Holding in farts
A man went to his girlfriend’s house to have dinner and meet her mother for the first time. Unfortunately, the food didn’t agree with him, and he felt gas welling in his stomach. Not wanting to offend a potential mother-in-law, he held the fart in—and died the next day due to complications of the retained gas. At least that’s how the viral story goes. But like many strange tales on the Internet, this one is likely false, says to fact-checking site Snopes.
People generally don’t die just from holding in a fart, even if it’s a big one, says gastroenterologist Niket Sonpal, MD, an internist and faculty member at Touro College of Medicine in New York City. That’s not to say you won’t experience some ill effects from trying to keep your gaseous emissions in. And you don’t want to make it a habit, he says.
Why farts happen
Flatus, the official name for farts, happens when gases in the intestine are released through the rectum, a process that can range from characteristically loud to infamously “silent but deadly.” Farting is generally painless and often provides a sense of relief.
There are several ways gas
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