Gas

Gas Problems

When a person expresses his symptom as “gas”, we need to find out exactly what is in the person’s mind, which he calls ‘gas’. Often, it could be

  • Burping (bringing up the air, like after a meal) which is also called eructation
  • Bloating (either a feeling of the stomach expanding, or; actually, seeing visible distension)
  • Passing wind from ‘below’.
  • Painless noises made by the stomach also are called gas by some persons.

Here, I would wish you to know the common causes that lead you to “pass wind” when you say ‘gas’.

With the advent of the Covid pandemic, we are forced to use masks, which are not necessarily comfortable for breathing for some persons. Thus, we may tend to breathe with the mouth rather than the nose, thus inadvertently swallowing air. This will travel down and pass as gas. There are similar other instances that you will need to know…

  • Persons who smoke, known asthmatics & COPD
  • Drinking water without bringing the glass to the lips (either directly from the bottle or glass) encourages swallowing of air with every gulp
  • Chewing food with the lips open (like, speaking during a meal encourages swallowing of air
  • Poorly fitting dentures also may make keeping the lips pursed difficultly.
  • Fibre in foods (salads, sprouts, shallow fried veggies, beans)
  • Large quantities of fruit juices

If your issue is the smell of the gas, you need to know that the odour you refer to is of sulfur. Any sulfur-containing food will cause the stool gas as well as the boy odour to smell like sulfur.

A few such foods are

  • Fish & eggs
  • Cauliflower, cabbage
  • Masalas and Indian spices
  • Onion, garlic and ginger in the cooking.