Sometimes it’ll be a high pitch squeak like letting out a balloon, gurgling, rumbling. Is there any knowledge about if those sounds mean something or come from certain areas in the digestive track? Thanks!
In: Biology
I work as a Paramedic, and listening to bowel sounds is part of the job. I don’t really listen to *what* sound is made though, it’s more how loud, how often, and where the sounds are made.
It might be different for a doctor or nurse involved in primary care though, they might actually interpret what sounds are being made. To me, they are all just “bowel sounds”.
The sounds you hear are from your stomach and intestines which tell you that digestion is occurring. The sound that is made depends on the space that the sound travels through. You can think of it like being in a large room; if the room is empty the sound can bounce from the walls, but if it is filled it will be harder for sound to travel through. So, the more space that is open in your stomach the more sounds you will hear.
The sounds come from liquid and air being squeezed through sometimes tightish areas in the intestines. Different amounts of liquid to gas make different sounds. You hear them more when there is less liquid (i.e. food being digested), since water deadens sound and air lets it travel better. Hence, the association of the sounds with being hungry. However, with the exception of a few specific sounds you are unlikely to hear yourself, the different sounds don’t mean anything other than that your digestive track is working.
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