Where does stomach rumbling come from and when is it dangerous?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Painful cramps are a sure sign that you need to see a doctor.

Where does the rumbling in the stomach come from?

The stomach and intestines are hollow organs, the walls of which are composed of smooth muscles. Thanks to the latter, the body digests food qualitatively.

Think of how you knead the dough while kneading to give it a smooth texture. Roughly the same process occurs in the gastrointestinal tract. The muscles contract, squeeze the contents of the stomach and intestines, grind and mix it, hold it in one place and force it to move faster to the anus in another. This process is called Peristalsis / U. S. peristalsis. National Library of Medicine.

In addition, various liquids and gases are released during the digestion process. And sometimes just a little muscle contraction is enough for this cocktail to make a gurgling sound. Sometimes these sounds are called borborigmas.

Here are the cases in which hums most often.

1. You just ate

If you are healthy and well fed, your stomach grumbles. Absolutely right.

Jay W. Marks MD, gastroenterologist, in a commentary for MedicineNet.

Since food, liquids and gases are most often present in the intestines after a meal, rumbling is especially unavoidable during this time.

True, the food distributed along the intestinal walls serves as a kind of soundproofing pad. Therefore, the Borborigmas are not very audible outside. There are exceptions, though.

2. You drank a lot of fluids on an empty stomach

Its movement along the gastrointestinal tract can be accompanied by a characteristic gurgling. Especially if the drink was carbonated Gas and gas pains / Mayo Clinic, that is, it increased the amount of gas in the intestines.

3. You are hungry

This is another common reason for rumbling.

Mark A. W. Andrews Assistant Professor of Physiology, in a commentary to Scientific American.

Although the speed and strength of peristalsis usually increases in the presence of food, the activity of the walls of the stomach and intestines increases even if you have not eaten for about two hours.

Since there is no food in the intestines to muffle sounds, the rumbling sounds especially loud in such cases. Either dying down, then increasing, this lasts an average of 10–20 minutes. And then it will repeat every hour or two until you finally eat.

4. You have problems with your microbiome

That is, with bacteria inhabiting the intestines. Sometimes it happens that the number of microbes increases dramatically, and they all together produce an abnormally large amount of gas.

Jay W. Marks MD, gastroenterologist, in a commentary for MedicineNet.

A large volume of gas and more active contractions of the intestinal muscles caused by gas pressure on its walls lead to a regular loud rumbling in the stomach.

This condition is called Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) / Mayo Clinic. Possible causes include diabetes, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, and other conditions and diseases that can slow down the movement of food through the gastrointestinal tract.

5. You have eaten something that causes the amount of gas in your intestines to increase

The more gas, the higher the risk of rumbling. Here are a few products that Gas and gas pains / Mayo Clinic can cause:

• Legumes: beans, peas, lentils.
• Vegetables and fruits high in fiber: cabbage (white cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Beijing, cauliflower), carrots, apples, apricots, prunes.
• Fiber based food supplements.
• Foods with artificial sweeteners. Look for aspartame, xylitol, sorbitol.

In addition, there are foods that indirectly affect the gas content in the intestines. These are, for example, gum and lozenges: when you chew and dissolve them, you swallow excess air. The same effect is given by cocktails, soft drinks, juices that you drink through a straw.

6. You have an overly active gut

This means that its walls are shrinking too quickly and strongly. Food, liquids and gases move through the overactive gastrointestinal tract in jerks, and this movement is often accompanied by a sharp and loud rumbling.

Such an increase in intestinal activity occurs Abdominal sounds / U. S. National Library of Medicine, for example, for diarrhea. But it may not have any obvious reasons.

7. You may have polyps or a tumor

Abdominal sounds / U. S. National Library of Medicine even if there is something in the intestines that interferes with the passage of food. It can be a polyp (cell growth on the intestinal wall), adhesion-scar, diverticula, tumor.

In order to push food through the narrowed intestinal lumen, the smooth muscles begin to contract more strongly. And this leads to a loud rumbling. Borborigma caused by this cause is accompanied by painful abdominal cramps.

If the obstacle is not removed, the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract will eventually get tired and stop working. The cramping and rumbling will disappear, but food, gas, and fluid will continue to accumulate in the intestines until it becomes obstructed. So there is a deadly intestinal obstruction.

8. Or maybe it's your personality

The British scientific journal The BMJ describes Abhishek Sharma, Kieran Moriarty, Hugh Burnett, Marius Paraoan, David Thompson. Intractable positional borborygmi - an unusual cause diagnosed by barium contrast study / BMJ Case Reports one curious case.

A 48-year-old woman has long complained of a violent rumbling in her stomach that literally ruined her personal and social life. The borborygmas were worse after eating and hardly stopped when the patient was standing. And only if the woman held her breath or pressed her left hypochondrium with her hand, the rumbling subsided. Also, the intestines did not make sounds when lying down.

Trying to determine the cause of the obsessive rumbling, doctors conducted a lot of examinations. Gastroscopy, colonoscopy, CT of the abdominal cavity, laparoscopy, biopsy of various parts of the intestine, examination of the transit of the small intestine - everything showed that the patient was completely healthy, and her gastrointestinal tract did not have the slightest deviation from the norm. It was possible to find out what was happening only after the woman was offered food with barium. Then, using X-rays with contrast, the doctors tracked how the food was moving through the intestines.

One of the lower ribs on the left was to blame. It deviated slightly and squeezed the gastrointestinal tract, causing increased activity of the intestinal muscles. When the woman pressed her hand to the left hypochondrium. changing the position of this bone, or holding her breath (that is, slightly changing the position of the diaphragm), the pressure on the intestines decreased and the sounds disappeared.

How that story ended is not entirely clear. It is known that doctors suggested that the patient wear a corset that would provide a "soundless" position of the ribs, but this did not help. At this point, the presentation of the medical case ends.

But one simple conclusion can be drawn from it. Sometimes obsessive rumbling in the stomach is not at all a sign of hunger or medical problems, but simply an individual characteristic.

When to see a doctor urgently

Most often, Borborigmas are harmless and only cause psychological suffering. But there are symptoms of Abdominal sounds / U. S. National Library of Medicine, when you need to complain about a rumbling to a therapist or gastroenterologist. Here they are:

• You notice streaks of blood in your stool.
• Rumbling is accompanied by painful abdominal cramps.
• In addition to borborigms, nausea and vomiting are present.
• The stomach is actively rumble for several hours in a row, and all this time you continue to have constipation or diarrhea.

It is also worth talking to your doctor if irritating sounds come from the intestines day after day. In this case, it is necessary to exclude possible diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and metabolism.

What to do to keep your stomach from rumbling

If there are no dangerous signs, and only hums from time to time, try to get rid of borborigms at home.

• Eliminate gas-producing foods.
• Try to eat slowly, avoid gum and carbonated drinks to avoid swallowing excess gas.
• Eat 5-6 times during the day in fractional meals.
• Take a teaspoon of olive, sunflower, or flaxseed oil daily. American gastroenterologist Jay W. Marks explains Why Does Your Stomach Growl? / MedicineNet: Fatty acids released by the digestion of oil in the intestines can reduce the activity and strength of muscle contractions. So, to make the sounds of the working gastrointestinal tract less pronounced.