iStockphoto / SIphotography
Between holiday parties at work into decadent meals at home with the family, the last few weeks have done a number on everyone’s digestive tract and it’s a veritable gas factory out there in crowded bars and stuffy homes. With all of the gas being passed around, some experts recently weighed in on when excessive farting after the holidays (or at any time) may be a cause for concern.
In an article that ran on The Sun titled ‘What your post-Christmas farts can reveal about your health,’ several experts chimed in on which farts are red flags, which ones are perfectly normal, and what the underlying cause of excessive flatulence might be in various scenarios.
It should come as no surprise that most gas is just caused by diet but there’s a little more to it than that… When it comes to truly heinous atomic farts, or ‘smelly farts’ if you want to put it more tamely, gastroenterologist Dr Philip Mayhead told The Sun that “foods high in sulphur, like broccoli, cabbage, and eggs, can contribute to this type of flatulence.”
Between endless quiches, cheesecakes, and other egg-packed breakfast dishes over the past week I’m pretty sure I’ve matched my annual egg intake in the past 7 days. So this explains a lot… But that’s nothing to worry about, right?!
Where things might be a problem, according to the experts, is when a condition commonly called SIBO (small bacterial overgrowth) results due to a person’s intolerance to certain foods. This can often times happen with lactose intolerance. And SIBO can be the cause of heinously stinky farts as well as lead to malnutrition, stomach pain, cramps, and more.
What is the opposite of ‘Silent But Deadly’ farts? Are they bad?
They article on The Sun makes mention of ‘odorless farts’ which I take to mean as the exact opposite of SBDs. These are the farts that you rip and someone might tell you to check your pants but there’s no smell or anything, just the comical sound akin to a whoopee cushion.
This type of odorless fart is apparently most commonly caused by swallowing air while eating which leads to gut bacteria creating odorless gas as it breaking down food. These are no cause for concern.
They make mention of ‘painful farts’ which is something I’d never heard of until today. But if a fart burns that’s often times caused from the capsaicin in peppers which are pepper’s natural defensive mechanism and what we humans perceive as spicy. So these are just spicy farts that you might be misinterpreting.
When To Worry…
If there is a steady stream of excessive or painful then it would be time to see a doctor. This is because that sort of trend might be tied to the aforementioned SIBO, IBS, or any other number of gastro afflictions.
If the excessive farting disappears after a few hours, or a day, it’s realistically no cause for concern.