a symptom of MANY different conditions. Together let’s discuss what might be causing your cramping so that you can strategically target a specific culprit to put an end to your daily pain.
[vc_custom_heading text=”In this episode you will learn:” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”]
[vc_custom_heading text=”Episode Transcript” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”]
Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.
You ready? Let’s Go!
Hey there! Today we are going to continue with our recurring theme of helping you achieve symptom relief. And for many of you our there, the thing that plagues you most is stomach and intestinal cramping. Often this has an element of bloating and trapped gas too, but the symptom most often complained about is the painful cramping. The cramping can also have some variety in location, each meaning something unique. There’s upper gastric cramping which is around the stomach area. There’s upper left cramping which is around where the small intestines connect to the stomach. And then the most common is lower cramping that can be connected to spasms of the small and large intestines. In each of these cramping locations, there can be sharp pains, dull pressures, intense bloating, or more of a bubble gut sensation.
Cramping is the result of many different things that might be going on under the surface. Today I want to go over the 10 most common culprits that cause cramping. My goal is for you to be able to troubleshoot your situation, and hopefully begin to taper this annoyance in your life. The list of the culprits are:
Fiber
FODMAP carbohydrates
Candida
Bacterial Dysbiosis
Mental Stress
Lactose intolerance
SIBO or IMO
Antigen sensitivity
Sugar or artificial sweeteners
Gluten
And please keep in mind, this episode is ABSOLUTELY an overview of the common culprits. Going into each of these in-depth would make this an 8 hour episode, and I’m going to attempt to keep this less than 30 minutes. I can expand on each of these in future episodes if you are wanting more of a deep dive. You just let me know!
So let’s start with fiber. Fiber is often the first line defense with anything gut related. Usually when we think fiber, we’re meaning the indigestible (or insoluble) fiber that creates bulk for our stool. It’s what allows for easier turd formation. All fruits, vegetables and the hull of grains contains this insoluble fiber. But more importantly than just forming a turd, this fiber is the food that feeds the bacteria that live in our colons. The common train of thought is that too little fiber causes constipation, too much fiber causes diarrhea. This just isn’t true. The amount of fiber you need will vary based on the bacteria you have living in your gut. You can have a normal daily bowel movement with very minimal fiber, or you can eat only vegetables and fruits all day but suffer from constipation.
People with a diverse and healthy gut environment have a wide range of bacteria that thrive on all types of insoluble fiber. But some of you will have bacterial environments that do not support large amounts of indigestible fiber, and having large amounts can cause intense cramping or gassy bubble guts. If this is you, you might have more of a bacterial environment supporting more simple sugars or meats instead. If you want to include more fibrous vegetables into your day, you’re going to need to slowly increase the amounts to give your bacteria some time to settle and shift. Some people just never will tolerate large amounts of fiber, and that can be completely healthy too. But if you’re needing to include more vegetables into your diet for whatever reason, just make sure to choose wisely and go slow, or you’re setting yourself up for all the cramping.
Next is FODMAP sugars which stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, which are short-chain carbohydrates (or sugars) that the small intestine absorbs poorly. Removing FODMAP fibers became a common first line therapy for the treatment of IBS, mostly because it was identified that a lot of people just don’t have the bacteria to properly digest these sugars. This can include foods like asparagus, scallions, apples, spinach, avocado, onion, garlic, wheat, some dairy, etc. There are many FODMAP containing foods, and removing them can be helpful to stop some intense cramping. But most of you won’t cramp to ALL of these FODMAP foods, so the trick is carefully re-introducing these culprits back into your normal diet to see which ones cause discomfort and which are completely benign.
Third is a candida overgrowth. Candida is a yeast that is always present in your digestive system, but sometimes there can be an overgrowth leading to more of an upper-gastric bloat and cramping pains. A candida overgrowth can occur after taking antibiotics, by having a diet that’s high in sugar or simple carbohydrates, stress, an intense sickness, etc. I think one of the classic candida overgrowth symptoms is relentlessly craving sugars and carbohydrates. These simple carbohydrates are the actual food of these bacteria, so these bacteria will actually create your sugar cravings therefore making sure they get the food required to thrive. But when you eat other types of fibers, THIS OVERPOPULATED candida yeast doesn’t properly digest them. AND unfortunately, you lack in bacterial diversity because of this overgrowth, therefore you can’t handle these other insoluble fibers very well. This can lead to intense bloating and cramping when eating anything other than simple carbs and meats.
Fourth is a generalized bacterial dysbiosis, but not necessarily relating to candida overgrowth. Your colon is a delicate balance of good and bad bacteria, and sometimes situations can trigger an imbalance to this good and bad ratio causing inflammation and symptom manifestation. Triggers of bacterial dysbiosis include overeating certain macronutrients (like too many simple carbs or too many meats), an abundance of alcohol, antibiotics, stress, or acute infections. A dysbiosis can cause sharp painful cramping in addition to a gassy and bloated sensation. Probiotics and prebiotics can be introduced to help to rebalance the bacteria ratio, but often more intensive interventions need to occur in order to cause die-off of the bad, and growth of the good.
Fifth common trigger is mental stress. Stress that is created from the brain creates a chemical and hormonal cascade that leads to dysbiosis, acute cramping and intense symptom manifestation. When you are emotionally or mentally stressed, this leads to the overproduction of cortisol and the stress hormone adrenaline or epinephrine. These fight or flight hormones wreak havoc on your intestinal environment. When you are stressed, your body is not worried about digestion, it is just trying to stay alive. And these hormones will cause many inflammatory symptoms to develop until you intentionally learn the skills to manage your mind and turn off this built in protection mode.
The sixth trigger is lactose intolerance. Lactose is the sugar in milk that simply cannot break down. As you age or if you don’t include a lot of dairy in your diet, you slowly stop producing the lactase enzyme required to break down this lactose sugar. This lack of digestion can excite the bacteria in your guts if it reaches there intact, causing all those nasty symptoms.
The seventh trigger is a very complex condition that can take a long time to rebalance. This is SIBO (which stands for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) and IMO (which stands for intestinal methanogen overgrowth). These conditions occur when the bacteria in the colon are starved of food, and instead of dying decide to seek food more upstream in your small intestines. Upstream these bacteria will find undigested carbohydrates, and become quite content setting up camp there because of the abundance of food. This can lead to sharp and painful upper gastric cramping and intense bloating. The sister to this condition is IMO, which is the same concept, just a different type of microbe overgrowth. This microbe is quite a challenge to deal with because it is able to live in anaerobic environments and is quite resilient. Creating conditions where these microbes will diet off completely often requires medical intervention with targeted antibiotics or herbal therapies.
The eight trigger is an antigen sensitivity to various proteins, chemicals, or whatever else your body deems as a threat. When your immune system identifies certain food substances as foreign invaders, it then triggers your immune cells to attack. These immune cells release mediators which are produced as chemical warfare against these foreign invaders. When your body is exposed to this chemical warfare, often this can lead to intense cramping, bloat or other symptoms of inflammation such as achy joints, headaches, lethargy, anxiety and more.
The ninth trigger is the exposure to dense sources of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Although these can cause the dysbiosis we’ve talked about previously, there’s another way that you can experience cramping from these sweet culprits. What sugar or artificial sweeteners can do is actually pull water and electrolytes INTO your guts, therefore causing diarrhea. This can feel like a very sharp pain often followed by a round of diarrhea.
The final culprit for cramping is gluten. Some of you may have the autoimmune condition known as celiac disease where your body’s immune system reacts to the protein gluten by targeting your small intestine lining. However many of you may not necessarily have celiac disease, but have developed an antigen sensitivity to gluten causing the chemical warfare reaction explained earlier. Either way, gluten is the 10th most common culprit for causing cramping.
Whew!! That is quite an extensive list! I without a doubt think that intestinal cramping is one of the most complex symptoms to decode. There are so many factors that play into this common symptom, that it can seem overwhelming to know where to even start. If this is way too much information and you’re looking to get rid of this symptom quickly and with minimal learning curve, I encourage you to head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free consult. Working with someone 1:1 might just be the thing that changes everything for you. With that I’ll say bye for this week, and I can’t wait to talk with you again soon. Bye!
If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.
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By Carly Lucchesi, RDIf you suffer from stomach or intestinal cramping, bloating and gas pains, this episode is for you. We are going to be summarizing the 10 most common culprits that cause cramping. This episode is meant to be an overview instead of a deep dive into specific triggers. Cramping is one of the most complex inflammatory symptoms to decode because it is a symptom of MANY different conditions. Together let’s discuss what might be causing your cramping so that you can strategically target a specific culprit to put an end to your daily pain.
[vc_custom_heading text=”In this episode you will learn:” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”]
[vc_custom_heading text=”Episode Transcript” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”]
Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.
You ready? Let’s Go!
Hey there! Today we are going to continue with our recurring theme of helping you achieve symptom relief. And for many of you our there, the thing that plagues you most is stomach and intestinal cramping. Often this has an element of bloating and trapped gas too, but the symptom most often complained about is the painful cramping. The cramping can also have some variety in location, each meaning something unique. There’s upper gastric cramping which is around the stomach area. There’s upper left cramping which is around where the small intestines connect to the stomach. And then the most common is lower cramping that can be connected to spasms of the small and large intestines. In each of these cramping locations, there can be sharp pains, dull pressures, intense bloating, or more of a bubble gut sensation.
Cramping is the result of many different things that might be going on under the surface. Today I want to go over the 10 most common culprits that cause cramping. My goal is for you to be able to troubleshoot your situation, and hopefully begin to taper this annoyance in your life. The list of the culprits are:
Fiber
FODMAP carbohydrates
Candida
Bacterial Dysbiosis
Mental Stress
Lactose intolerance
SIBO or IMO
Antigen sensitivity
Sugar or artificial sweeteners
Gluten
And please keep in mind, this episode is ABSOLUTELY an overview of the common culprits. Going into each of these in-depth would make this an 8 hour episode, and I’m going to attempt to keep this less than 30 minutes. I can expand on each of these in future episodes if you are wanting more of a deep dive. You just let me know!
So let’s start with fiber. Fiber is often the first line defense with anything gut related. Usually when we think fiber, we’re meaning the indigestible (or insoluble) fiber that creates bulk for our stool. It’s what allows for easier turd formation. All fruits, vegetables and the hull of grains contains this insoluble fiber. But more importantly than just forming a turd, this fiber is the food that feeds the bacteria that live in our colons. The common train of thought is that too little fiber causes constipation, too much fiber causes diarrhea. This just isn’t true. The amount of fiber you need will vary based on the bacteria you have living in your gut. You can have a normal daily bowel movement with very minimal fiber, or you can eat only vegetables and fruits all day but suffer from constipation.
People with a diverse and healthy gut environment have a wide range of bacteria that thrive on all types of insoluble fiber. But some of you will have bacterial environments that do not support large amounts of indigestible fiber, and having large amounts can cause intense cramping or gassy bubble guts. If this is you, you might have more of a bacterial environment supporting more simple sugars or meats instead. If you want to include more fibrous vegetables into your day, you’re going to need to slowly increase the amounts to give your bacteria some time to settle and shift. Some people just never will tolerate large amounts of fiber, and that can be completely healthy too. But if you’re needing to include more vegetables into your diet for whatever reason, just make sure to choose wisely and go slow, or you’re setting yourself up for all the cramping.
Next is FODMAP sugars which stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, which are short-chain carbohydrates (or sugars) that the small intestine absorbs poorly. Removing FODMAP fibers became a common first line therapy for the treatment of IBS, mostly because it was identified that a lot of people just don’t have the bacteria to properly digest these sugars. This can include foods like asparagus, scallions, apples, spinach, avocado, onion, garlic, wheat, some dairy, etc. There are many FODMAP containing foods, and removing them can be helpful to stop some intense cramping. But most of you won’t cramp to ALL of these FODMAP foods, so the trick is carefully re-introducing these culprits back into your normal diet to see which ones cause discomfort and which are completely benign.
Third is a candida overgrowth. Candida is a yeast that is always present in your digestive system, but sometimes there can be an overgrowth leading to more of an upper-gastric bloat and cramping pains. A candida overgrowth can occur after taking antibiotics, by having a diet that’s high in sugar or simple carbohydrates, stress, an intense sickness, etc. I think one of the classic candida overgrowth symptoms is relentlessly craving sugars and carbohydrates. These simple carbohydrates are the actual food of these bacteria, so these bacteria will actually create your sugar cravings therefore making sure they get the food required to thrive. But when you eat other types of fibers, THIS OVERPOPULATED candida yeast doesn’t properly digest them. AND unfortunately, you lack in bacterial diversity because of this overgrowth, therefore you can’t handle these other insoluble fibers very well. This can lead to intense bloating and cramping when eating anything other than simple carbs and meats.
Fourth is a generalized bacterial dysbiosis, but not necessarily relating to candida overgrowth. Your colon is a delicate balance of good and bad bacteria, and sometimes situations can trigger an imbalance to this good and bad ratio causing inflammation and symptom manifestation. Triggers of bacterial dysbiosis include overeating certain macronutrients (like too many simple carbs or too many meats), an abundance of alcohol, antibiotics, stress, or acute infections. A dysbiosis can cause sharp painful cramping in addition to a gassy and bloated sensation. Probiotics and prebiotics can be introduced to help to rebalance the bacteria ratio, but often more intensive interventions need to occur in order to cause die-off of the bad, and growth of the good.
Fifth common trigger is mental stress. Stress that is created from the brain creates a chemical and hormonal cascade that leads to dysbiosis, acute cramping and intense symptom manifestation. When you are emotionally or mentally stressed, this leads to the overproduction of cortisol and the stress hormone adrenaline or epinephrine. These fight or flight hormones wreak havoc on your intestinal environment. When you are stressed, your body is not worried about digestion, it is just trying to stay alive. And these hormones will cause many inflammatory symptoms to develop until you intentionally learn the skills to manage your mind and turn off this built in protection mode.
The sixth trigger is lactose intolerance. Lactose is the sugar in milk that simply cannot break down. As you age or if you don’t include a lot of dairy in your diet, you slowly stop producing the lactase enzyme required to break down this lactose sugar. This lack of digestion can excite the bacteria in your guts if it reaches there intact, causing all those nasty symptoms.
The seventh trigger is a very complex condition that can take a long time to rebalance. This is SIBO (which stands for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) and IMO (which stands for intestinal methanogen overgrowth). These conditions occur when the bacteria in the colon are starved of food, and instead of dying decide to seek food more upstream in your small intestines. Upstream these bacteria will find undigested carbohydrates, and become quite content setting up camp there because of the abundance of food. This can lead to sharp and painful upper gastric cramping and intense bloating. The sister to this condition is IMO, which is the same concept, just a different type of microbe overgrowth. This microbe is quite a challenge to deal with because it is able to live in anaerobic environments and is quite resilient. Creating conditions where these microbes will diet off completely often requires medical intervention with targeted antibiotics or herbal therapies.
The eight trigger is an antigen sensitivity to various proteins, chemicals, or whatever else your body deems as a threat. When your immune system identifies certain food substances as foreign invaders, it then triggers your immune cells to attack. These immune cells release mediators which are produced as chemical warfare against these foreign invaders. When your body is exposed to this chemical warfare, often this can lead to intense cramping, bloat or other symptoms of inflammation such as achy joints, headaches, lethargy, anxiety and more.
The ninth trigger is the exposure to dense sources of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Although these can cause the dysbiosis we’ve talked about previously, there’s another way that you can experience cramping from these sweet culprits. What sugar or artificial sweeteners can do is actually pull water and electrolytes INTO your guts, therefore causing diarrhea. This can feel like a very sharp pain often followed by a round of diarrhea.
The final culprit for cramping is gluten. Some of you may have the autoimmune condition known as celiac disease where your body’s immune system reacts to the protein gluten by targeting your small intestine lining. However many of you may not necessarily have celiac disease, but have developed an antigen sensitivity to gluten causing the chemical warfare reaction explained earlier. Either way, gluten is the 10th most common culprit for causing cramping.
Whew!! That is quite an extensive list! I without a doubt think that intestinal cramping is one of the most complex symptoms to decode. There are so many factors that play into this common symptom, that it can seem overwhelming to know where to even start. If this is way too much information and you’re looking to get rid of this symptom quickly and with minimal learning curve, I encourage you to head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free consult. Working with someone 1:1 might just be the thing that changes everything for you. With that I’ll say bye for this week, and I can’t wait to talk with you again soon. Bye!
If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.