Bodily functions can be less than appealing most of the time, causing the discussion of them to be taboo, or at least embarrassing for many. But discussing them can lead to a lot of deeper knowledge about your own body, so that you can better understand your health, which is something that’s most certainly not a taboo subject.
Though flatulence is often left for comedy, and considered impolite, gross and unsexy to say the least, it happens. And it happens for a reason. In fact, farts can say so much about your health and wellness, almost making it pertinent that we pick through the topic much more openly than we currently do.
What Exactly Are Farts?
Besides funny, smelly, sometimes loud occurrences, they’re also a mix of swallowed air that enters the digestive system by accident while breathing, causing gas to be produced by the bacteria in your lower intestine.
The gas is created via the breakdown of sugars and starches that your body has trouble digesting. This breakdown generates about 2 and 6 cups of gas every day. Once it builds up, however, it must be emptied. And that’s when farting happens.
If you’re farting regularly, it means you’re eating plenty of fiber, and have a good amount of bacteria in your intestines.
What The Type of Fart Reveals About Your Health
There are many types of farts. Loud, silent, smelly. But what do they all mean? As for stinky farts, this scent is the result of hydrogen sulfide, which is the gas created when your body breaks down foods with sulfur in them. Sulfur is found in a variety of super healthy foods, like broccoli, beans, and cauliflower.
Extremely stinky farts could reveal a health concern worthy of paying attention to. For instance, if you eat dairy and immediately feel the urge to pass gas, this may be a sign that your body is experiencing an intolerance to lactose.
These types of farts can also be a sign of a chronic problem, such as irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease, or an infection like gastroenteritis.
If your farts don’t have any smell, they’re healthy and normal, and merely mean air has accumulated in the body and is now exiting. Actually, 99 percent of fart is made up of odorless gases. The remaining 1 percent is typically sulfurous.
Farting a lot? That’s typically normal, too, since the average person usually passes gas about 2o times a day. But should you experience persistent farting that’s followed by discomfort, bloating or an extreme smell, you may have a food allergy.
Smelling Farts and Your Health
When it’s not yours, the smell of a fart is enough to send you running out of a room. And when it is, somehow you can handle it. And that’s not something to be ashamed of. In fact, smelling your own farts can be good for you! There’s a compound within farts called hydrogen sulfide that gives them their rotten-egg stench, and it can actually be good for your health.
A small study found that the smell of farts, or hydrogen sulfide, can have some incredible health benefits, like helping the person who farted live longer, while the smell can quell dementia. Smelling farts can also help with heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. The scientists say the stinkier the fart the better, too.
But how can this be? It’s all about the ecosystem in our bowels. According to the study, when you fart, you help yourself out.
“When cells become stressed by disease, they draw in enzymes to generate minute quantities of hydrogen sulfide.
This keeps the mitochondria ticking over and allows cells to live. If this doesn’t happen, the cells die and lose the ability to regulate survival and control inflammation.”
Researcher Dr. Mark Wood explained:
“Although hydrogen sulfide is well known as a pungent, foul-smelling gas in rotten eggs and flatulence, it is naturally produced in the body and could in fact be a healthcare hero with significant implications for future therapies for a variety of diseases.”
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