Do any of you have experience in dealing with waking up at night with air/gas buildup in the lower stomach.

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I forgot to mention ACV (apple cider vinegar). Upset stomach, bloated feeling, anything to do with digestion issues on the spot, drink a tbsp. in water. No, this medicine doesn't taste good but it will do the trick for me.
 
My sister-in-law was a surgical nurse. When we had this problem, she recommended taking 2 Gas Ex and 2 Aleve. It worked.
 
I forgot to mention ACV (apple cider vinegar). Upset stomach, bloated feeling, anything to do with digestion issues on the spot, drink a tbsp. in water. No, this medicine doesn't taste good but it will do the trick for me.
Thankyou GG68, will definitely keep some on hand.
 
The pills or chewables such as Gas X do work right away as does club soda, or the mix with water and drink it fizzy solutions such as Alka seltzer, baking soda and baking powder. They all help release or break up the gas. I can get those pains now and again myself so am speaking from years of experience on how to get immediate relief.

Prevention works ...most of the time.. but immediate relief is needed for an essential backup plan.
(((Prevention works ...most of the time.. but immediate relief is needed for an essential backup plan.))) Exactly Maki2, I have had 4 episodes over a 5 year period. I dont want to tun my life upside down for this frequency. I just want some relief, Thanks so much for your advice. Well definitely keep it on hand. Thanks to you guys, I now have a backup plan of : Gas-X.(simethicone) Aleve, ACV, baking soda, club soda and Alka Seltzer.
 
could be Esophogeal Spasms. I thought I had a heart-attack 10-12 years ago, and was diagnosed with ES's. Read about them when I went home from doc, and found an article on a gal's mother that was having several a day. She drank a glass of water (don't know how she came to try that, can't remember) and it instantly went away.

I tried it and it works wonderfully, seriously within seconds so I keep water near me at night, and no longer have them during the day. I did change my diet by eliminating most carbs, don't know if that helped but the water surely did (about 8 ounces is all I need to be sure they don't come back).
I'm surely not a doctor but I believe I've had the same thing happen. For me, it is triggered when I eat something fatty or sweet or both, then hit the sack. It does not feel the same as regular GERD or heartburn, is really does feel like a heart-attack or something equally painful in the mid section. Probably stomach cramps? Not sure.

Milkshakes, ice cream...now and then a candy bar, etc...I believe I am somewhat lactose intolerant. If you are consuming any kind of milk product and then having those problems, then you might be lactose intolerant also.

Here is some info about this. It may or may not be what's going on, and I should mention, trying to diagnose a medical condition or disease is not possible on a forum about RVs and vanlife but just be aware that it might be serious or...it might not.


https://www.livestrong.com/article/330975-stomach-pain-after-eating-ice-cream/
 
could be Esophogeal Spasms. I thought I had a heart-attack 10-12 years ago, and was diagnosed with ES's. Read about them when I went home from doc, and found an article on a gal's mother that was having several a day. She drank a glass of water (don't know how she came to try that, can't remember) and it instantly went away.

I tried it and it works wonderfully, seriously within seconds so I keep water near me at night, and no longer have them during the day. I did change my diet by eliminating most carbs, don't know if that helped but the water surely did (about 8 ounces is all I need to be sure they don't come back).
Try
 
I used to have very similar symptoms, and actually wound up spending the night in an emergency room being monitored for a heart attack. Eventual diagnosis was a very severe gas attack. As others have mentioned, you could be reacting to something in your diet, and it could also be low stomach acid. Just because you've always eaten X, it doesn't mean you can still eat X. Your food really can turn on you. But you're going to have to do some experimenting, and be warned - it is a moving target.

The most common food sensitivities are to wheat and milk. Start by eliminating those. If either/both of them are triggering you, you will feel relief within a couple weeks. For me, I have self-diagnosed as having Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and I eventually got better by following a Low FODMAP diet. For several years, I avoided wheat and most milk products, among other triggers. Whatever was going on, it has finally mostly resolved, and I can now eat real bread and ice cream again. Although I am still careful, and I especially avoid eating later in the evening. And I also pay a lot more attention to getting enough fiber.

Although medications like Pepcid or Prilosec can afford immediate relief, you should not take them indefinitely. Too many doctors will put you these meds and just tell you to keep taking them. You actually don't want to reduce your stomach acid over the long term. Instead, you need to figure out what is causing the problem and fix it, and most likely it is something you are eating.

When it was really bad, I found that sleeping in a Zero-Gravity type chair worked wonders.
Thanks to all, it has not happened again since I quit eating large meals and then going to bed, jacqueg, you are correct about "Just because you've always eaten X, it doesn't mean you can still eat X" . Just in case I slip up and eat late for some reason and it hit's me, I would still like to find an avenue of relief, hours of dull stomach pain triggering dry heaves is no cake walk. If the scenario was like drinking two bottles of wine and waking up with a hangover every time, easy fix for that, but I might be able to eat a late large meal and go straight to bed 100 times and then one night "gas attach", complacency sets in! I'll reply back if I get an attack again and one of the above relief suggestions works.
 
I would suggest you see a Gastroenterologist or at least a Proctologist regarding this matter. You may want to ask about ... "H. pylori" (this is a GI bacteria known to create pectic ulcers. It is believed half of us harbor this bacteria and don't even know it as it doesn't cause problems....but to those it does, it can be confusing and distressful)

This could actually be "many" things (ulcer, obstruction, food allergy, bowl irritation, etc) including an early warning of cancer. (such as polyps/tumor)
You'll need to seek professional council for this.

You may try an inexpensive small bottle of Papaya Enzyme tablets which are a digestive aid. They are inexpensive and common at dollar stores & grocery stores. Pineapple and Fig's also contain enzymes that aid in digestion. Dried Pineapple is a good source and fig cookie bars are inexpensive too.

When you have these attacks you may have eaten something that brings it on. Keep a note pad for when it does happen and try to record what you have eaten that day so you can review it with your medical specialist.

When I worked in Corporate, I was surrounded by salesmen & engineers who seemed to live on Di Gel and Simethicone tablets to deal with issues like you're having.
 
Forgot to mention for a while I was getting terrible gas pains. The cause was a pinched nerve in my back. When I got that sorted out with a few days of a series of back stretches and a mild muscle relaxer that issue cleared up. The spine is a major nerve highway so it is not as strange as it might seem that some of them do interact with the digestive track and can cause upper and lower digestion disturbances.
 
If you're going to try apple cider vinegar, use ORGANIC apple cider vinegar.

If you drink milk, change to the LACTAID brand, which has been treated to remove the natural lactose ingredient that causes the irritation.

When you're having an attack, and take something to relieve it, stand or sit up straight to let the gas escape (belching) -- it releases MUCH easier that way.
 
Wow, I'm late getting in on a ton of posts in about 10 days. Sure, get up and walk around, sip a pint of room temperature water and/or try your favorite Idea of antiacid for gas bloat. But before you turn your life upside down or beat yourself up for being too busy to notice...

Most likely you have just eaten too much, too fast or too late in the wrong combinations and then sat or lay down again.

Maybe the very young can get by not thinking. But after I reached retirement, I found that I have had to reduce processed foods much more than I had activities.

I was not "allergic" to anything. But I had to change foods and almost fight menus to reduce and almost eliminate the ultra-processed pastes and chemicals that make up almost all of what you eat "out", "on the road" or "on the job". It is largely devoid of the necessary produce and vegetables you need and also find impossible to store. Business tend to use ingredients and whole mixes that are mostly similar to paste flavored with fats and powders.

Now that you might need to manage on 600 instead of 9000 calories a day, those snacks are starting to kill you. It has to be more like roasted squash, kale and beans than hamburgers and hash brown potatoes.

It was so confusing when the typical doughnuts, coffee and pizza at work helped to cause me to become a hypertensive diabetic with enough swelling and gout symptoms to get me discharged.

Two years of doctors later, I'm off my walker and half of those meds. We're working on reducing them further now because there's still too many side effects to get back on a ladder or bicycle. But at least I don't need a cane anymore.
 
Wow, I'm late getting in on a ton of posts in about 10 days. Sure, get up and walk around, sip a pint of room temperature water and/or try your favorite Idea of antiacid for gas bloat. But before you turn your life upside down or beat yourself up for being too busy to notice...

Most likely you have just eaten too much, too fast or too late in the wrong combinations and then sat or lay down again.

Maybe the very young can get by not thinking. But after I reached retirement, I found that I have had to reduce processed foods much more than I had activities.

I was not "allergic" to anything. But I had to change foods and almost fight menus to reduce and almost eliminate the ultra-processed pastes and chemicals that make up almost all of what you eat "out", "on the road" or "on the job". It is largely devoid of the necessary produce and vegetables you need and also find impossible to store. Business tend to use ingredients and whole mixes that are mostly similar to paste flavored with fats and powders.

Now that you might need to manage on 600 instead of 9000 calories a day, those snacks are starting to kill you. It has to be more like roasted squash, kale and beans than hamburgers and hash brown potatoes.

It was so confusing when the typical doughnuts, coffee and pizza at work helped to cause me to become a hypertensive diabetic with enough swelling and gout symptoms to get me discharged.

Two years of doctors later, I'm off my walker and half of those meds. We're working on reducing them further now because there's still too many side effects to get back on a ladder or bicycle. But at least I don't need a cane anymore.
Yap sithigh, the first event scared me off to the doctor the next day and she told me eat smaller meals, good meals and don't eat late. So, far that has worked, no gas attacks following the rules but I have had two when complacency set in, large late night Mexican food platter while celebrating with friends and family was one of them, late night "cave man" steak, ranch style beans and loaded baked potato was the other.
 
Top