Flatulence is very common in childhood and the elderly, but middle-aged people often suffer from excess gas accumulation in the intestines. Treatment and diets do not always help, moreover, it is not always possible to establish the cause of this phenomenon. In these cases, it is worth considering the possibility of the psychosomatic nature of excess intestinal gas formation.
General information
Flatulence in medicine is called bloating caused by a large accumulation of digestive gases. In all healthy adults, up to 0.5 liters of gas is formed in the intestines and painlessly removed per day. We do not feel this, it is a normal physiological process. If the accumulation of gas exceeds 3 liters, they speak of flatulence. The intestinal gases contain substances that are released during the metabolic process: nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, oxygen and hydrogen, as well as a certain amount of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
Filling the intestines with digestive gas causes characteristic symptoms: the abdomen twists, swells, an unpleasant belching appears, hiccups may begin, there is a feeling of fullness in the abdomen, there may be quite severe pains that recede immediately after a portion of gas passes through the natural (anal) opening.
The very process of gas evacuation, which is popularly called a coarse word, has a harmonious Latin name "flatus". And the sound that is generated is called sphincteral resonance.
Often, flatulence is a sign of a malfunction of the gastrointestinal tract. It is one of the symptoms of dysbiosis, pancreatitis, enterocolitis. The stomach can puff up in case of acute intestinal infection, helminthic invasions, as well as in violation of intestinal patency. If a person eats hastily, swallows a lot of air with food, he also often develops flatulence.
If no pathology is found, doctors recommend looking for the cause of the discomfort in the diet: avoiding foods high in carbohydrates, legumes, cabbage and apples, carbonated drinks, black bread, beer and kvass, as well as dairy products if there is lactose intolerance.
Treatment usually consists of eliminating the cause of the flatulence. If the matter is in worms, they are treated with anthelmintic drugs, with dysbiosis, probiotics are prescribed, etc.
When is the problem psychosomatic?
It is possible to suspect the psychosomatic nature of flatulence when there are no objective reasons for increased gas production: the examination does not reveal gastrointestinal pathologies, there are no helminthic invasions, dysbiosis, human nutrition does not contain products that promote fermentation and gas formation in the intestine. At the same time, the doctors to whom the patient turns usually say that “stress” is to blame for everything. The cause of these stresses will help psychosomatics find.
You should also pay attention to situations when the prescribed treatment does not bring relief, gas formation decreases slightly or does not decrease at all. In this case, the cause of the disease can also be psychogenic.
If flatulence attacks appear with an enviable regularity, it is also worth thinking about what emotional and psychological reasons may cause it.
Psychosomatic causes
Psychosomatics considers a symptom or disease in a complex: physiology, anatomy and psychology. So it is possible to establish which stresses and emotions can affect the likelihood of developing a particular ailment.
From a psychosomatic point of view, as well as from a physiological point of view, the intestine performs two important functions: it participates in the digestion of food and the absorption of nutrients. With regard to metaphysics, food should be understood as information that a person receives from the outside. Assimilation in this case means the acceptance of certain information from the outside.
Informational "food" is events, impressions, problems that a person faces. If he easily accepts information, processes it in a timely manner, does not hide from problems, gladly accepts new ideas and trends, criticism and advice, learns from all this something useful for himself, then he usually does not have any problems with his intestines.
In case of violation of the acceptance and processing of external information, a person experiences stress, unwillingness to accept something, unwillingness to "digest" (he says so - "I do not digest something or someone"), the body responds rather quickly and creates a real problem with digestion in particular, excess production of digestive gas.
At the heart of flatulence, according to researchers in the field of psychosomatics, is fear, the fear of a person to face reality and problems. Stress hormones, which are produced every time he consciously or unconsciously refuses a useful offer, practical advice or a solution to a painful problem, cause metabolic disorders at the cellular level, as a result, intestinal motility is disturbed, and spasm appears. These sensations are very accurately described in literature and folklore: the one who is afraid of something in a stressful situation says that "everything inside is shrinking from fear." This is not just a pretty comparison - it really is.
The world communicates with us through certain events, people. Even the phrase of strangers passing by you accidentally heard at a bus stop or in a store can be a clue just for you. People who often suffer from flatulence tend to be rigid and conservative. They do not want to accept and "digest" everything new (that is why the disease is so widespread among the elderly, it is almost impossible to convince them).
The problem remains unresolved, information and tips are not accepted, the body has no choice but to draw the attention of a person (its conscious part) to this with acute pain.
Psychoanalysts pay attention to the following prerequisites for the development of chronic flatulence:
- constant scrolling in the head of the details of negative experience, unpleasant events, the mental existence of a person in the past, and not in the present;
- discomfort due to the inability or unwillingness to complete some business, assignment, work, task;
- a person has accumulated a lot of ideas, but he cannot realize them, he is afraid or not sure that his ideas will be successful (they literally burst him from the inside);
- a person excessively feels his own importance, he is bursting with contentment and pride in himself.
Another category of flatulence sufferers are people who are accustomed to experiencing fear of society before accepting or rejecting it. They are ideal members of the crowd, ready to agree and go where everyone else goes. The main thing is not to stand out, not to lose reputation, not to become the subject of someone else's condemnation.
In children
Psychotherapists believe that those who “eat everything” are also susceptible to increased intestinal gas formation, that is, people who accept from the world absolutely everything that comes: both necessary and unnecessary, and useful and harmful. This is very often done by adolescents and children of middle school age. They are not too picky about dating, music, movies, they absorb everything. The children's mechanism of flatulence usually differs from that of an adult: gas formation develops because the intestines are overloaded, there is too much information, it becomes impossible to digest and assimilate everything, and the child does not have the necessary life experience, knowledge, and readiness for this.
Please note that in infants, the so-called infant colic, for which medicine still cannot find a reasonable explanation, begins at birth and ends at 3-4 months. It is by this age that the first stage of adaptation, the most saturated with information, ends. After birth, such an abundance of sounds, images, tactile sensations falls on the baby that he simply cannot process and digest everything that he feels and perceives. When the baby gets used to this world, begins to recognize his mother, smiles for the first time, gets used to food, daily routine, light and sounds, colic usually disappears without a trace. Therefore, infant colic can be considered the most striking example of psychosomatic flatulence.
Schoolchildren often have a puffy belly before important events, such as competitions or exams. This is a typical psychosomatic gas formation, which is caused by the fear of not coping, not winning, and the child refuses to accept and "digest" the very idea of failure or poor assessment. Children who are able to accept the idea of both their own victory and the possibility of failure usually do not suffer from stomach pains before decisive events.
Treatment
An adult needs to think well and understand that not all events are sweet, like food - they can be sour, bitter, and even poisonous. You try to eat only what you love, for example, only cakes. The diet must be balanced. An informational diet also requires different "food": start taking criticism more calmly and more constructively, taking an interest in others' suggestions and novelties.
It is important to teach a child to accept a limited amount of information, not overload oneself, choose several priority areas and receive new information in them.
Separately, you need to work with fears in both children and adults. Psychosomatic abdominal pains will recede if a person is confident in himself, in his strength, in his ability to solve all problems coming from outside.
For information on what kind of gymnastics will help with flatulence, see the next video.
