Flatulence

[Molly Kaplan]

Hello,
I'm a sprout of a nineteen year old who has recently been plagued with the most pernicious flatulence of her life. She became vegan in the last six months, but the farting began about three weeks ago. They are silent and painless little bursts of air with the most foul smell. I've able to clear entire rooms.
I first noticed the gas (although this is not necessarily the cause) after eating a fruit kanten (the vegan form of jello made with an agar) for desert 5 days in a row. True, I do eat a considerable amount of beans, but I notice the gas even when I don't eat beans. The bursts of gas can run almost uninterrupted for hours in a day and are killing my social life.
I was curious about a possible cause and very much want to know how to kill the bacteria that are probably causing these releases in a natural way without taking any medication. Would a day of fasting help? A week of no beans?
I should also say that three years ago I had IBS, and although I haven't had a problem with it since, I was wondering if there could a connection.
Thanks so much.

-Molly

[Uncle BEANO]

Damn, sorry dude, they really need to supply some sort of fart cushion in a public bathroom for people in your situation!
Sorry bout your luck!
Beano

[King Flatulence]

hahahaha DUDE you've got problems! The Rock has one word for ya! BEANO

[B]

All of these comments are very familiar to me.  I have had gas for at least twenty years now.  I didn't realize how bad of a problem it is untill a few months ago.  The gas does not cause pain, however it does cause a very foul odor.  Most of the time, it is not like a "fart" but seems to leak from my pours.  This sounds crazy and might be.  It is very embarrassing and I have not been able to talk about it with anyone.  It certainly is not a secret as I have overheard coworkers talking about it.  Very embarrassing.  I thought it might be my liver, but my liver is OK according to my doctor.  I drink a lot of beer and thought that was the cause.  I have a lot of friends who drink a lot of beer and do not have this problem, but the month of August I did not drink beer or any other alcohol.  This helped a little.  My whole diet contains cheese.  I eat pizzas, lasagne, tacos, nachoes, ect.  My next step is cut out all cheese.  I do not know what foods I should try.  I am desparate.  I actually fear for my job.  The head of the company, the little *****, actually bought a gas mask from one of those military magazines.  Again very embarrassing.

[monica]

Not one of you mentioned Celiac Disease to my surprise! I am not formally diagnosed yet but am pretty sure I have it, and from the sound of it you all probably have a good chance of having it too. Try staying away from anything containing wheat or gluten (barley, rye, oats). Usually rice and corn is o.k. because they contain very little gluten. You can eat other grains such as quinoa and soy flour to my understanding, and those things usually do alright by me. You need to really watch everything you eat because everything in the stores prepackaged usually has some kind of wheat derivative or gluten in it like malt flavoring or modified food starch. Hint: stay away from sneaky things like distilled white vinegar, soy sauce (La Choy o.k.) vanilla extract containing alcohol, and beer (hard cider o.k.). Very tricky!

I got all the above symptoms including leaking feces (!) while pregnant with my third child and I thought it was pregnancy related and would go away, but things just got worse and I finally made the connection that when I ate whole wheat, three hours later I would get uncontrollable gas, and at the same time, after nursing, baby would start having colic. When I refrained from whole wheat I had no gas and baby had no colic. I got by on white flour for awhile, but eventually have had to cut out all sources of gluten in my diet. Occasionally it's extremely difficult like when you're traveling or at a social function to find something to eat, so I take something called Zymex made by Standard Process which I think you can only get through an alternative doctor (they have a website) which is an intestine strengthener, and this has never failed to keep me from getting gas if I take it before eating that pizza or whatever. Of course if I do have Celiac Disease, I probably shouldn't be doing even that.

There are tests that can be done to determine whether or not you have Celiac Disease. If so it's terribly important that you stay away from gluten because further destruction of your intestines can cause malabsorption and lead to all kinds of disastrous consequences. I hope this helps at least some of you people, although I wouldn't wish CD on anybody!

[Sam]

I have a gas problem also. Many replies have helped and I think I should see a doctor. I have severe stomach cramps in the mornings. No control of farts, I think this behaviour has occured especially since I started exercising - I think I swallow air when running.

[h.h]

Hi.

From my experience, I found that drinking alot of water usually help with a gas attack.  It doesn't stop the problem fully, but it eases the situation and makes it a lot easier to control (Another advantage of drinking water is it takes out the foul smell when you have gas)

Another thing that I noticed, when ever you have a gas attack, try as hard as you can to think of something else.  To fully focus all your senses on that distraction.  For example, reading a book and fully concentrating on its contents, would make me forget about the gas, and my digestive system would go back to normal (However, this didn't work so well for me in a crowded situation)  

Finally, I read somewhere that the spice cumin is suppose to be great in helping with gas.  I did not have a chance to try it  yet, but it could possibly work.

I wish you the best of luck