Gas and gas pains[flatulence or farts]

Gas and gas pains can strike at the worst possible moment — during an important meeting or on a crowded elevator. Although passing intestinal gas (flatus) usually isn't serious, it can be embarrassing.

Anything that causes intestinal gas or is associated with constipation or diarrhea can lead to gas pains. These pains generally occur when gas builds up in your intestines, and you're not able to expel it. Most people pass gas at least 10 times a day.

The good news is that although you can't stop gas and gas pains, a few simple measures can help reduce the amount of gas you produce and relieve your discomfort and embarrassment.

Symptoms;

For most people, the signs and symptoms of gas and gas pain are all too obvious. They include:

• Voluntary or involuntary passing of gas, either as belches or as flatus

• Sharp, jabbing pains or cramps in your abdomen. These pains may occur anywhere in your abdomen and can change locations quickly and get better quickly.

• A 'knotted' feeling in your abdomen.

• Swelling and tightness in your abdomen (bloating)

• .Sometimes, gas pains may be constant or so intense that it feels like something is seriously wrong.

Gas can sometimes be mistaken for;

• Heart disease

• Gallstones

• Appendicitis

Causes;

High-fiber foods that commonly cause gas and gas pains include:Gas forms when bacteria in your colon ferment carbohydrates that aren't digested in your small intestine. Unfortunately, healthy, high-fiber foods are often the worst offenders. Fiber has many health benefits, including keeping your digestive tract in good working order and regulating blood sugar and cholesterol levels. But fiber can also lead to the formation of gas.

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Whole grains
• Beans and peas (legumes)

Fiber supplements containing psyllium, such as Metamucil, may cause such problems, especially if added to your diet too quickly. Carbonated beverages, such as soda and beer, also cause gas.

Other causes of excess gas include:

• Swallowed air. You swallow air every time you eat or drink. You may also swallow air when you're nervous, eat too fast, chew gum, suck on candies or drink through a straw. Some of that air finds its way into your lower digestive tract.

• Another health condition. Excess gas may be a symptom of a more serious chronic condition. Examples include diverticulitis or an inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Excess gas and bloating may also be a symptom of bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine from conditions such as diabetes.

• Food intolerances. If your gas and bloating occur mainly after eating dairy products, it may be because your body isn't able to break down the sugar (lactose) in dairy foods. Other food intolerances, especially to gluten — a protein found in wheat and some other grains — also can result in excess gas, diarrhea and even weight loss.
• Artificial additives. It's also possible that your system can't tolerate artificial sweeteners, such as sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol, found in some sugar-free foods, gums and candies. Many healthy people develop gas and diarrhea when they consume these sweeteners.

                

Risk factors:

• You're more likely to have problems with gas if you:
  • Are lactose or gluten intolerant
  • Eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes
  • Drink carbonated beverages
  • Have a chronic intestinal condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel dise

Tests and diagnosis:

During the physical exam, your doctor may check your abdomen to see if it's distended and listen for a hollow sound while gently tapping your abdomen. A hollow sound usually indicates the presence of excess gas.

Treatments and drugs:

If your gas pains are caused by another health problem, treating the underlying condition may offer relief. Otherwise, bothersome gas is generally treated with dietary measures, lifestyle modifications or over-the-counter medications. Although the solution isn't the same for everyone, with a little trial and error, most people are able to find some relief.

Diet

The following dietary changes may help reduce the amount of gas your body produces or help gas move more quickly through your system:

                                 

• Try to identify and avoid the foods that affect you the most.

Foods that cause gas problems for many people include beans, onions, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, artichokes, asparagus, pears, apples, peaches, prunes, sugar-free candies and chewing gum, whole-wheat bread, bran cereals or muffins, milk, cream, ice cream, ice milk, and beer, sodas and other carbonated beverages.

• Try cutting back on fried and fatty foods. 

Often, bloating results from eating fatty foods. Fat delays stomach emptying and can increase the sensation of fullness.

• Temporarily cut back on high-fiber food

 Add them back gradually over several weeks. For most people, it takes about three weeks for your body to get used to extra fiber. But, some people never adapt.

• Go easy on fiber supplements. 

Try cutting back on the amount you take and build up your intake gradually. If your symptoms remain, you might try a different type of fiber supplement. Be sure to take fiber supplements with a glass of water and drink plenty of liquids throughout the day.

• Reduce your use of dairy products.
  Consuming small amounts of milk products at one time or consuming them with other foods also may make them easier to digest. In some cases, however, you may need to eliminate dairy foods completely.

 Try using low-lactose dairy foods, such as yogurt, instead of milk. Or try using products that help digest lactose, such as Lactaid or Dairy Ease.

Over-the-counter remedies

Some products may help, but they aren't always effective. Consider trying:

• Beano. Add Beano to beans and vegetables to help reduce the amount of gas they produce. For Beano to be effective, you need to take it with your first bite of food. It works best when there's only a little gas in your intestines.

• Lactase supplements. Supplements of the enzyme lactase (Lactaid, Dairy-Ease), which helps you digest lactose, may help if you are lactose intolerant. You might also try dairy products that are lactose-free or have reduced lactose.

• Simethicone. Over-the-counter products that contain simethicone (Gas-X, Gelusil, Mylanta, Mylicon) help break up the bubbles in gas. Although these products are widely used, they haven't been proved effective for gas and gas pain.

• Activated charcoal. Charcoal tablets (CharcoCaps, Charcoal Plus, others) taken before and after a meal also may help. Like simethicone, there's no definitive evidence that charcoal relieves gas. In addition, charcoal may stain the inside of your mouth and your clothing if the tablets get on your clothes.

Lifestyle and home remedies:

• Eat slowly, chew your food thoroughly and don't gulp. If you have a hard time slowing down, put down your fork between each bite.

• Avoid chewing gum, sucking on hard candies and drinking through a straw. These activities can cause you to swallow more air.

• Check your dentures. Poorly fitting dentures can cause you to swallow excess air when you eat and drink.

• Don't smoke. Cigarette smoking can increase the amount of air you swallow.

• Exercise. Physical activity may help move gas through the digestive tract.

Natural way to stop farts:

   

                     

Causes Of Snoring And How To Treat It....

Snoring is the hoarse or harsh sound that occurs when your breathing is partially obstructed in some way while you're sleeping. Sometimes snoring may indicate a serious health condition.

As many as half of adults snore sometimes. Snoring occurs when air flows past relaxed tissues in your throat, causing the tissues to vibrate as you breathe, which creates those irritating sounds.

Lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, avoiding alcohol close to bedtime or sleeping on your side, can help stop snoring.

In addition, medical devices and surgery are available that may reduce disruptive snoring. However, these aren't suitable or necessary for everyone who snores. 

 

Symptoms:

Depending on the cause of your snoring, your symptoms may include:

• Noise during sleep
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Difficulty concentrating
• Sore throat
• Restless sleep
• Gasping or choking at night
• High blood pressure
• Chest pain at night

Causes;

Many factors, such as the anatomy of your mouth and sinuses, alcohol consumption, allergies, a cold, and your weight, can lead to snoring.

When you doze off and progress from a light sleep to a deep sleep, the muscles in the roof of your mouth (soft palate), tongue and throat relax. The tissues in your throat can relax enough that they partially block your airway and vibrate. And, the more narrowed your airway, the more forceful the airflow becomes. This causes tissue vibration to increase, which causes your snoring to grow louder.

The following conditions can affect the airway and cause snoring:

Your mouth anatomy.

 Having a low, thick soft palate can narrow your airway. People who are overweight may have extra tissues in the back of their throat that may narrow their airways. Likewise, if the triangular piece of tissue hanging from the soft palate (uvula) is elongated, airflow can be obstructed and vibration increased.

Alcohol consumption.

 Snoring also can be brought on by consuming too much alcohol before bedtime. Alcohol relaxes throat muscles and decreases your natural defenses against airway obstruction.

Nasal problems.

 Chronic nasal congestion or a crooked partition between your nostrils (deviated nasal septum) may contribute to your snoring.

Sleep apnea.

 
 Snoring also may be associated with obstructive sleep apnea. In this serious condition, your throat tissues partially or completely block your airway, preventing you from breathing.

Sleep apnea often is characterized by loud snoring followed by periods of silence when breathing stops or nearly stops. Eventually, this reduction or pause in breathing may signal you to wake up, and you may awaken with a loud snort or gasping sound. You may sleep lightly due to disrupted sleep. This pattern of breathing pauses may be repeated many times during the night.

People with sleep apnea usually experience periods when breathing slows or stops at least five times during every hour of sleep.

Risk factors;

Risk factors that may contribute to snoring include:

• Being a man. Men are more likely to snore or have sleep apnea than are women.

• Being overweight. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to snore or have obstructive sleep apnea.

• Having a narrow airway. Some people may have a long soft palate, or large tonsils or adenoids, which can narrow the airway and cause snoring.

• Drinking alcohol. Alcohol relaxes your throat muscles, increasing the risk of snoring.

• Having nasal problems. If you have a structural defect in your airway, such as a deviated septum, or your nose is chronically congested, your risk of snoring is greater.

• Having a family history of snoring or obstructive sleep apnea.

 

Complications;

Habitual snoring may be more than just a nuisance. Depending on the cause of your snoring, it may result in:

• Daytime sleepiness
• Frequent frustration or anger
• Difficulty concentrating
• A greater risk of high blood pressure, heart conditions and stroke
• An increased risk of behavior problems, such as aggression or learning problems, in children with obstructive sleep apnea
• An increased risk of motor vehicle accidents due to lack of sleep 

To diagnose your condition,

 your doctor will review your signs and symptoms, and your medical history. Your doctor will also perform a physical examination.

Your doctor may ask your partner some questions about when and how you snore to help assess the severity of the problem. If your child snores, you'll be asked about the severity of your child's snoring.

Imaging

• Your doctor may request an imaging test, such as an X-ray, a computerized tomography scan or magnetic resonance imaging, to check the structure of your airway for problems, such as a deviated septum.

Sleep study

• Depending on the severity of your snoring and other symptoms, your doctor may want to conduct a sleep study. Often, sleep studies may be done at home. However, depending upon your other medical problems and other sleep symptoms, you may need to stay overnight at a sleep center to undergo an in-depth analysis of your sleep habits by a team of specialists during a sleep study, called polysomnography.

• In polysomnography, you're connected to many devices and observed overnight. During the sleep study, your brain waves, blood oxygen level, heart rate and breathing rate, sleep stages, and eye and leg movements will be recorded during your sleep.

When a home sleep study doesn't provide the needed information, polysomnography may be needed.

Lifestyle and home remedies

To prevent or quiet snoring, try these tips:

• If you're overweight, lose weight. People who are overweight may have extra tissues in the throat that contribute to snoring. Losing weight can help reduce snoring.

• Sleep on your side. Lying on your back allows your tongue to fall backward into your throat, narrowing your airway and partially obstructing airflow. Try sleeping on your side.

• Raise the head of your bed. Raising the head of your bed by about four inches may help.

• Nasal strips. Adhesive strips applied to your nose help many people increase the area of their nasal passage, enhancing their breathing. These strips aren't effective for people with sleep apnea, however. 

• Treat nasal congestion or obstruction. Having allergies or a deviated septum can limit airflow through your nose. This forces you to breathe through your mouth, increasing the likelihood of snoring.Don't use an oral or spray decongestant for more than three days in a row for acute congestion unless directed to do so by your doctor. Long-term use of these medications can have a rebound effect and make your congestion worse. Ask your doctor about a prescription steroid spray if you have chronic congestion. 

• To correct a structural defect in your airway, such as a deviated septum, you may need surgery.
  
  
• Limit or avoid alcohol and sedatives.  Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages at least two hours before bedtime, and let your doctor know about your snoring before taking sedatives. Sedatives and alcohol depress your central nervous system, causing excessive relaxation of muscles, including the tissues in your throat
  
  
  

Treatments and drugs;

To treat your condition, your doctor likely will first recommend lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, avoiding alcohol close to bedtime and changing sleeping positions.

 If lifestyle changes don't eliminate snoring, your doctor may suggest:

• Oral appliances.
  
  
    Oral appliances are form-fitting dental mouthpieces that help advance the position of your tongue and soft palate to keep your air passage open. 
  
  
• Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).
  
   This approach involves wearing a pressurized mask over your nose while you sleep. The mask is attached to a small pump that forces air through your airway, which keeps it open. CPAP (SEE-pap) eliminates snoring and treats sleep apnea.
  
  Although CPAP is the most reliable method of treating obstructive sleep apnea, and it's effective, some people find it uncomfortable or have trouble adjusting to the noise or feel of the machine. Your doctor may be able to make adjustments to the device if you're having trouble adjusting to the machine, such as adding a heated humidifier or nasal pillows, that might help make you more comfortable.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Palatal implants;In this procedure, known as the pillar procedure, doctors inject braided strands of polyester filament into your soft palate, which stiffens it and reduces snoring. Palatal implants don't have any known serious side effects; however, the benefits and safety of the procedure are still being studied.

• Traditional surgery. In a procedure called uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), you're given general anesthetics and your surgeon tightens and trims excess tissues from your throat — a type of face-lift for your throat. The risks of this procedure include bleeding, infection, pain and nasal congestion.

• Laser surgery. In laser-assisted uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (LAUPPP), an outpatient surgery for snoring, your doctor uses a small hand-held laser beam to shorten the soft palate and remove your uvula. Removing excess tissue enlarges your airway and reduces vibration. You may need more than one session to get your snoring under control.
  
  Laser surgery and palatal implants aren't generally recommended as treatment for sleep apnea, because they haven't been proved effective for sleep apnea. Possible risks from these procedures include pain, infection, bleeding and nasal congestion.
  
  
• Radiofrequency tissue ablation (somnoplasty). In this outpatient procedure, you'll be given local anesthetic. Doctors use a low-intensity radiofrequency signal to shrink tissue in the soft palate to help reduce snoring. The effectiveness of this newer procedure needs further study. Generally, this procedure is less painful than other types of snoring surgery.