Laying on Which Side is Better for Digestion?: 3 Lifestyle Hacks to Soothe Your Stomach
Bloated? Gassy? Struggling with slow digestion? As we age, our digestion can slow for any number of reasons, including lifestyle habits, reduction in digestive enzymes, dysbiosis, and changes in our digestive system’s pH. In this article, we’ll answer: which habits are harming your digestion, lifestyle hacks to soothe your stomach, and laying on which side is better for digestion?
Habits that Harm Digestion
Are your lifestyle choices hurting your digestion? If you’re struggling to digest, or experiencing other issues like indigestion, bloating, cramps, or constipation, you might be making one of these common lifestyle mistakes.
- Eating too little fiber
- Eating too much sugar
- Staying sedentary
- Ignoring food sensitivities
- Overeating
- Undereating
- Recovering from antibiotic treatment
- Chronic stress
- Overusing artificial sweeteners
- Alcohol use
- Poor sleep
Top 3 Hacks to Soothe Your Stomach
Looking for some easy ways to fix slow digestion? There are many ways to help heal your gut: a healthier diet, regular exercise, better sleep, and probiotics, just to name a few. However, many of these strategies are longer-term fixes that require consistency, effort, and mindfulness to achieve.
And, while they are more effective at solving chronic digestion issues, other “quick fix” strategies can help alleviate the odd episode of indigestion. Or, better yet, use these stomach-soothing hacks alongside long-term digestion solutions to help take the pressure off an overworked GI tract.
Laying on Which Side is Better for Digestion?
Laying on which side is better for digestion: right or left? It’s a common question, and one with a pretty simple answer. Sleeping on your left side is not just better for digestion, it’s so effective that we actively recommend it during pregnancy to prevent heartburn.
Laying on your left side has several benefits when it comes to digestion. First, laying on your left side provides better alignment of the digestive tract, helping food pass from the stomach into the intestines.
Second, laying on your left side brings the lower esophageal sphincter into alignment, preventing acid reflux, GERD, and heartburn. Most notably, back sleeping has been known to make these problems worse. Not to mention: sleeping on your back can also exacerbate sleep apnea.
Does Walking Help Digestion?
If lack of exercise can throw off digestion by altering the microbiome, can walking help counteract it? The short answer: yes! Over time, walking and other forms of low-impact exercise can help improve the health of the gut’s microbiome.
But you don’t have to wait to feel the beneficial effects of walking on your digestive tract. In fact, just one 10-minute walk after eating can stimulate the digestive tract, reducing gas, bloating, and even the incidence of constipation. If you’re worried that walking after a meal might cause nausea, you can even wait an hour after eating before you grab your walking shoes.
Does Eating Fermented Foods Boost Digestion?
Fermented foods: long a superstar when it comes to boosting the microbiome’s biodiversity, these nutritional heavyweights deliver more than probiotic bacteria. While fresh fruits and veggies have their own substantial benefits, they can also be difficult to digest due to the presence of starches, complex carbohydrates, cellulose, and various forms of fiber. These compounds are great for your overall health, but for those with sensitive stomachs, they can mean a lot of gas, bloating, and even stomach cramps.
This is largely due to the fact that it takes more work to break down these compounds than simple sugars and carbs. And while this is generally a good thing, that additional digestion can be too much for an already overwhelmed GI tract.
Fermented foods, on the other hand, come slightly predigested, thanks to the fermentation process. As a result, a number of those hard-to-digest macronutrients have already been reduced to more easily digestible forms by the probiotic bacteria. Additionally, these bacteria can also help digest other foods you eat, reducing the overall strain on your digestion.
