Some people develop air swallowing and belching in the hope of relieving chest or abdominal discomfort. Air cannot be sucked in when the jaws are separated, so repetitive belching can be temporarily controlled by firmly clenching something like a pencil between the teeth. Repetitive belching like this can last for minutes at a time and is very embarrassing. In this case air is not swallowed into the stomach but sucked into the gullet and rapidly expelled. Fizzy drinks including beer cause belching because they release gas (carbon dioxide) into the stomach.Ĭhronic or repetitive burping (aerophagy) Other people swallow air without noticing it, especially when they are tense. Some people, when swallowing saliva to relieve heartburn, swallow air at the same time. Eating rapidly, which can occur when you eat hot foods, gulping food and drink, drinking a lot of liquid with meals, chewing gum, smoking or wearing loose dentures all promote air swallowing. A burp is an involuntary expulsion of wind (gas) by the stomach when it becomes distended from an excess of swallowed air. The reasons for wind, burping, flatulence and bloating fall broadly speaking into three categories, mechanical, dietary and other conditions.Įvery time we swallow we take some air into the stomach. Why does w ind, burping, flatulence and bloating occur? Most of these gases are absorbed into the blood stream and eventually excreted in the breath but the rest is passed as flatus. The colon contains different kinds of bacteria which are essential to good health and which ferment material from the small intestine, producing large volumes of gasses such as hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide. Hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide: the small intestine is the place where the food we eat is digested and absorbed the residues, such as dietary fibre and some carbohydrates, then pass through to the large bowel. In other words, the vast majority of gut wind originates from swallowing or digestion, not from bacterial fermentation. When these gases move into the small intestine most of the oxygen and carbon dioxide are absorbed into the blood stream and the nitrogen is passed down the large bowel (colon). ![]() Nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide: the nitrogen and oxygen comes from swallowed air whilst the carbon dioxide is produced by stomach acid mixing with bicarbonate in bile and pancreatic juices. The remaining 10% contains small amounts of other gases. Over 90% of wind in the gut is made up of five gases: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane. Many people think that they have too much wind and flatulence, but in an otherwise healthy person, these events are absolutely nothing to worry about. This factsheet is about w ind, burping, flatulence and bloating
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