the.com/distension
Bloating's fancier cousin — the swelling that makes pants lie about your lunch.
means The act or state of being stretched or swollen outward by pressure from within, like a balloon, belly, or bladder filling past its resting size.
from From Latin distendere — 'dis-' (apart) plus 'tendere' (to stretch), the same stretching root behind 'tension,' 'tendon,' and 'extend.' So distension is literally a stretching apart from the inside, pressure pushing outward until the surface gives.
- not fat
- gas, fluid, or air, not tissue growth
- common cause
- swallowed air or slow digestion, not failure
- body-wide
- can happen to veins, organs, even the abdomen
- usually temporary
- resolves once pressure or gas escapes