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Intestinal Gas: One of Many Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptoms
from: Maxx Family LifeOnce of the characteristics of Irritable Bowel Syndrome is that the symptons vary from person to person, in both intensity and type. However, there are common symptoms that are usually present with all patients regardless of the mildness or aggravation of the condition.
Intestinal gas or bloating is one the many symptoms that will likley manifest if you have IBS. To better understand why, let's look at conditions closely associated with intestinal gas.
Belching
Belching or burping is the expelling of intestinal gas through the mouth, which is usually caused by a bloated or distended stomach due to swallowed air. This swallowed air will then cause abdominal discomfort, which is then relieved by belching. Most patients with IBS experience abdominal bloating which causes the aggravation of the condition by creating stress from a painful stomach.
Aerophagia, on the other hand, is the excessive intake of air through rapid gulping of water or food and frequent consumption of carbonated beverages.
Belching is used for relief when an individual is bloated. However, there are many possibilities as to what causes the real illness concerning the intestine. If belching proves to be unhelpful, then this is a sure sign something is likely wrong in the intestinal tract. Excessive belching alone won't help determine the presence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome since it's usually associated with other kinds of abdominal disorders.
Bloating
While there may be some significant similarities between bloating and distention, you should be aware that they're two different conditions.
Bloating is the subjective feeling the stomach is much larger than normal. Distention, however, is the actual experience of actual enlargement of the abdomen. Both are closely related to any form of abdominal discomfort. It' true, however, that in many cases of distention, bloating does occur.
There are three ways distention may arise: an increase in abdominal tissue, air and fluid inside the abdominal tract. There are various diseases though that will trigger any of these three.
Flatulence
Farting or flatulence is gas passing through the anus. This gas concerned here only has two sources: one is from the intestinal bacteria that thrive in the colon and the other is swallowed air. The latter, however, rarely causes flatulence.
Intestinal bacteria produces gas after you've digested food (specifically the polysaccharides and sugars) that wasn't properly digested in the small intestine. The three most commonly maldigested sugars are sorbitol (common sweetener for low calorie foods), lactose (sugar found in milk which itself is considered a problematic food among IBS sufferers) and fructose (sugar from fruits used as sweetener for drinks and candies).
Intermittent Abdominal Distention and Bloating
Apart from the bacteria that causes the production of intestinal gas, excessive and regularly-occurring bloating and distention can also be caused by physical obstruction.
Blockages in the intestinal tract can appear virtually from the rectum to the stomach which could be due to scarring of the pylorus which can obstruct the complete emptying of the small intestine as the digested food passes through to the colon, which results in distention.
It could also be due to functional distraction, which is the main reason IBS occurs, due to the abnormality in the coordination of the intestinal muscles which causes further pain in the abdomen.
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