How bad your farts smell can reveal your health

Colorectal cancer is the collective name for colon cancer and rectal cancer.

In Shanghai, colorectal cancer is also called "the second cancer", which means that colorectal cancer is the second most common tumor. At the beginning of this century, colorectal cancer ranked third in the incidence of diseases in Shanghai. In just ten years, it replaced gastric cancer and became the second. Nationwide, although colorectal cancer still ranks fifth, its growth rate is strong.

Why is the incidence of colorectal cancer increasing so rapidly? The familiar explanation is: Westernized lifestyle. What kind of "Westernized lifestyle" causes colorectal cancer? The familiar explanation is: a dietary pattern that is high in protein, high in fat, low in grains, and low in fruits and vegetables. Why does this kind of lifestyle lead to colorectal cancer? There are not many detailed explanations. This article will analyze this issue from a physiological perspective.

Watch out for a dangerous signal: eating too well and farting

Under traditional eating habits, after food is digested and absorbed, and passes through the small intestine into the large intestine, only a small amount of protein and fat remains. These small amounts of residues can continue to synthesize essential substances for the human body under the action of intestinal flora, such as B vitamins, vitamin K and some non-essential amino acids, which are all beneficial to health.

However, if the intake of animal protein and fat increases too much, it exceeds the digestion and absorption capacity of the small intestine, and what enters the large intestine is no longer a small amount of residue. In the "fermentation tank" of the large intestine, excessive nutrients will lead to bacterial imbalance and synthesize those excess nutrients into large amounts of amines, which are carcinogens.

Amines, either in the form of liquids or volatile gases, are very smelly. So, sometimes people eat too much and too well, and their intestines are overburdened, which causes them to fart smelly. Farting is not only embarrassing, but also a dangerous signal.

Dietary fiber: the hero who "packs" intestinal flora and toxins into feces

In addition to being high in protein and fat, another disadvantage of the Westernized diet is that it contains little dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is a concept that is somewhat unfamiliar to people. Dietary fiber did not appear in nutrition before 1970, and it is a concept that has been paid attention to in recent decades.

Dietary fiber refers to food nutrients that are generally not easily digested and mainly come from the cell walls of plants. Dietary fiber plays an important role in maintaining healthy digestive system function. It can clean the digestive wall and enhance digestive function, while also diluting and accelerating the removal of carcinogens and toxic substances in food.

Dietary fiber mainly comes from grains, beans, vegetables and fruits, but in Westernized eating habits, most people reduce their grain intake, and the amount of dietary fiber in food is greatly reduced.

Dietary fiber cannot be digested and absorbed in the small intestine. It enters the large intestine with food residues and is eventually excreted from the body. However, do not underestimate these "dregs" that cannot be absorbed. They are much more valuable than the excessive "essence" residues. Dietary fiber plays the role of a "scavenger" in the large intestine: it absorbs a large amount of water, swells and grows, and along the way "packs" necrotic cells, excess intestinal flora and toxins into feces, stimulates intestinal peristalsis, and promotes defecation.

Experts reveal: How to tell your health status from your stool

The ideal situation: If the absolute amount and relative proportion of dietary fiber in the food are sufficient, the amount of feces will appear to be very large, and may even be much larger than the total volume of food intake. Such feces are healthy feces, usually semi-solid, containing more than 80% water, and the intestinal waste carried out can account for more than one-third of the dry weight of the feces. These people have very smooth bowel movements, and not only is the incidence of colorectal cancer extremely low, but the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes is also low.

The worst case scenario: if dietary fiber intake is low, intestinal motility is slow, emptying time is long, stool is dry, hard and small, stimulation to the rectum is insufficient, there is little urge to defecate, and there is no desire to defecate every day. At the same time, toxic wastes such as amines in the large intestine do not have time to be excreted with feces. If they accumulate in the body for too long, they will become more and more, and finally they will have to "produce and sell themselves": when a certain concentration is reached, they enter the blood through the intestinal wall, leading to an increase in systemic toxins. Therefore, people with constipation often have dry skin and frequent acne, and the colon wall cells that are closest to toxins will inevitably become inflamed and even develop into cancer.

The urge to defecate or fart is a reminder to detoxify

Therefore, the urge to defecate or to fart is a protective reminder mechanism of the body that requires timely detoxification. You should try not to hold it in, but try to resolve it quickly. Otherwise, the rectal nerve will become numb due to long-term pressure from feces, causing constipation.

Understanding health from intestinal function

Although medical scientists have not yet fully uncovered the cause of colorectal cancer, they have discovered that the risk factors are closely related to lifestyle. This article aims to remind people to pay attention to their intestinal function and avoid colorectal cancer risk factors from a lifestyle perspective.

It is worth reminding that the functional state of the intestines not only varies from person to person, but also varies greatly for the same person at different times. Diet, stress, medication, disease, and even social and cultural factors all have an impact on the state of intestinal function. However, the frequency of bowel movements varies from person to person, and the normal frequency of bowel movements ranges from 2 to 3 times a week to 2 to 3 times a day.

However, if there is a change in the frequency, consistency or amount of bowel movements, or if there is blood, mucus, pus or excess fatty matter in the stool, you should be careful about whether you have an intestinal disease.