Belching

[mintymow]

My sister-in-law suffers with chronic belching. So much so that it wakes her up at night. She has had various tests, including endoscopy, and there seems to be no answer to the problem. Her doctor, although sympathetic, has no further suggestions. Has anyone else suffered with this problem and if so did you find some relief. She is a smoker. We wondered whether homoeopathy might provide a solution. She has tried most of the over-counter remedies, to no avail. Any suggestions please, she is getting quite depressed about it.

[Eve]

If she is a smoker then it could be something as simple as exessive intake of air depending on how frequent and bad you mean by chronic.

Has she any symptoms of indigestion or pain other than that? I put mine down to excess acid/reflux or malabsorption with food not digesting/absorbing properly and maybe some kind of bacterial overgrowth until I had suspicions (with other symptoms) and they found gallstones so think it's that - hoping it disappears with my gallbladder anyhow!

Some people may just be more prone to it and it can be more habitual, for example it seems to be much more "acceptable" for men than women.

I could burp for England at the moment but it's quite a wierd kind of burping from it just seeming like I can't clear air from my system and it just goes round and round to really long loud quite wierd ones and more normal burping far more than normal.

If she has other indigestion symptoms or those of excess acid, have they tried stronger prescription medication like lanzoprazole/omeprazole?

Peppermint (eg tea or capsules) is quite good for digestion generally if she hasn't tried that.

[jamesnan]

Has she tried Fennel - either eating the seeds, or alternatively putting 1 drop of essential Fennel oil into a cup of warm water, and drinking it. My daughter found it to be most useful when she suffered really severe bouts of bloating, ie excessive gas. Both types can be obtained in a health shop I think

[mintymow]

Thanks for your suggestions, I will pass these on.