Ever wondered how often you fart on an average day?
Scientists in the United States have been pondering the same and, for the first time, have been able to put a precise number on how often people pass wind using what they call “smart underwear.”
The fart-tracking garment, essentially a small device attached to regular underwear, uses a sensor to track precisely how often a person releases gas in a normal day.
Airing their findings this month, the team led by gut biologist Brantley Hall said they aimed to solve a problem that has occupied doctors for decades, namely that excessive gas formation in the digestive tract has been difficult to measure precisely.
Earlier studies on the frequency of flatulence often relied on self-reports and overlooked the possible silent majority of nocturnal farts.
The specially developed sensor tracks a person’s trouser coughs by measuring hydrogen, which is produced exclusively by gut bacteria.
It is considered a marker of microbiome activity, the team explains in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
The real purpose goes beyond mere curiosity.
Until now, it has been largely unclear how quickly gut bacteria respond to specific foods.
The smart underwear is intended to make these processes measurable in everyday life for the first time and provide new insights into the microbiome’s role in digestion.
So how many times a day do people fart?
The bottom line of the findings, based on 19 participants, is that healthy adults produce a daily average of 32 farts – or what the scientists refer to as “flatus events.”
This is roughly twice as many as previously assumed in scientific literature.
The range in the study was from four to 59 events daily.
”The temporal dynamics of gut microbial metabolism, including how quickly and variably microbes respond to dietary changes, remain largely invisible to current research methods,” the authors wrote.
To create a reliable data basis, the research team intends to launch what they call the “Human Flatus Atlas” project.
Hundreds of adults in the US are expected to take part to systematically record typical patterns of intestinal gas production using the special sensor.
Touting their smart underwear, the researchers praised its “high comfort” level and said that no other tracking alternative was available.
However, they have not held out any prospect of bringing the garment to market for people who want to track their own flatulence. – dpa
