When humans are hungry, our stomachs appear to protest by making a series of gurgling or growling noises that can be heard by those around us. It’s a normal part of being human and something we’ve all experienced, but what’s really going on to make such strange sounds?
The reason your stomach grumbles when you’re hungry is because of hormonal feedback that tells you you need to eat, and because the musculature of your digestive tract contracts and relaxes. The rumbling sound also has a fun name: borborygmi. means Purr in Greek.
Why does my stomach growl when I’m hungry?
There are four important explanations for why your stomach rumbles when you’re hungry, or, as we’re about to explain, why borborygmus occurs.
muscle movement
smooth muscle line most of the gastrointestinal tract They come in bundles that can contract and relax to help the food move in the right direction. If you imagine food moving through a series of tubes like a sausage casing, a squeezing action is required to keep the solid moving forward, and that’s what muscles do. The scientific term for this squeezing action is peristalsis, which occurs rhythmically to move everything forward.
Muscle contractions can not only push food out, but they can also move gases and liquids, so you can imagine the sound that comes from combining the three. The rumbling sounds caused by muscle contractions are not limited to the stomach and often come from lower intestines.
I am hungry
One reason why rumbling sounds so loud when you’re hungry is because your stomach is empty at this point. Food is good at muffling sound, so when your food tube is empty, your muscle activity will become louder, even if you’re not doing anything that unusual.
hormonal feedback
Hormones help track nutritional needs in the form of ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin tells us we are hungry, and leptin tells us we are full.Several animal research Ghrelin has been shown to have the potential to increase gastric motility and emptying. research on humans It was found that participants who received ghrelin had faster bowel movements compared to saline.
So while it’s possible that ghrelin increases muscle movement during fasting and causes borborygmi, this is a complex part of our physiology that involves many hormones and is still not fully understood. Not.
Does your stomach only growl when it’s hungry?
no! There is a lot of stuff in our intestines that needs to be removed, including mucus, gas, and fluids. Therefore, peristalsis is constantly working to keep things moving so that nothing builds up. As anyone who has experienced severe gas will know, gas buildup can be very painful and may require emergency surgery in cases of obstruction or volvulus (twisting of the intestines).
Nowhere was this more exemplified than in the case of fecal impaction, where a man lost the ability to walk and developed life-threatening abdominal compartment syndrome after “approximately two liters” of stool became blocked. Wow.
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The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
