Natural Cures for Bloating and Fluid Retention

I wanted to say YEA for using garlic for bloating and fluid retention. I actually started garlic because I have gallstones and was trying to fight an infection that I knew I had, although lab results said my urine was clear. I took three cloves of garlic crushed up in some yogurt before bed. I have insomnia really bad and was up urinating most of the night.

I also suffer from extreme mood swings and I noticed that I felt lighter the next day in mood and in weight. I got on the scale and my weight was down from 206 the previous day to 199. I have lost 7 pounds of water weight over night!

In my quest to get rid of the infection that seems to be wreaking havoc on my body, I'm still taking three cloves of garlic at night. This is my second week and hopefully the garlic will kill the infection.

Hello Rhonda from Providence, RI,

If the bloating is from the beans you love, a simple cure for that is to put 1/4 tsp. ground ginger to the pound of dry beans you are cooking. Ginger is great for decreasing gas.

Hello Saffi from New York -- Read your post from back in October, and I'd love to know how you're doing on the low-sugar program. I've cut out all sugar and grains too, for about 2 months now, but still suffer from bloating. I wonder if it's because of all the beans I love? Or maybe my portions need to be smaller. I stopped eating fruit also to eliminate that possibility.

Well, I hope you're having wonderful progress & I'd like to hear from you! ~~~Rhonda

Dear Rebekah,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed response. And also for your willingness to share the info. I have just started your diet, along with probiotics and digestive enzymes before each meal. I'm super excited to see if I get the same results as you are getting!

Thanks again for the info. I love this site for allowing us to connect and be able to help each other!

To Saffi-

Yes I know how you feel! I'd be happy to share more details. And I must warn you- if you have been a big sugar eater like I used to be, the first week will be absolute torture and the sugar cravings will practically keep you up at night. It is a real challenge.

For the most part I have been following the advice in a popular book and I don't think I am allowed to recommend any specific products, but if you can find a book about balancing the body's inner ecology, that has helped guide me.

Now for the food that I eat:

First thing in the morning it's nice to drink some unsweetened kefir. I feel like this helps put the "good bacteria" in my system to start out the day. I wait a while before eating if I have some kefir. I also take a probiotic supplement at this time.

Breakfast is usually cream of buckwheat with butter and sea salt. Yummy if made with unsweetened coconut milk instead of water. The coconut milk has been easy on my stomach and seems to be the only type of "milk" that I can consume. Another breakfast fave of mine is scrambled eggs and a salad. I found a salad dressing made with apple cider vinegar (the only type of vinegar I can handle) and no added sweetener. I am reading labels like crazy now and I am shocked to see how much sugar is in everything! Oh and I should mention that I never have the buckwheat at the same time as eggs- it goes against "proper food combining" to eat protein and starch together. And I use butter to cook everything instead of using any heavy oils. It's so much easier on my tummy. (Butter and kefir are the only dairy products I have been consuming.)

Lunch is usually soup! I have never really cooked in my life before now, but I found a bunch of recipes for soups and I just make a huge batch that lasts me a few days. That way when I am hungry (which is often on this diet!) I can just heat up some soup. Lots of carrots and onions in the soup kinda satisfy the urge for sweetness. I am eating a lot of salads, I haven't done this yet but something good would be to have salad with hard boiled egg or maybe some chicken on top.

Dinner is generally some organic meat and then steamed or sauteed vegies. Pork chops, boiled chicken, even steaks I have eaten and my tummy is feeling good. I try to have more vegies than meat. I never eat too much to the point of feeling full, I try to keep my portions reasonable (I used to overeat at meals) and never have seconds. I don't want to overload my stomach any more. I take the digestive enzymes before every meal. And apparently sipping some water with a tsp of apple cider vinegar in it along with meals is another good digestive aid. I have done this a few times and it is nice.

Every now and then I will have a vegetarian dinner of all vegies or have the "meat" be some red potatoes. Apparently red potatoes have less sugar than other kinds. And never meat and potatoes together! Or something I hope to do more is have some gluten free grain like millet or quinoa, with side of vegies.

For snacking I hit the sunflower seeds or some raw carrots. Or have a small bowl of soup. I get hungry so often that I would rather eat another small meal than just have a snack.

For beverages I am drinking a lot of ginger tea and fennel tea. Both are great for digestion and also happen to be super yummy. No sweetener!

If I am out with friends I order soda water with lemon or lime. At home sometimes I will make myself a "mocktail" of mostly sparkling mineral water with some unsweetened cranberry juice added. It's really good!

And at night, another probiotic supplement. That's pretty much it I think. And like I said I have terrible cravings for DAYS, I was fantasizing about pancakes and muffins and bread, and actually feeling lightheaded at times as I think my body was detoxing. But I am finally at a point now where I am not having cravings... YAY! And I am more or less off the coffee, every few days I will have less than half a cup just for a little taste. And it is a real treat.

So here is a list of the foods I "can" eat: buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, millet, sunflower seeds, soaked almonds, organic meats, cold water fish, shellfish, sea vegetables, carrots, onions, garlic, red peppers, spinach, squashes, pumpkin, fennel, red potatoes, daikon radish, zucchini, cucumber, ginger, lemons, limes, unsweetened cranberries. Nothing fermented- I avoid soy sauce and miso. Nothing too oily. And nothing with any yeast. I think most any vegetable would be fine, but I guess beets and yams are too sugary. I hope to be able to add some things back into my diet slowly over time but not until I really feel healed.

I really hope this helps you or anyone else suffering the dread bloated pot belly. I finally feel like I am digesting my meals. And no hurting belly any more. And geez I am so much more confident about my body!!!

Best of luck,
~Rebekah

Dear Rebecca,

Thank you for the info. I've been having crazy bloating and gas problems for a year also, and I'm tiny as well which makes me look pregnant on top of it all. I don't think I need to explain to you how terrible this feels. I'd like to give your method a shot. Sounds hard but I'm curious and I can see that it has many benefits. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to ask you for two things:

1. Can you post a sort of "template" or outline of your diet for a day? Such as what you eat and at what time.
2. And a list of foods that you do eat?

I would REALLY appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

I have had a terrible problem with bloating for at least a year now. Feeling terrible after every meal, looking like I always had a huge pot belly and I am a small person so this was very disturbing for me. My remedy is extreme, but my results have been AMAZING.

I cut out from my diet all sugar (including fruit), all dairy except butter, all gluten (like wheat and rice), all alcohol, and all beans. I use the proper food combining technique which I'm sure is easy available on the web (never eat protein and starch together in a meal). I now eat fresh and cooked vegies, organic meats, and non-glutenous grains as my diet. I think it helps to cut out nuts also, but I do eat sunflower seeds as a snack and drink kefir. I am also taking a probiotic formula twice a day, and with each meal I take a digestive enzyme supplement that has I think 8 different types of enzymes.

Let me tell you, in two weeks my belly is flat as a board and it looks like I have been working out! I definitely haven't been working out, but I am soooo happy that the bloat is gone and all the agony of leaving sugar and alcohol behind has been worth it. My allergies have also gone away. I drink a tiny amount of coffee in the morning with no sweetener.
I'm sure that this regime is not for everyone since it is incredibly difficult to maintain, but the way I feel and look now is astonishing compared to two short weeks ago.

Good luck to anyone out there who is bloating, I know from experience that it can make life hard.
~Rebekah

For fluid retention, Dandelion Root tea is quite possibly the best natural diuretic I can recommend. I know that it really made me go, which in turn made me lose a lot of water weight in my body.

Hello, I use your site all of the time and want to thank you for such useful information!

Recently, my feet started swelling along with blood pressure spiking to very high levels. I do not have high blood pressure so I could not understand what was going on. By day three I figured out I had a tooth infection that was probably starting to seep into my blood causing the swelling, blood pressure spikes, tingling in head, legs, and feet. After speaking with a dentist who felt they were unrelated and would not give me any advice on whether I should go to the ER, I decided to use garlic infused with yogurt (yogurt helps it go down easier). I took about 1 T. of crushed garlic and 1 T. of yogurt. Within 5 minutes the swelling in my feet went away and I felt my blood pressure had gone down. I took my blood pressure and it had dropped over 50 points! Obviously, the blood pressure spikes were brought on by the tooth infection, unbeknownst to the young Dentist!!!

I cook with garlic all of the time, but RAW GARLIC is terrific for blood pressure and infections!!!

Thanks!

This is in response to the swollen hands, wrist... This exact same thing was happening to me since I was 18 years old. I saw every doctor under the sun, and had many many tests done on me, only to have the doctors tell me everything came back normal. After much research done on my own, and at a total loss for how to help myself and how to cure the pain of swollen fingers, I read about people with gluten allergies experiencing some of the same symptoms as myself. I already knew that I was lactose intolerant and decided to cut out anything containing Wheat, Barley, Malt, Oats, and anything with Vital Wheat Gluten in the ingredient list. Almost immediately all my symptoms went away. The most noticeable difference was the swelling has completely disappeared. I have been free of these ingredients (with some mishaps) for about a year now, and have been completely free of all horrible symptoms previously unexplained. Personally I believe that doctors need to be better educated on food allergies and how they can affect the body. Doctors knew there was something wrong with me. I even had a doctor take pictures of my swollen hands that were covered in lesions. I had the leisions biopsied and the pictures sent to the best doctors around the US and no one could explain it. The only thing that has made this go away is not eating Wheat etc. It is sad at first because you feel deprived but you learn of yummy alternatives to your favorite foods.
Try eliminating these things from your diet. If it works, GREAT! It's worth a shot.

Good Luck!

Hello everyone,

I am amazed at all the valuable information i have found on this site.

I have a question though... For three weeks i have been on a detox, eating mainly vegies, fruits, brown rice, and also honey, olive oil, nuts, raisins, and goats yogurt. I am also drinking warm lemon water in the morning, taking a cold showering and exercising daily. Yet with all my efforts, there has been a lot of pain caused by BLOATING, at times making me look like a very pregnant woman.

I understand now that it might be caused by the sudden change in diet and all the fiber i am eating. And so i was wondering if ACV was a good remedy for me. I am nervous to swallow vinegar as i have a naturally acidic ph and am working on alkalising my body. Given this fact, shall i try baking soda instead?

I also generally suffer from intense water retention before and during my period. Shall i combine ACV and baking soda?

Thank you for your help!
It is greatly appreciated.

could the ACV be lowing your blood sugar too much? i too am a diabetic (on insulin) and when i took even 2 teaspoons of acv 2x a day i would find my blood sugar very low (20 to 40) and felt very weak and tired. also, it made me bloated and gassy - unlike you - who that it is helping in that way. so i stopped taking it. now i have started again at a much lower dosage - 1/3 teaspoon in a liter of water 2 x a day and that does not lower my blood sugar so much - or give me gas. you may want to try lowering your dose of ACV.

If you body does not have enough of the alkalizing minerals to buffer this ACV then you may be making your body more acid causinng this problem with low energy and depression i have experienced this, not all ACV is same,

1) get your urinary ph up , go to the store and get 3 pounds of key limes. Every morning take juice from one lime and one half teaspoon baking soda let it stop fizzing and add 8 oz water and drink this for about three days monitor urinary ph then start backing off the baking soda just keep it simple and stay in the green on the litmus paper test strips around ph-7 this is a safe ph for begining after the acid is buffered from you system this will get easy to maintain.

Every morning the second time you urinate check ph if it is not 7 use the Lime and soda , but allways on an empty stomache only, and do not drink untill you stir well and it stops fizzing. after you drink this wait 1 hour to eat. Once you have the ph balanced it will be safe to drink the Apple cider vinegar without the side effects you mentioned. You were probably acidic and were making it worse

If you do this you will begin to feel better, get organic ACVinegar, it will be cloudy in color, I use ____ ACV. its cost a little more but not all vinegar is alkaline forming and it is worth 15 dollars a gallon and lasts months.

You know when your ph in urine is to high will turn the test strips purple just lay off the baking soda a day or to and use the lime juice in the water.vitamin c will bring urine ph down fast if you want it to come down fast.

I ate 1 raw clove of garlic hoping to kill some bacteria (an unrelated cure I had read about here and was trying) An unexpected side effect: I woke up the next day feeling happier than I have in a long time. Energetic. I felt trimmer. I felt like I had been carrying around a dress size worth of water and it was gone. I'm starting to think garlic is a miracle food. I think it's cured my infection and happily I think it will be the cure to my chronic bloating. Thanks for the site!

Hello, First let me say I love this site! I plan to try many many things here.

I came here because of a gallbladder attack. I was sooo sick with this last attack, and I am not working and have no medical insurance. So I started out with AVC in apple juice and wow !! I felt much better (((but a very wonderful side effect occurred, which I wasn't expecting.... I have been holding water a lot lately in my ankles, and I have been drinking lots of water to help rid my body and eating very little to no salt, but still some puffiness.... I have been using ACV for 3 days now and my ankles and lower legs are TINY again !!! I can't believe it !!!) I have since then been reading all the wonderful things ACV does so I am a believer and will be taking it from now on.))) I did start out drinking the regular kind from the store in apple juice, but I have bought the organic ACV now...

First suggestion 9/14/2008: swelling in my foot an leg.

1 tps of apple cider vinegar
1 tps of honey
with a cup of hot water
drink it each morning.

Next suggestion:
1 cup of apple cider vinegar to a galleon of warm water,,soak the foot an toe nails for 15 minutes to get rid of fungus an anything to improve condition of the skin an toenails.

A middle aged lady with bloated stomach and legs take mimosa on the advice of her friend who have learn about the healing properties of mimosa. Her condition is serious and she can`t afford medical treatment.After taking mimosa her condition improves and she is recovering fast.

Dear Tina:

The simple ACV remedy is a rather mild remedy for fluid retention. However the ones most people used is a mixture of ACV with baking soda, such as 2 tablespoon of ACV with 1/4 (or 1/2) teaspoon of baking soda in a half glass of water.

A stronger remedy that is easily found is in the green tea about a glass, although this may lead to some constipation if taken too much, but it is helpful in reducing certain internal congestions from fats.

A more stronger one that i used is dissolving 250 mg of lithium carbonate in a one liter of water and drink only just 1/4 glass of water 2 or 3 times a day. This at least for me is a powerful diuretic because a small amount of lithium displaces sodium in the body, much like a potassium would.

An electrolyte imbalance may also be the cause of fluid retention in which case, potassium bicarbonate or potassium citrate will help displace some sodium. Although this remedy requires 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of potassium bicarbonate.

For an emergency remedy against a fluid retention is the taking of a laxative, where I prefer milk of magnesia taken as per instruction of the bottle. Those will cause reduction of fluids by laxative effect instead of the pressure put on kidneys. Most teas are also generally diuretic in effect too. A watermelon tea is also diuretic, if they do have it.

A fluid retention often is the congestion of certain organs sometimes it is the kidney sometimes it is the liver. A granulated lecithin therefore will help reduce some of those congestion.

Another simpler remedy that reduces some kidney congestion is simply an usweetened lemon juice mixed with water as the citric acid component or citrates when it is reacted with baking soda reduces calcium buildup in the kidney and help reduce fluid retention.

In some rare cases of liver congestion a hot castor oil pack on the liver or abdomen may help, or it is used only in small amount of castor oil to cause a laxative. When stools are loose fluid retention is reduced.

In many pharmaceutical applications in reducing fluid retention I have noticed they used digestive enzymes to reduce congestion by allowing these digestive enzymes to digest the congestions, such as liver and other areas. Common digestive enzymes for me is lemon, papaya, and digestive enzyme supplements sold in some health food stores are also convenient. Eating watermelon is also diuretic.

In the long run reducing congestions is most helpful especially from liver cirrhosis and fatty liver buildup and supplementing of lecithin 1 tabelspoon three times a day helps. In event the fluid retention also have varicose veins, then it might be quercetin and curcumin due to excessive blood thickening congestion which leads to fluid retention. Lavender applied to the kidney or lavender tea might help in relieving circulation or inflammation of the kidneys.

Ted

To Tina with swollen hands/wrists & negative tests: Suspect allergy - try omitting dairy - you might also try the baking soda/ACV along with it this. If don't note much improvement, add wheat to your no-no lists. Also suggest you discontinue all carbonated beverages.

I should also mention a book I read where some doctor was treating his patients with potassium and Vit. B6 supplements with good results. Eating more vegetables should increase your potassium level but I'd probably take a supplement while doing this. Vit. B6 is known as Nature's diuretic.

I am trying ACV for fluid retention in my hands,wrist, and ankle. So far nothing's helped. It is crippling me. It's spreading and getting worse sporadically. I have had blood and urine tests that show nothing wrong but it's obvious something is and the doc.s don't have a clue. I'm poor and can't afford anymore tests or doctors. If anyone has any idea of what's wrong with me and what to do I will be very thankful!

All I have to say is the ACV works immediately on my heartburn. The kind of heartburn that feels like a heart attack. By the way I've been to emergency room thinking my life was in jeopardy! After all the tests the doctors say I get very bad heartburn. I looked up natural cures on the internet and found that ACV works wonderfully! Now I'm taking it for that bloated feeling from eating too much salty food the night before. Thanks for the tip!

Baking Soda in water helped cure my gassey, bloated stomach. I mix a tablespoon or two with water. It doesn't taste the greatest, but it's tolerable. It's worth it!

Baking powder instantly took away the pain from bloating caused by gas.It really works. After trying several things and feeling so nauseous with pain, I finally tried taking 1 tbsp of baking powder with hot water. Within minutes it took the pain away. It taste really awful, but works like magic.

I had the same problem as Sharon from Santa Fe. I'm 42 now and for the last couple of years, I've had problems with everything I eat making me bloated and uncomfortable. I've tried everything I can think of, including elimination diets, with no luck. But activated charcoal really worked for me. I take 2 tabs in the morning and then 2 at night, each time about an hour after eating to give my body time to digest the meal's nutrients. I don't usually take it at lunch time because I only have soup or tea and that doesn't seem to upset me too much. I didn't have the diahorrea. My stools were solid and did change to a very dark brown/black and I felt very cleaned out. They passed more easily as well. I'll keep taking the tabs twice a day until I feel like I don't need them. My thanks to Sharon from Santa Fe for recommending this product. Girl, you rock!

Cramps under my ribs began a month ago after each dinner. I often felt nausea, overfull of food, irritable. When hubby had a kidney stone attack and this site had his (lemon + oliveoil + water) cure, we also bought ACV hoping to fix his allergies.
I knew an apple slice before bed prevents heartburn, and helps gall bladder. I feared my years' lower back pains also pointed to gall bladder, liver.

I googled _gall bladder holistic_ and read here and at alive(dot)com the liver, gall bladder, small intestines, stomach issues and holistic fixes. I decided to try a light purge.

My breakfast was mostly fresh fruit and lots of water, with hot lemon tea (gall bladder cleanse beginning), by lunch while hubby drank his 2nd day's kidney stone cocktail, I also drank one (2 oz lemon juice blended with 2 oz olive oil chased with big glass water) - my gall cleanse at work. 5pm dinner my usual cramps above stomach in ribcage began. But this time with bloating. At 530pm I drank a mix of 1 oz ACV with 3 oz water. At 6pm still bloated, despite the full meal, I ate an apple. At 620pm instead of worse pain from eating more volume, my stomach felt MUCH better. Rib cage felt light yet low belly felt very heavy - gall purge building. When at 630pm I sat down as lower intestines really were _gathering momentum_, I wondered if I had some diarrhea bug and didn't know it. I hoped it was the lemon-olive oil, ACV and apple working. At 6:40pm I suddenly felt relief under my ribs and looked down, watching bloat go away before my eyes; it not only left, but my stomach was flattening too. My tshirt was loose! My stomach didn't hurt at all, NO bloating at all, I was visibly thinner! Lower intestines were churning. Decided to eat an half-inch apple slice just before 9pm bedtime. It canceled slight nausea from the churning. In a few minutes, a repeat of the slight bloat, lower instestine churning, then relief with disappearing bloat and visibly flattening stomach. I expected gas from the disappearing bloat. The gas bloat feeling didn't travel south, it disappeared! Amazing. I woke up about midnite with slight stomach upset, so I ate 1 more bite of apple. The repeat pattern never happened. It felt so good to not be bloated, and have a happy stomach for once. At the morning toilet I did flush a terrible lot of mucousy greenish light-brownish sludge then 15 minutes later a much lesser quantity of the same. Immediately I felt like energetic and upbeat, ready to take on the day. Miracle of natural healing! My body operates like I'm 18 since then - no heartburn, no coffee cravings, no bloat, more often smaller stools, lower intestines feel calm, sleeping deep and rested, far more energy, no nausea ever after meals, no heavy stomach feeling anymore. The scale shows slow and steady weight loss too HOORAY! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have started using Apple cider vinegar one spoon twice daily since two days. I am a diabetic. I take metformin and actos low dose daily. I was struggling from bloating of late and after taking ACV I really felt relieved from bloating. But i feel tired and depressed all the time these two days and no interest in anything. Is anything wrong because of ACV?I would appreciate if I get some good thoughts on this issue.