GAS CONTROL ANALYSIS

Never mind that it’s a universal problem.”We all pass gas, even people who don’t admit to it,” says Lawrence Kosinski, MD, a gastroenterologist in Chicago and a spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association.

The first thing you have to decide before getting control of your gas problem is whether it’s an “inside” problem or an “outside” problem.

“Is the gas coming from outside, because you are swallowing too much air?” he asks. Or do you have a nervous habit of continual swallowing, maybe due to loose dentures? Kosinski says, people who are overly stressed sometimes swallow too much air, and that air makes its way down the entire gastrointestinal tract, gassing up your lower half. Smokers tend to swallow more air, too.

Or is your painful gas mainly an inside job, thanks to what you eat – or even chew, including gum?

Either way, you can get control.

To read an anecdote related to this problem, see the article below: