Obviously I’m aware it’s not actually my tummy but my intestines, but what is the physical mechanism that creates the sounds that come from inside me? If I were having an operation on my abdomen, would they sound very loud? And are there other internal sounds going on in my body that I’m not able to hear, like does my liver make a noise, my uterus, my bone marrow etc?
In: Biology
Your intestines do regular housekeeping in the form of the Migrating motor complex (MMC). In between meals, a wave of muscle contractions “sweeps” the GI tube from the stomach to the large intestine. Debris, mucus, leftover indigestibles are pushed towards the exit. This causes the rumbling sound in your belly when you haven’t eaten for a while.
For the sounds to occur, your stomach and small intestines need to be empty.
Food intake stops the MMC and thus the sounds. One important function of it is to move bacteria towards the colon. Without the MMC, colonic bacteria can travel upwards and colonize the small intestine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrating_motor_complex
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