What Causes Chronic Gas

Gas can build up in the digestive system by swallowing air, or more commonly, due to the digestion of the food that we eat. This gas is nothing but a mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen and methane. The body eliminates the build of excess gas either through the mouth (a process known as burping or belching), or through the anus (a process known flatulence). On an average, people eliminate gas about 10 times a day. While flatulence or burping, in most cases, are not a manifestation of anything serious, they can be a great embarrassment on social grounds. The condition of chronic gas, as the name suggests, indicates a prolonged problem, and this might be seriously discomforting for the affected person, and other people around, as well.

What Causes Chronic Flatulence and Belching?

As I have mentioned, there are two main ways with which gas gets build up in the system. The first is when the person swallows a lot more air than usual, while chewing gum, eating food too quickly, smoking, drinking through a straw, etc. And the other cause is fermentation of carbohydrates by bacteria in the colon, during the digestion process.

If your gas and gas pain are long-lasting, then you may have good reasons to suspect some underlying medical problems to be the offenders. Until these health conditions are dealt with, the problem of flatulence or belching, would remain a long-lasting one for the patient. According to what experts have diagnosed, some of the most common medical issues that cause excessive build up of gas may include:

• Constipation; it makes the stool hard thus, difficult to be eliminated from the system
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS); is a common disease of the large intestines. Apart from causing gas and bloating, it triggers abdominal pain, diarrhea and constipation.
• Ulcerative colitis; it refers to a serious disease that causes inflammation of the digestive tract. Besides gas and gas pains, it may cause rectal pain, abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, and abnormal weight loss.
• Celiac disease; is caused to people whose digestive system is intolerant to what is known as gluten. This substance triggers an immune reaction in the small intestines. Chronic gas and bloating are its common symptoms, among many others.
• Being intolerant to lactose also causes gas in some people. Such people cannot digest the sugar found in dairy products. And when they consume such products, they end up with symptoms such as gas, bloating, cramps in abdominal area, and even diarrhea.
• Crohn's disease; another offender that comes in the list of chronic gas causes. It also causes gas and bloating besides other symptoms, and is similar in some aspects of ulcerative colitis.

Long term use of antibiotics is also included in the list of the causes of chronic gas and bloating. These drugs, although treat the condition which they are supposed to, but at the same time creates a disturbance in the balance of the normal bacterial flora in the bowel system of the body.

The treatment of chronic gas, due to the obvious reasons, means treating what has caused it. For instance, if constipation is the one, then medications and certain dietary measures are good enough for the purpose. However, if serious conditions like Crohn's disease is concerned, then treatment might be more aggressive and/or long-term.