Excessive belching could be a sign of a gastrointestinal disorder.
Ah, burping (or belching, if you want to be slightly less crude).
A perfectly natural bodily function seen in both humans and animals that is deemed to be acceptable, if not complimentary, in some cultures but has been demonised in others.
Manners aside, it turns out that burping is more common in people with gastroesophageal reflux disease and functional dyspepsia – and it can even be classified as a gastroduodenal disorder if the habit becomes excessive and clinically problematic.
But despite this knowledge, there’s still much that remains unknown about the epidemiology of belching disorders.
In an attempt to learn more about the prevalence and characteristics of people with belching disorders, researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Medicine undertook an online survey of 10,000 individuals. Their findings were published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Participants responded to a variety of questions covering standard (such as height, weight, smoking status, alcohol consumption, etc.) and not-so-standard (e.g., frequency and duration of belching, eating speed, number of times you chew before you swallow) topics.
Incredibly, 151 respondents (1.5% of the sample) reported having a belching disorder, defined as having bothersome belching (to the point where it impacts the ability to complete day-to-day activities) on more than three days a week for at least three months.
That’s a lot of burping.
After controlling for factors such as age, gender, alcohol consumption and the presence of oesophageal reflux, peptic ulcer diseases, thyroid diseases, gastroesophageal reflux disease and functional dyspepsia, people who took a very small (< 10) or very large (30 or more) number of chews per swallow had a 21% and 85% increase in their respective odds of reporting excessive eructation compared to patients who chewed 10-19 times before swallowing.
The researchers don’t mention how they concluded that chewing 10-19 times should be the reference group in this particular setting, but I suppose that’s a question for another day.
“Generally, adults swallow 5-40 times during one meal and 8-32ml of air during each swallow, suggesting 50-1300ml of air is swallowed during one meal, which is the main source of belching,” the researchers noted.
“Faster eating habits associated with a low number of mastication, as well as a large number of mastication, may cause air swallowing.”
Soft drink consumption was surprisingly not associated with the presence of a belching disorder, so feel free to keep chugging down those icy cold cans of Coke.
It’s also unclear whether the volume of one’s burps is related to experiencing more problematic mouth flatus (gas generated in the stomach or bowels).
The boffins hope their findings will help patients self-diagnose potential problems in the absence of a trained medical professional.
“The problem with belching disorders is that they take a long time to treat and [this is] only practised in a limited number of medical facilities,” lead author Professor Yasuhiro Fujiwara said.
“In the future, the evaluation of the number of times someone chews and the effects of improved dietary habits in patients with belching disorders will provide a treatment option for patients to perform on their own.”
Send recordings of your impressive burping feats to penny@medicalrepublic.com.au.
