[00:00:00] Welcome to Planet Spoonie, the podcast for lymies and Spoonies healing themselves and the world. In this compassionate and collaborative space, we talk all about the foundations of truly holistic living, including traditional nutrition, herbal medicine, nature connection, and everything in between. These are the same foundations that help me rediscover A sense of magic, belonging, and my own healing capacity, even while living with chronic illness.

[00:00:28] I'm your host, Kelsey the Herbalist. Let's dig in. Do you ever find yourself feeling super bloated after eating? You know the feeling. Your stomach feels really full and tight and uncomfortable. You may be having sharp gas pains. It is just an all around unpleasant experience where All you can think about is getting home so you can change into a comfy pair of sweatpants and chill out.

[00:00:54] I think we have all been there. And this is something that has really common. I hear this a lot from clients and there's a variety of reasons for this. Of course, women can experience bloating around. The time of menstruation during their cycle. A lot of people have developed food sensitivities and food allergies that cause bloating and discomfort.

[00:01:16] Chronic Lyme is a condition that often results in some level of GI distress, and bloating can be a common issue. People with MCAS. There are so many different situations. POTS is another common chronic illness where bloating and nausea can be a huge issue. And even if you're not someone who's living with chronic illness, I am sure you experience your fair share of bloating now and then, and it's really just an uncomfortable situation that no one wants to be in.

[00:01:46] So today, I want to share with you my five favorite tips and tricks. for instant relief. And instant. I wish I had these tools when I was younger before I realized that I couldn't eat gluten and I used to just have so many digestive issues that were non stop and I had nothing to address it and I tried so many different things and that is why I love having these tools up my sleeve because they are shockingly easy and shockingly effective.

[00:02:18] There are so many people living with not just chronic illness, but chronic illness involving the gut. So maybe IBS or IBD which are very different conditions, but there's just so many different situations in which people struggle with this. So I'm really excited to talk about it. Of course, As always, this is all educational information.

[00:02:40] This is not medical advice but I really hope you enjoy this. So the very first one, ginger ale. So easy, so simple. It's definitely not a long term fix, but in the moment, ginger ale can be hugely relieving. Not only is it bubbly, but if it's made with real ginger, it has numerous medicinal qualities that help with nausea, with bloating, with gas, with cramping.

[00:03:07] So it can be really relieving really quickly. And I like this tool because it's something that's accessible. If someone's a picky eater, if they're not into healthy eating, maybe they're a kid, maybe you're out and about and you don't have anything on you. Maybe you're out with friends getting dinner, or maybe you're traveling at an airport or on a plane.

[00:03:30] I promise you, you can find some ginger ale somewhere. And it's so easy and it's so quick. Of course, this is not a long term fix, right? Because anything with sugar is going to be causing other issues, like disrupting our gut microbiome. So this isn't really a long term fix, but this is one of those DIY, in an emergency, if you have nothing else, ginger ale is just immensely relieving and really instantaneous.

[00:03:55] And you can also learn how to make homemade ginger ale. So I. I love making fermented ginger ale. It's extremely easy. You literally just chop up fresh ginger, add honey, add water, let it sit in a dark cabinet for a couple of days until it gets fizzy. Every day you add more ginger and honey, depending on how warm your house is the time of year.

[00:04:18] This might take two days, this might take five days, but once it's really fizzy and bubbly you essentially have a little starter and then you make ginger tea. You take your ginger tea, you put it into jars or bottles, whatever your fermenting vessel is, you add some of the starter, you add a little more honey, and then Put the lid on, ferment it again for a couple of days, and boom, you have ginger ale.

[00:04:45] It's so easy, it's so good, and that version is probiotic, free of processed sugar, and just one of, one of my favorite recipes because it's such an easy fermentable to get started with. So that's the first tip. Ginger ale. Easy to find and implement into your life if you are in a pinch. The second one.

[00:05:04] This one I just wish everybody with any kind of chronic gut condition knew about this. And that's fennel seed tincture. I think a lot of us have heard that fennel can be really good for gas and bloating. But it's really specifically the seeds that are the most potent and effective for this. So if you don't have access to a tincture, it's always a good idea also to just keep fennel seeds on hand in your kitchen spice cabinet because you can just grab a handful of fennel seeds and chew on them.

[00:05:35] Instantaneous relief. I am not exaggerating. It will help so much with bloating, so much with gas. Fennel is a wonderful antispasmodic, so it reduces any kind of spasms that are happening along the lining of the gut. And the most potent and quick way to get this though is through a fennel seed tincture.

[00:05:56] And there's a lot of kind of misunderstanding. out there around what tinctures are and why tinctures are made with either alcohol or glycerin or sometimes vinegar. And it really has to do with solubility. Tinctures are made with alcohol because that alcohol chemically is extracting the constituents or the compounds in the plant that are medicinally active.

[00:06:21] There are certain things that water can't pull out or vinegar can't pull out or oil can't pull out. that you really need alcohol. Like resins are a great example. You need high alcohol to pull resins. So tinctures are made with alcohol for that reason. They're pulling medicinal constituents out. They make a really high concentrated dose.

[00:06:42] They absorb extremely quickly in the gut when you take a tincture and they are preserved for a really long time. So tinctures are really convenient because if you are someone who has frequent gas and bloating, that makes you really uncomfortable. Maybe you have nausea. You can keep a fennel seed tincture in your bag.

[00:07:01] and carry it with you at all times. So if you ever get a spell coming on, you can have some fennel seed tincture and the relief is insanely fast. I know I'm saying that about all of these, but tincture is by far the most fast acting one. And again, that just has to do with the fact that you are extracting it into alcohol and when you take that tincture, it's absorbing really quickly in the gut.

[00:07:26] So that is... Number two. And again, fennel seed tincture. You can also just have the fennel seeds on hand. Of course, fennel capsules are another really popular one but I highly recommend if you have no reason why you can't consume alcohol. Fennel seed tincture is a really great option. You only need a very small amount for this to be effective, like less than a teaspoon.

[00:07:52] And it works immediately. So you can take it if it's not kicking in right away, you can have it again. And. It'll bring you a lot of immense relief. Number three is herbal tea. Of course, you can use fennel seed in herbal tea. You can also use ginger, just like in the ginger ale. A couple of other really good herbs in herbal tea, especially that you can find at restaurants or at your local grocery store in the tea aisle, are tulsi, also called holy basil, chamomile, mint.

[00:08:26] Ginger, I said, fennel seed, I said, lemon balm, and catnip. These are all really wonderful carminative herbs. And carminative herbs, again, have these aromatic compounds, these volatile oils, that are anti spasmodic, they're anti inflammatory, they're antioxidant. They have numerous different actions that basically calm.

[00:08:50] things down in the gut and relieve any kind of discomfort that's happening. So they're really quick and really gentle. So this is something, that's safe for little ones. That's really generally safe across the board. And so gentle. So it's a lot easier to reach for this. on a continuous and everyday basis as a support than something that maybe is a little bit harsher.

[00:09:15] And two other herbs that I didn't mention that are natives, at least here in North America, are anise hyssop and bee balm. Those two are a little bit lesser known, but those ones are also really wonderful teas for this kind of gas and bloating and cramping. So I would recommend having at least a couple of these teas in your kitchen cupboard on hand, and then also just If you are meeting a friend for a coffee, or grabbing lunch, or grabbing dinner, you know that this is also an option.

[00:09:46] Most restaurants will have at least chamomile and fennel tea or mint or ginger, they'll have one of those. So that's number three is herbal tea. Number four is aromatherapy. Diffusing essential oils is another way to relieve gas and bloating and discomfort. fast. And this one is especially interesting because unlike some of the other ways that we can ingest herbs or ingest medicines, aromatherapy, all you really have to do is smell it.

[00:10:21] And pretty instantaneously, the medicinal compounds within that essential oil that we inhale are going to cross the blood brain barrier and enter into circulation. So They act quickly and effectively, and again, a lot of these are going to be the same herbs that I just talked about. Mint is one of the easiest that everyone can access.

[00:10:45] Lavender can also be helpful. Ginger can also be helpful. But I think... I think the crowd favorite is probably just going to be a gentle mint essential oil. And you can add this to a diffuser and just let the diffuser run all day. Rosemary is really wonderful too. It helps with focus. But you can also do a hydrosol if you have access to hydrosols.

[00:11:08] That's essentially just the water within a plant extracted from the plant. So rosewater, lavender water, these are common ones. So you can also find other types of hydrosols like mint, hydrosol, lemon, balm, hydrosol. There are a few others and these can also be really helpful for diffusing these aromatic compounds that really help have this soothing Relieving, relaxing effect on the muscles and the tissues of the gut.

[00:11:40] So you can do diffusing in essential oil. You can spritz or mist a hydrosol. And then you can also apply essential oils topically. So say you have some ginger. essential oil, you can add that to some castor oil and do a castor oil pack over your gut. Or maybe you have some mint essential oil, you can add that to a salve or a balm and rub that over your tummy.

[00:12:11] These can also be applied topically for abdominal discomfort, gas, and bloating. and they're nice because you're applying them directly and locally and you can play with this. Everyone's going to respond differently. The main thing here is just essential oils are crazy potent. They're really concentrated.

[00:12:29] It only takes a couple of drops and you always want to dilute them in an oil. I learned this the hard way. myself a long time ago when I tried to take a bath with ginger essential oil. Do not do that. Do not just apply anything directly to the bath. Always, or to the skin. Always add your essential oil.

[00:12:53] to a carrier oil. So carrier oils are like olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, apricot kernel seed, jojoba oil, castor oil, right? These kind of thick carrier oils. That's what we want to add our essential oils to and apply them topically. So number four was aromatherapy. And again, that means you can either diffuse an essential oil in your room using a diffuser.

[00:13:19] You can spritz a hydrozole or you can apply them topically on a salve or in an oil. Number five is movement. And I know this one sounds wildly uncomfortable. If you are in the depths of having a moment where you're feeling super duper bloated, your stomach has doubled in size, all you wanna do is lay down.

[00:13:41] Sometimes movement can be really helpful and nothing crazy. Just really gentle. going for a gentle walk around the block. Literally one block, literally five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever. It's not, the goal is not vigorous here. The goal is to just get things moving because there is some kind of stagnation happening in the gut and helping things move will help them release.

[00:14:06] In addition to going for a gentle short walk, you can also do some different stretches. You can look up stretches online or just do ones that you're familiar with. And the goal is to twist and move around, move up and down, and you really just want to keep things moving, keep things going so that they can be released, so that blood is flowing and so that any stagnation that's happening gets moved and passed along.

[00:14:31] So that's number five, movement. So that's it. These are the five things. I promise you, if you add these five things to your toolbox, you will never be stuck in a situation, again, where you are gassy and bloated and uncomfortable with no solutions. These are pretty instant fixes. Just to go over them one more time, number one is ginger ale.

[00:14:56] Short term fix, not a long term fix, but it works. Number two is a fennel seed tincture. This is going to be the most fast acting and I think the most potent of these five. Number three, herbal tea. So you can do chamomile, mint, fennel seed, ginger, lemon balm, catnip, anise hyssop, bee balm. Those are all awesome teas to work with.

[00:15:22] Number four, aromatherapy. So you can diffuse an essential oil, you can mist a hydrosol. Or you can apply essential oils topically to your tummy, diluted in some kind of salve or carrier oil. Number five is gentle movement, like going for a walk or doing some gentle stretches or both. So those are my five tips and tricks.

[00:15:45] There are many more besides these, like digestive enzymes, correcting gut imbalances, beginning to take herbal bitters as a long term tool for restoring the gut. There are, there's lots more that we can do. But these are just really five instantaneous general cover all tricks that anyone can use and feel pretty safe and confident with them and they're all pretty accessible tools.

[00:16:12] If you are someone who is having a really chronic, persistent, nonstop issue with uncomfortable bloating, Maybe you've been diagnosed with SIBO or some other kind of gut dysbiosis and you need additional one on one support. You need either more education or more clinical focus to dig deep to what is the root cause and how can you actually make change in your nutrition and diet and lifestyle to address what's happening so that you don't constantly have this uncomfortable gas and bloating.

[00:16:46] Send me a message. I have openings for new clients beginning in mid December. I know this problem well. It is one that I used to struggle with for years, and I still have it on occasion, but I always have tools now, so it's really not something that I'm ever caught without a way of addressing it because to some level it happens.

[00:17:09] But there's no reason for you to like, suffer with this or have this be an everyday, weekly, constant issue that you're living with. There's no reason. There is so much we can do. So please try these five tips out. tell me how they work for you. I want to hear from you because I know they're going to work and they're so amazing.

[00:17:29] And again, if you need that deeper one on one support, please reach out to me, send me a message. I have client openings for one on one work beginning in mid December. So that is all for today. I think that Yeah, there again, there's so much more that we could go into here It's so hard for me to only talk about these five things and be this brief But I want to do more of these short episodes.

[00:17:58] I can talk all day about this stuff So I'm trying to make quicker episodes. So that was the goal today to have a super quick and short episode with these five tips or tricks. So once again, if you try these, reach out to me, let me know how they work for you. I want to hear from you. I love you guys so much.

[00:18:17] Thank you for being here. Thank you for tuning in and I will talk to you again in a couple of weeks. As always, the goal of this podcast is to help you feel more empowered, embodied, and connected to yourself, your heritage, your community, and your local ecosystems. I know that these five tools are going to help you get there.

[00:18:38] Remember, when we connect to our bodies and to nature, healing is inevitable. It's never a linear process. Our bodies are a direct reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit. And just like this earth, our bodies know how to heal.