Let’s get this out of the way to begin with: everyone farts.
Even people who say that they don’t still do. What’s more, it’s good for you. It’s perfectly healthy, even if it’s not the most polite or socially acceptable thing to do.
The average person farts around 15 times a day or more, depending on what you’ve had to eat or drink, so you might as well just get on with it, because everybody is at it. Each human also produces around half a litre of gas every day. Use that information as you see fit.
Whether or not you’re the kind of person who farts out loud because they think it’s funny, or the kind of person who has to leave the room so that they aren’t mortally embarrassed, it’s not healthy to hold in your gas, and when you find out why, you’ll never do it again.
Hold in your flatulence, and – as you can probably well imagine – it just stays inside you, looking for an alternative route out of your body.
Disgustingly enough, that could even be your mouth. Yes, you heard that right – fart gas could come out of your body in the form of your breath.
Clare Collins, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at New South Wales University, Australia, told The Conversation: “The next time you feel a large volume of intestinal gas getting ready to do what it does, try to move to a more convenient location.
“Whether you make it there or not, the best thing for your digestive health is to just let it go.
“A build-up of intestinal gas can trigger abdominal distension, with some gas reabsorbed into the circulation and exhaled in your breath.
“Holding on too long means the build-up of intestinal gas will eventually escape via an uncontrollable fart.”
There you go, if you don’t want to fart out of your mouth, or just let rip before you can stop it, it’s best to just find somewhere and get on with the task at hand.
It can be more damaging to your health than your social standing too. Holding in gas can lead to a nasty condition called diverticulitis.
That is a condition caused by gas that leads to inflammation of the guts. It’s a nasty one, too.
There you have it – for the good of your own health, fart away to your heart’s content.
Just don’t try to force it – that can go downhill quickly.
