Q: Is there an easy way to relieve gas without medication?
A: The warm fuzzy feeling you get from a delicious holiday meal can be quickly eclipsed by the gassy one that follows. Fortunately, gastroenterologists have an old trick for this: Take a fart walk.
I recommend trying a leisurely walk until you start to feel better. But, in theory, any mild physical activity works. Controlled experiments have found that even gentle cycling is more than sufficient to relieve trapped gas.
If the siren call of the couch beckons nonetheless, resist the urge to lie down. Intestinal gas passes about 33 percent more efficiently when you’re sitting upright than when you’re horizontal.
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The science on ‘fart walks’
Walking to relieve bloating and gas had long been advocated by doctors, but for years, we had no real experimental proof that it works. So in the mid-2000s, researchers from Barcelona decided to end the speculation and test whether even mild exercise could propel gas forward … and outward.
The group first looked at healthy volunteers who pedaled on an adapted bicycle going at the equivalent of around 7 mph. The scientists infused gas into the people’s small intestines – mimicking what happens with meals – and then measured how much gas was expelled both during exercise and at rest.
At rest, the result was a net gain in gas. Not fun.
But after exercise? Things got juicy. After short bursts of mild physical activity, the scientists found that the amount of gas evacuated was greater than the amount infused. Exercise forced the removal of the added experimental gas and then some – meaning, it also pushed out gas hanging around even at baseline.
So after a fart walk, you’ll be better off than you started.
Walking may even help with bloating: In a second experiment, the researchers focused on people who were especially prone to abdominal discomfort and bloating, like in irritable bowel syndrome. Among these people, the amount of gas retained in the gut decreased with mild exercise, and symptoms like pressure, bloating and gurgling all improved as well.
And yes, the methods were … thorough. To precisely measure gas, participants wore a leakproof rectal catheter connected to a barostat, a special tool to measure changes in volume in the gut. You see why this had to be done in a lab and not in your local public park.
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Air traffic control
If our guts didn’t contain a set of complex gas control and dissipation mechanisms, we’d live our lives in extreme discomfort, ready to burst like a hot-air balloon. The gut makes about half a gallon of gas every single day. Gas enters our bodies as we swallow food and is produced through chemical reactions in our intestines and fermentation by our gut microbes (fiber and lactose are common offenders).
Thankfully, our bodies are so efficient at removing gas from the insides of our guts – either by belching or farting, or through absorption into the bloodstream – that total gas content usually never amounts to more than 7-14 tablespoons at a time. That’s small fries in the scheme of things.
While most healthy people are able to handle slight increases in gas with aplomb, people living with conditions like chronic bloating, irritable bowel syndrome – or honestly, any of us after a big Thanksgiving meal – may find ourselves unable to cope with the excess. That’s where a bit of movement can make a big difference.
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The other big reason to ‘fart walk’
Your fart walk may have an added bonus. Randomized controlled trials have consistently found that taking a 15-minute walk soon after meals blunts the blood sugar spike, more so than walking before meals. Going on a walk after eating consistently over months may improve your Hemoglobin A1c, a blood marker of prediabetes and diabetes.
I’m all for making walking after a meal a habit rather than a once-a-year thing. But there is a special joy in going for a walk in nature with family gathered over the holidays. So grab your favorite cousin and the family dog. Break bread and then (politely) break wind.
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What I want my patients to know
Occasional post-feast bloat is normal. But if you experience bloating with most meals for months on end, don’t brush that aside. The cause may be a wiring issue between the diaphragm and abdominal wall that pushes the belly out and creates the feeling of pressure. Doctors call this abdomino-phrenic dyssynergia, and it’s treatable. In postmenopausal women with new, persistent bloating, I always make sure we’ve ruled out ovarian cancer, although this is rare. Don’t hesitate to talk to your physician about what could be causing your symptoms and ways we can help address it.