There can be nothing as embarrassing as gas

Rumbles, grumbles, gurgles and farts. All you ever wanted to know about intestinal gas, but were too afraid to ask.

There can be nothing as embarrassing and painful to people with IBS as gas. It gurgles and squelches through the intestines during pauses in conversations, sometimes squeaking like a rusty door and sometimes roaring like an express train in a tunnel.

It can get trapped by spasms causing pain and such gross bloating and distension that women can look as if they’ve acquired a five month pregnancy within the space of half an hour. It can rise up in the mouth and be expelled with a cavernous belch but worst of all, it can escape downwards, either silent and deadly at five paces or with a distinctive sound that instantly identifies your shame. The amount of gas a ‘normal person passes can vary from as little as 200ml to as much as 2 litres a day, depending on what and how much a person eats, the type of bacteria in the colon, and the time it takes food to travel thorough the intestine. But where does all this gas come from?

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