I am a sporty, healthy woman of 74 years, 78 kilos, 1.68 meters. I suffer greatly from flatulence, luckily without smell. Of course I feel very embarrassed and hardly dare to get up in company. My GP has prescribed several drugs (Duspatal, Movicol) and I have tried Deflatine myself. None of that helped. He had my blood checked, also without result. He now says I have to go to an internist, but I don’t feel like it because I’m really dreading a bowel examination. Do you have another suggestion?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
I doubt whether a bowel examination will yield you so much. I don’t know what kind of examination your GP has in mind: does he have a special disease in mind? Flatulence can be caused by many things, such as swallowing air, taking in a lot of air with certain foods and drinks, fermenting sugars and starches in the gut, or not absorbing air in the gut. Much of the air in the gut is absorbed by the blood and exhaled through the lungs. How much air eventually makes it to the finish line to leave the body as wind can depend on all these aspects. Probably a little experimenting with diet will help better than examining the anatomy and function of the gut. You may need to talk to a dietitian about it.
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