How Much Farting Is Considered Too Much?

Whether it happens on your postprandial fart walk, right in the middle of yoga class or while you’re sleeping, everyone — even the poshest among us — farts.

According to Dr. Satish Rao, professor of Medicine at Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia, the average person farts seven to 24 times a day.

“It’s a normal physiological phenomenon,” he said, explaining flatulence as the byproduct of fermentation in the colon.

That fermentation creates gas, which is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen and more. One surprisingly smelly fact is that more than 99% of farts are odorless, but a foul smell comes from trace sulfur compounds. Unfortunately, our noses are extremely good at detecting sulfur, even in microscopic amounts.

Once that gas is formed, Rao said there are only two options for it to escape. “Some gas will move from the lining of the colon to the bloodstream, then get exhaled by the breath,” he said. “But the other pathway out is the fart. The gas will find its way out eventually, and if you produce a lot of gas too quickly, it won’t be absorbed, but will automatically push its way out through the anus.”

In general, a few farts a day are nothing to worry about, said Dr. Cait Welsh, postdoctoral researcher from Monash University and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. “Most of the time, the release of gas is a healthy sign that digestion and gut microbiota are happy and functioning well.”

While you produce gas all day long, you’re more likely to let ’em rip during sleep, when your anal sphincter relaxes and gas escapes more easily.

It might be hard to think of King Charles or the Pope as real toot machines, but Rao is positive that anyone who eats food, especially carbohydrates, is going to fart at least some time during each day. And some of us are certainly more, um, productive than others, said Dr. Folasade P. May, associate professor of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles.

“People who chew a lot of gum, drink carbonated drinks or eat too quickly may swallow more air, for example, which can cause flatulence,” she said. “Other people have gut bacteria that produce more gas. Diet, how fast you digest, and medications can also change how much gas you make and pass.”

If you’re thinking that President Donald Trump is making you fart more, you might be right. (Fun fact: An old Australian slang word for a fart is a “trump.”) Stress or anxiety, about the current political climate or matters closer to home, can have an impact on how much someone farts, May said.

“Especially in people with irritable bowel syndrome or other functional gut disorders, stress can change how fast we eat and digest, making flatulence seem worse,” May explained.

Dr. Ed Giles, a pediatric gastroenterologist and associate professor of pediatrics at Monash University, noted that the most well-known foods to cause gas are the so-called FODMAP foods, an acronym for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols.

The key term for these carbohydrates, Giles said, is “fermentable.” That means the foods have an ability to produce gas. “They feed the bacteria in the gut and the bacteria produce the gas, including methane, which smells,” he said.

May outlined some of the worst FODMAP culprits: beans, lentils, onions, garlic, crucifers like broccoli and cabbage, and some whole grains and fruits. “If you’re lactose intolerant, consuming dairy can also increase gas production,” she said.

Gas is concerning when it’s painful, disruptive or different from your normal pattern. If you’re regularly releasing gas more than 23 or 24 times a day and it’s causing problems, it’s worth investigating. However, some people may experience more flatulence than that and it’s still considered normal; it all depends on your diet and your personal health factors.

“The most important thing is that if excessive flatulence is persistent or accompanied by pain, weight loss, diarrhea or blood in the stool, it’s worth consulting a clinician for evaluation,” May said. “If gas is persistent or accompanied by these other warning signs, a clinician can help sort out causes.”

Some of the conditions a health care professional will want to rule out include celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, lactose or other food intolerances, pancreatic enzyme insufficiency and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Connective tissue disorders like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other diseases like multiple sclerosis also come with increased flatulence.

You might be asked to keep a food journal and, yes, even count the number of farts you produce each day. Luckily, there are now several apps to help you do this, including Gaslog, FlareCare, Gutly and Vitalis. These apps aren’t medical diagnostic tools, but might help you spot patterns in how your diet and lifestyle contribute to gas symptoms.

And just keep in mind that everyone — every single one of us — has experienced an ill-timed fart, and lived to tell the tale. So unless your gas comes with pain or surprises, you’re probably just doing what everyone else is doing, too.