Having horrible gas isn’t something you generally like to share with the world. Unless you’re within blasting distance of a sibling. But everybody suffers from it. Or almost everybody, as a new survey of citizens from the US, the UK, and Mexico has found that a whopping 81.3% of the adult population deals with “breaking wind” uncomfortably within a 24-hour period. And all we can say to that is: we smell your painOpens in a new tab.
GizmodoOpens in a new tab picked up on the survey, conducted by scientists from the Rome Foundation Research InstituteOpens in a new tab in the US in collaboration with Danone Nutricia Research in France. The researchers presented their study at a recent United European Gastroenterology (UEG) conference in Vienna, Australia. And yes, the UEG focuses onOpens in a new tab exactly what you think it does.
According to the survey, eight out of every 10 adults from the participating countries reported flatulence within a 24-hour period. As EurekaAlert!Opens in a new tab notes, respondents also reported other “gas-related intestinal symptoms,” including things like stomach rumbling, which affected 60.5% of adults, bad breath (48.1%), belching (58%), and bloating/abdominal pressure (38.5%).
Aqua MechanicalOpens in a new tab
On average, the survey found that three different gas symptoms plagued each respondent within the previous 24 hours. And only 11.1% of the 6,000 people who participated in the survey reported having no gas symptoms whatsoever. Younger adults, encompassing the 18-34 and 35-49 age ranges, reported the highest overall burden of symptoms; earning, on average, the highest Intestinal Gas Questionnaires (or IGQ) score.
Despite the hilarity of how pervasive toots and the byproducts of musical fruits are, respondents universally associated gas-related issues with mental ones. Higher IGQ scores correlated with lower quality of life and issues like stress and depressionOpens in a new tab. Interestingly, however, lower IGQ scores did not correlate with weight or BMI. Although exercise did have a “modest” negative association. (Which maybe means if you’re gassy, try doing some yoga? With a sibling, preferably.)
“I think the most remarkable and surprising finding in our study is that almost all adults in the general population experience some daily gas-related symptoms,” lead author of the study, Professor Olafur PalssonOpens in a new tab from the University of North Carolina, said in his presentation.
