Three in five women say bloating affects their body image - here’s how to reduce bloating symptoms this summer
As the official day of summer approaches on the 21st of June, the taboo around bloating has left three in five women feeling down about their body image, however, a vagus nerve stimulation device could help.
Sadly, women cited feeling bloated as one of the most common barriers to their body confidence, with data revealing three-quarters (75%) of women saying their stomach was the area in which they felt least confident about.
Experts from Parasym, makers of vagus nerve stimulation device Nurosym, have analysed the impact of bloating on Brits, as searches for “how to improve bloating” have increased by 80% in the last three months and 115% in the last year.
Bloating can manifest as a feeling of fullness, tightness, or swelling in the abdomen, often accompanied by gas, abdominal pain, and discomfort.
Unfortunately, issues like bloating play directly into female insecurity, with three in five (60%) of women saying this was one of their main reasons for feeling down about their body image.
Periods and gut-related issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) cause some women to bloat regularly, knocking their confidence even more. While 63% said they faced ‘off days’ on a weekly basis, this figure shot up to 73% for women with IBS.
Gut-related issues were considered embarrassing by half (55%) of women, with many saying they would not discuss it with a partner.
Parasym, a leader in neurotechnology, has harnessed the power of neuromodulation, a type of bio-electric medicine that specifically targets the vagus nerve, to address gut health issues by restoring balance in the gut-brain connection.
As shown being worn by Bryan Johnson in his Netflix documentary “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever” earlier this year, Parasym’s innovative technology, Nurosym, involves wearing a small earpiece that sends targeted electrical signals to the brain via the vagus nerve. The device is non-invasive and allows patients to perform most daily activities and wear it on the go.
The vagus nerve transmits information from the gut to the brain to help reduce inflammation throughout the digestive system and strengthen the gut barrier, which in turn can affect the balance of gut microbiota (bacteria).
The vagus nerve's role in regulating inflammation, autonomic balance, and gut function makes it an ideal target for therapeutic intervention, providing a new approach that can address gastrointestinal issues.
In 50+ clinical trials using Nurosym neuromodulation, patients experienced up to a 78% decrease in systemic inflammation and a 61% increase in vagus nerve activity in only 5 minutes of use, with 0 serious adverse events in all studies to date.
Dr Elisabetta Burchi, MD, MBA, Psychiatrist and Head of Research at Parasym, shared:
“Bloating, defined as a subjective discomfort given by intestinal gas sometimes accompanied by abdominal distension, is a very common symptom usually associated with functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as IBS, or organic diseases, such as IBDs.
“Despite the pathophysiology of bloating needs to be fully elucidated, some evidence supports the involvement of multiple mechanisms influenced by the autonomic tone, such as gut hypersensitivity, impaired gut motility, and altered gut microbiota.
“Consistently with mechanistic rationale and some of our clinical data obtained in patients with bloating and inflammatory conditions, it is reasonable to expect that auricular vagal neuromodulation therapy delivered by Nurosym could ameliorate bloating as a symptom in many patients improving gut motility, gut sensitivity and the gut barrier”.