Objective measurements of abdominal gas volume indicate that patients who complain of bloating and cramps because of “too much gas” are actually suffering from a condition in which a normal amount of intestinal gas has a tendency to move too slowly and reflux back into the stomach. Challenging the accepted notion that excessive gas is a cause of gastrointestinal discomfort, a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA research team had previously determined the volume and composition of human intestinal gas. They used this information to study a group of 18 patients with chronic complaints of excess gas.
Employing a method known as washout technique, which involved in fusing an inert gas mixture into the intestine of the patients and of a group of normal control subjects, the researchers then collected and analyzed the endogenous gas that was displaced.
Results indicated that there was no significant difference in intestinal gas volume between both sets of subjects, nor was there a difference in chemical composition or the accumulation rate of intesinal gas.
The complaints of discomfort were valid nonetheless: the gas infused into the patients did produce more unpleasant symptoms than in normal subjects and it had a greater tendency to move back into the stomach. In addition, in all the patients for whom the gas infusions had to be terminated because they caused so much pain, the transit time of the gas through the intestine took about twice as long (40 minutes) as it did for the controls (22 minutes). Thus, even though the common complaint of “too much gas” is an inaccurate description of the cause of discomfort, a reduction in the gas volume might be a counter measure for the sluggishness with which the gas moves.
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