Always inconvenient, often embarrassing, flatulence is the expulsion of digestive gases out your rear exit. It's a natural part of life, totally normal, but for some reason it's taboo. It's partly the smell that usually accompanies the event and partly because it's associated with feces—which is admittedly pretty gross. While it is normal for everyone to experience occasional gas expulsions, especially whilst defecating, it isn't normal or necessary for a person to experience the explosive flatulence that might cause a person to look up an article like this. In most cases, flatulence like that has an external cause, and taking a few easy steps will help prevent further embarrassing episodes.
How to Cure Gas
Make a food diary to determine what is causing the flatulence. You could probably just do this in your head. When you have an episode of flatulence, ask yourself, "What have I eaten in the past four to eight hours?" You should see a pattern without a lot of effort. There are a few foods that are notorious: beans and other legumes, the entire cabbage and onion families, fibrous grains, and some dairy products. Sometimes it's not a particular food, but the amount of food or way you eat it, i.e., too fast without chewing properly. Flatulence is also associated with swallowing air while you eat.
Balancing fiber intake can prevent excessive flatus. We always hear about how we need to increase our fiber intake, that it improves our intestinal health, can lower cholesterol, reduce heart disease, and increase longevity. It is important that you don't go overboard, especially with the soluble fiber, because you will definitely experience some flatulence if you do. Soluble fiber can pass through your stomach into your intestines undigested, where it is fermented by bacteria. This produces a lot of gas and can cause some discomfort. The daily recommendation for fiber ranges from 20–40 grams depending on age and gender.
Undiagnosed lactose intolerance is a common problem. For most of us, lactose intolerance comes with adulthood. It makes sense: baby mammals need to be able to process lactose (the sugar in milk) as it is their sole source of nutrition for the first months of life. As you age, that ability becomes less important. In prehistoric cultures who traditionally lived with milk-producing herd animals like cattle, sheep, and goats, the ability to digest milk into adulthood was obviously beneficial because those cultures tend to retain that ability even today. While others, like Asians and some Africans are almost 100 percent lactose intolerant as adults.
Gluten allergies can give you intestinal distress. Any food allergies can make you sick, but some can kill you. Allergies that involve ingredients that are as pervasive as wheat products are especially difficult to control. You have to be very diligent to avoid it, especially if you go out to eat a lot. If you are wondering if a gluten intolerance might be the cause of your flatulence, try cutting it out of your diet and see if it helps. A physician will also be able to verify any possible allergic conditions that exist with a skin allergy test.
You can always try one of the anti-gas medications. Even if you do make some dietary adjustments, you might continue to suffer from occasional flatulence on special occasions. There are some fairly effective over-the-counter gas medications that can prevent gas in one of two ways: enzymes and anti-foaming agents. The supplement Beano contains an enzyme called alpha-galactosidase, which breaks down carbohydrates that would ordinarily pass into the intestine and ferment. Gas-X contains the anti-foaming agent simethicone. It reduces the surface tension of liquids in the gut, which keeps gas bubbles from joining together into one giant fart.
Talk to a doctor about your flatulence problem.
Everyone experiences gas. If your flatulence has become a problem and you can't seem to find a solution with the dietary changes and over-the-counter medications listed in this article, you might have something else going on entirely. That means that you should be making an appointment with your doctor as soon as you can. Explain your symptoms and the steps you have taken to resolve them. There are a couple of conditions your doctor might want to look into: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), celiac disease, Crohn's disease, and digestive tract cancers. It might be none of the above, but you need a doctor to figure that out.
