BLOATING
LAST NIGHT, you looked like Rihanna at the club. This morning, you feel more like a Klump. Chipmunk cheeks and puffy eyes. Rings stuck on fingers. Buttons popping off jeans. And the scale must be wrong, as usual: Somehow, you’ve gained three pounds overnight. Time for a crash diet? No: Your body is just holding on to water.
SYMPTOMS
Unlike gas, which builds up in your stomach and intestines and causes abdominal bloating, water can swell every part of your body (including your feet, as any woman in heels could tell you). If you feel inflated like an air bag, that’s probably gas; if you feel like a waterlogged sponge, that’s fluid retention. And although it’s often considered normal and is usually temporary, water retention can be annoying and uncomfortable while it lasts.
Body fluid, which accounts for approximately 60% of most women’s weight, contains water (obviously), electrolytes (minerals such as sodium and potassium), salts and other substances whose levels are regulated by your hormones and kidneys. “Your body has to maintain a balance between sodium and water,” says Joseph G. Verbalis, M.D., chief of the endocrinology and metabolism division at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and an expert in body fluid disorders. When the ideal ratio changes, your kidneys hold on to water so they can dilute the sodium. The result is bloating.
Because of hormonal shifts, fluid retention commonly occurs during the premenstrual phase of a woman’s cycle as well as during pregnancy. Puffiness that’s unrelated to PMS or pregnancy is often due to overeating, which can alter insulin production in such a way that the kidneys retain sodium and fluid, says C. Wayne Callaway, M.D., an endocrinologist and clinical nutritionist in Washington, D.C.
REMEDIES
By now you’ve put down that Cool Ranch Doritos Taco. The following lifestyle changes and natural remedies can help flush fluids from a bloated but otherwise healthy body.
Food Solutions
DRINK MORE—YES, MORE—WATER
“It may seem counterintuitive, but this helps relieve bloating. When you don’t drink enough water, your body releases a hormone that reduces the amount of urine you produce,” says Molly Kimball, R.D., nutrition program director at the Ochsner Clinic’s Elmwood Fitness Center in New Orleans. Aim for 64 ounces a day.
SHAKE THE SALT HABIT
While some people are more sensitive to salt (sodium) than others and thus retain fluids more easily, many people experience temporary fluid retention after eating a particularly large load of salt. If this happens, cut back for a while and increase your water intake. Sodium is everywhere, so read labels and try to keep your intake to 2,300 milligrams a day, or 1,500 milligrams max if you are 40 or older, African-American or have high blood pressure. The average American takes in nearly 3,400 milligrams every day. (A Big Mac alone has 1,070 milligrams, but more surprising offenders include deli meats, at 362 milligrams per two slices; a can of chicken noodle soup, with 744 milligrams; and one tablespoon of soy sauce, at 1,024 milligrams.)
EAT PEE-PRODUCING FOODS
Many vegetables, including cucumbers, asparagus, celery, eggplant and fennel, as well as herbs such as parsley, coriander and cardamom, act as natural diuretics, says Leslie Bonci, M.P.H., R.D., director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Sports Medicine. These foods have high water contents and/or contain minerals such as potassium and magnesium, as well as phytochemicals that promote proper water balance.
DRINK YOUR DIURETICS
Cranberry juice and several teas, including black, green, chamomile and alfalfa, are safe and well known for their diuretic properties. “Dandelion leaf is one of the best herbs for this purpose,” says herbalist Christopher Hobbs, Ph.D., founder of the Institute for Natural Products Research in the San Francisco area. He recommends using it in tea or extract form. “Celery seed tea (but not tinctures) can also be safely used.”
Commercial diuretic teas, sometimes called dieters’ teas, should be used with caution. “If you overdo them, you can lose normal fluid from your bloodstream as well as essential minerals,” says Brent A. Bauer, M.D., director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “You could become dehydrated and harm your kidneys or develop an electrolyte imbalance that could trigger fatigue, muscle cramps and even potentially fatal heart rhythm disturbances.”
CUT CARBS
Eat fewer high-carbohydrate foods like pasta, bread and pastries, and more lean proteins and vegetables. “Extra carbs are broken down and stored in the body as glycogen, which has a high water content and so contributes to excess water weight,” Kimball explains. Protein, by contrast, has a lower water content, and body fluids are used (and passed) in the process of breaking it down.
LIMIT ALCOHOL
Alcohol blocks the release of an anti-diuretic hormone, so heavy drinking can lead to dehydration. This might sound like a good thing when you’re bloated, but it backfires by causing your body to hang on to fluid.
MAINTAIN A CONSISTENT EATING PATTERN
Starving yourself because you’re feeling heavy from water weight, then overeating when you feel better, can have the opposite effect. “I see serious fluid problems in women who fast as a means to lose weight,” says Callaway. “When they eat again, they experience a rebound in fluid retention.”
FINE-TUNE YOUR FIBER
Researchers at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul found that people who ate large amounts of inulin (aka chicory root, found in many cereals and cookies) experienced more gas and bloating than those who ate less. Stick to less-processed vegetables, fruit and whole grains.
EAT WARM FOODS
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) recommends avoiding dairy, greasy, sweet, raw and cold foods if you’re prone to bloating. “Focus on cooked, warm foods,” says Zoe Cohen, L.Ac., an acupuncturist in Oakland, Calif., who treats many women with PMS- and pregnancy-related water retention. “In TCM, cold foods are harder to digest, which creates dampness in the body; water retention is a form of dampness.” Adzuki (aka aduki or azuki) and mung beans as well as barley are especially helpful foods, she adds.
Lifestyle Remedies
BREAK A SWEAT
Cardiovascular exercise promotes water loss by boosting circulation, which moves fluid from your extremities back toward your heart and kidneys, where it’s turned into urine. It will also make you sweat, which helps you excrete both water and sodium. No need to go all Usain Bolt; a fast walk is enough to do the trick.
TAKE THE PLUNGE
Pregnant women know that there’s nothing like being submerged in a pool to help relieve fluid retention. The way it works is that the pressure of the water pushes the body fluids back into the blood vessels and on to the kidneys. Even better: Do water aerobics and get two-for-one benefits.
APPLY SOME PRESSURE
“Massage, especially lymphatic-type massage, can help alleviate bloating by moving fluid out of the tissues,” says Elson M. Haas, M.D., Natural Health advisory board member and director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in San Rafael, Calif.
JUST CHILL
While that massage will feel fantastic, it also works to reduce stress. Think about it—when our ancestors were on the run from sabertooth tigers, their guts tightened up, just like yours does in traffic, and digestion was not top priority. Meditation, massage, anything that calms you down will help move things along, a 2009 Canadian review found.
TAKE A LOAD OFF
Elevating swollen feet or ankles above the level of your heart promotes the return of excess fluid to the kidneys. And don’t sit with your legs crossed, as this inhibits the removal of fluids from your lower body. Wearing tight jeans can have the same effect. Who said there’s no cure for cankles?
Complementary Approaches
STICK A NEEDLE IN IT
No, getting acupuncture won’t drain the water from your bloated body, à la Veruca Salt, but TCM can help otherwise. “Acupuncture can stimulate your body’s fluid-regulating mechanisms,” Cohen says. A number of herbal formulas will also help, she adds; as with acupuncture, the treatment depends on which imbalance is to blame in your case.
TRY HOMEOPATHY
“If you have premenstrual water retention, it’s best to choose a homeopathic remedy that takes into account other PMS symptoms that are occurring,” says naturopathic physician Tori Hudson, N.D., medical director of A Woman’s Time health clinic in Portland, Ore. “Good remedies include Lycopodium, nux vomica, pulsatilla, sepia, Natrum muriaticum, lachesis, caulophylumm and cimicifuga; Cyclease from Boiron is a good combination product.”
CONSIDER SUPPLEMENTS
The balance between certain minerals, like sodium and potassium, or calcium and magnesium, can play a critical role in preventing bloating. If you think you aren’t getting enough of these minerals from food, ask your doctor about taking a multivitamin-and-mineral and/or calcium supplement. Research has shown that magnesium (found in nuts, beans, seeds, grains and some vegetables) can reduce premenstrual bloating, and vitamin B6 is also a natural diuretic, Kimball says. Brown rice and red meat are good food sources of B6.
If these solutions don’t help you feel less, uh, swell, your doctor might prescribe a short course of low-dose diuretics. “[Unless there’s a serious underlying medical need] we don’t like to put people on long-term diuretics because of the side effects,” says Verbalis. These side effects include potassium loss; increased blood pressure and strain on the heart; and “rebound” fluid retention.
