But however unpleasant you may find mildly smelly farts to be, they're totally healthy and natural. I know that doesn't make you feel any better about smelling a stranger's farts on the bus, but it's true and there actually may be health benefits to smelling a stranger's farts Sorry, I'll stop. I was wrong to have even tried! Supposedly, we're very bad judges of how bad our own farts smell — like the weird clicking noise our jaw makes or our compulsion to eat a whole jar of olives in one sitting, our unique fart bouquets are personal quirks that we've gotten used to over the course of our lives.
But sometimes, even we can tell that the fumes from down below are worse than usual. Those especially sulfuric farts — the ones that lead to teary eyes, pointed fingers, broken friendships, and shouts about "rotten eggs" — are often the product of heavy consumption of hydrogen sulfide-producing foods, like beans and broccoli, or generally maintaining a very high fiber diet.
But really atrocious farts aren't always a just sign that you're eating healthily — they can also be a sign that you have lactose intolerance. Even if consuming dairy products doesn't make you feel ill, breaking into a stanky fart symphony immediately after consuming dairy means that your body is having a hard time breaking down the lactose.
Less commonly, frequent, and extremely smelly farts can be a sign of a chronic problem, like irritable bowel syndrome or celiac disease , or an infection like gastroenteritis. The sound that your fart makes when it comes out has nothing to do with its content — it's simply about the position of your sphincter when the gas is pushed out. That goes for silent farts, loud farts, brief farts, drawn-out farts, or a rapid-fire series of farts. There's no secret information to be gleaned from the length or tune of your toots — except that you probably recent consumed some form of musical fruit.
The average person farts between 10 and 20 times a day, Dr. There's wiggle room on either side of that figure that can still be considered "normal," but if you find yourself farting more than that, you may be engaging in some behavior or eating a food that is pumping more air into your guts. None of it is particularly hazardous to your health, and almost all of it can be easily changed: you could be drinking a lot of coffee which relaxes the sphincter, letting farts slip out more often , eating tons of carbs and other foods that are difficult for your intestines to break down, consuming a vegetarian diet, or even just eating your food really quickly which can lead to swallowing lots of air.
In rare cases, frequent farting can signal an illness called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth SIBO , which means that the small intestine is home too too many bacteria, which can cause excess gas and bloating. If you're concerned about how much you're farting, or how it smells, or have any other questions about your health, it's worth checking in with your doctor even just to assure your peace of mind.
Flatulence can be a result of this. Other than bad-smelling flatulence, Celiac disease can cause other symptoms:. Talk to your doctor to get tests and determine if you have any food allergies or sensitivities that may be making your farts smell.
Although uncommon, certain medications can cause smelly flatulence. Antibiotics kill off harmful pathogens in the body. They also destroy some of the good bacteria in your stomach, which aids digestion. Without this good bacteria, your gas may smell. You could also experience bloating and constipation. Treatment for this cause involves changing medication, which you should not do without talking to your doctor first.
Constipation indicates that you have a buildup of stool , or poop, in your colon. The end result is foul-smelling and sometimes painful gas. Taking over-the-counter laxatives can be a simple home remedy for constipation. Shop for laxatives. When your body digests food, it extracts nutrients and sends them to the bloodstream. The waste products are sent to the colon. Disrupting the digestion process can cause an overgrowth of bacteria.
Some bacteria can cause infection in the intestines and digestive tract. This may cause a higher volume of gas than normal and a strong-smelling odor. People with digestive tract infections also often have abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Visit your doctor to determine if you have a bacterial infection. If you do, they will prescribe antibiotics to clear the infection and get you well. A more rare cause of smelly farts is colon cancer. When polyps or tumors form in the digestive tract, it can cause a partial bowel obstruction, which results in gas buildup and bloating. They can determine whether a colonoscopy is warranted.
Treatment for colon cancer varies based on the stage of cancer. It can include surgery to remove tumors and chemotherapy to kill cancer cells. In most cases, having foul or odorless flatulence is no cause for alarm. However, if your gas is accompanied by irregular symptoms, you should visit a doctor immediately. Some people blame milk, ice cream, and cheese for stinking things up, and rightly so. An estimated 30 to 50 million Americans are deficient in the enzyme needed to digest lactose aka, lactase , the natural sugar found in dairy products.
In these folks, lactose passes through the small intestine without being absorbed, traveling downstream to the colon, where trillions of bacteria "have a little party," Dr. Raymond says. The effect is smelly gas, since milk and certain cheeses have a high sulfur content. People can also be intolerant to and pass smelly gas from other sugars, including sucrose table sugar and fructose found in fresh fruit, corn syrup and some processed foods. Beans, beans. They're a rich source of protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
But, whoa, they get a bad rap for making you fart. Beans contain raffinose family oligosaccharides RFOs , a group of sugars that are at least partially responsible for the bloating and gas that can occur after a beany meal. So do lentils, legumes, and cruciferous veggies.
The human GI tract lacks an important enzyme needed to break down and digest these sugars. One study found that soaking dried beans in water helps remove RFOs without compromising the nutritional value of the beans. Taking an enzyme-based digestive aid like Beano, for example can also help ease symptoms.
Beware of sugar alcohols, like sorbitol and xylitol, which can be found in diet drinks, sugar-free candy, and some chewing gum. These sweeteners cannot be fully absorbed by the body, so they travel to the colon where they can contribute to awful-smelling gas. Keeping a food diary can help you determine if sugar alcohols are causing your stinky farts. Raymond recalls a female patient who had bad gas but only on weekdays.
It turned out that a big bowl of sugar-free candies at her office was the culprit: The woman would grab some every morning, "and by late afternoon, in a business meeting, she would be passing lots of gas," Dr. Raymond remembers. Certain prescription drugs, vitamins, and supplements can do a number on your gut, including turning your farts foul. The reasons they cause flatulence differ by drug, and how much they'll make you gas and how badly that gas stinks varies from one person to the next, explains doctor of pharmacy Oralia Bazaldua, professor of family and community medicine at UT Health San Antonio.
People taking the weight loss medication orlistat commonly experience gas with oily discharge. Iron supplements are also known to cause gas and bloating. Supplements containing fiber can produce gas as a byproduct, and the diabetes drug metformin can also make you gassy.
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