Basically just the question really, currently got a very painful case of trapped wind and it just occurred to me to actually think about why does it hurt so much? What’s the reason for the pain etc 🙂
In: Biology
The pain from trapped gas is due to the stretching and pressure on the bowels. The key difference between having gas and being full of food is that food typically stays about the same size in your digestive system or even shrinks as water is pulled out of it.
However as food is digested bacteria in the gut can produce gas as a byproduct, significantly expanding the volume compared to food. It can even do so beyond the volume you would have been unwilling to eat due to pain.
Your gut doesn’t have the same kind of sensation as your skin. It isn’t useful to be able to sense something touching your intestines for example. Instead the kind of sensation they have is for stretching or pressure, and that can often indicate serious problems for the organism. That is why it is treated as such an intense sensation.
Another example of this is the testicles. They are essentially an internal organ that protrudes through the abdominal wall, which is why a light tap sets off sensation of “something *really* bad is happening!!”
Latest Answers