# Borborygmi and stomach rumbling



## thelibertine (Sep 8, 2009)

Since around April this year I began getting much more borborygmi and stomach rumbles, especially at night, particularly when I lie down, early in the morning and when I am nervous. Indeed when I am nervous sometimes they are so loud and I can feel my stomach churning. This is something that has only developed in the last few months as my IBS has got worse. Sometimes it almost feels like there's a war going off in my intestines, weird lurches, and churns, popping sensations that I can sometimes feel under my skin as well as hear.Does anyone else suffer from this embarrasing side effect?


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## IanRamsay (Nov 23, 2008)

i used to if i hadent eaten for more than 4 hours. Ian


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Gut noises means the gut can move things around so is a good thing.Some people are noisy than others and some people are noisier at some times than others.It is often easier to hear it when you lay down especially if it is quiet. The more you focus on the noises the more you will notice them even if they aren't much louder than usual. I think it is a lot like the heart beat where most of the time people don't hear their heart beat but you can if you are anxious or you are focused on it for some reason. If the intestines are completely silent (can't even hear them with a stethoscope) that is a bad sign and usually means a complete obstruction.Now some people are noisier when they have more gas so gas reduction (low flatus diet and probiotics) can sometimes make them less noisy.They will always be noisier when the colon is normally a lot more active like mornings or around meal times.There isn't usually any "really bad thing" the noises mean. It is just noise. Like I said the only concern medically is when there is no noise at all.


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## thelibertine (Sep 8, 2009)

I know the noises arnt bad persay but they can be embarrasing if particularly invasive, I eat probitiotic yoghurt for breakfast everyday and tried taking a tablet for 3 months but it actually made the sounds louder and gave me gas so I stopped taking it.I also find that I can have a vibrating sensation in my bottom with the noises. It's very odd.Is there any chance the yoghurt I am eating for breakfast could be causing them? Or that I should try a different probiotic.


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## IanRamsay (Nov 23, 2008)

what probiotic is it that you are taking?Ian


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## thelibertine (Sep 8, 2009)

I eat onken natural set probiotic yoghurt for breakfast:http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Onken...6|49|10567|5101Cultures inside - Bactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum and Streptococus thermophilus.ETA: The rumbling actually started around the time that my doctor very stupidly prescribed me antaacids, I took them for around two months but they made my stomach ache absoloutely terrible, and some other horrible side effects.Ever since then I have had the rumbles and a lot of undigested food in stool, is it possible that the antaacids diminished a lot of my stomach acid and that I am not digesting properly? I've heard that poor digestion causes excessive borborygmi?Just an idea.


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## cherrypie09 (Jan 20, 2009)

thelibertine"I also find that I can have a vibrating sensation in my bottom with the noises. It's very odd."Your noises and movement and the above bottom noises, like wind trapped in the bottom and moveing but not coming out, sounds exactly like me, I have ibs-d, but also suffer with bloating, wind and gurgling noises with lots of movement, like you said its like there is a war in your stomach, its not just the noises its the movement, everything feels like its all gushing around in your stomach and about to come out like a erupting volcano.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Usually lack of acid doesn't make you stop digesting food. It does some break down but it mostly sterilizes things.The only way I know to reduce the size of undigested material bits is to chew your food more completely.Some people do think reducing stomach acid might set you up for SIBO which can loosen stools (so the bits are easier to see) and can increase gas.


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## cherrypie09 (Jan 20, 2009)

What is SIBO, and what are the symptoms, how do you know if you have it or not and how do you get rid of it if you do have it.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.Symptoms vary and really often can't be distinguished from IBS. If severe it can cause unexplained weight loss that is not part of IBS. You can't tell based on symptoms. Traditionally they thought SIBO only happens to people with certain serious disease or after surgery on the small intestine and sometimes get very ill from it. Since the year 2000 people have been investigating if people with IBS have a milder version of SIBO.Normal bacteria usually found in the mouth or the colon that are in higher than normal concentrations in the small intestine. Usually the small intestine has very few bacteria in it, but in some people there can be too many and they cause problems. however they don't do anything different to your food the bacteria in the colon do so you often can't tell where the bacteria are based on symptoms. Tests are Hydrogen Breath Tests or having a sample removed from the small intestine and cultured.Treatments are Antibiotics to reduce the bacteria. Sometimes something to keep stuff moving faster through the small intestine and sometimes probiotics which seem to keep the bacteria in the intestines in a better balance so they stay in the colon better and don't get adventurous.


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## thelibertine (Sep 8, 2009)

The SIBO ounds interesting and something I would like to investigate, can I query this at any normal doctors? I am going for an endoscopy/gastroscopy this friday, but obvisously that doesn't look at my small intestine.I have also noticed that over the past few months I have gotten more pain in the small intestine area, as well as the areas I've been used to with IBS. Is this a sympton?Also I have had antibiotics twice since developing IBS for chest infections, both times I took antibotics all of my symptons cleared up and I felt completely normal, I always thought this was weird, could this have anything to do with it?Thanks for the info!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

That the antibiotics cleared it up is a good indication of SIBO.It is really hard to tell from symptoms, or at least that is what the clinic I go to that does the testing say. Even when they are certain someone has to have SIBO sometimes they don't. Usually larger hospitals tend to have the breath testing (although it is getting more common). Some doctors will do the antibiotics without testing, but that can be a bit more hit and miss as you can't retest to see if it was the wrong antibiotic (SIBO still there) or just have to guess maybe it wasn't the issue.


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## thelibertine (Sep 8, 2009)

Mmm very interesting indeed! I may query this at the doctors after I have had my endoscopy/gastroscopy. I've asked about just about everything but it could do no harm, the doctors have exhausted many treatments on me.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

There is still a lot of debate about this in the medical literature, but if they go to pubmed and put in SIBO and IBS they will find quite a few papers on it if they haven't checked into it before.Pimentel M. is the Dr that started looking into this but several other people are also investing this.


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## thelibertine (Sep 8, 2009)

It is certainly very interesting, I do feel like a lot of the mental criteria applies to me with IBS but I also feel like there is something else going off, is it possible that SIBO could be a contributor to IBS but not a total cause? It'd be interesting to see if they interact with each other etc.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Hard to say how it will all pan out as the research is still on going.Psycho social issues are a part of all illnesses. They just tend to get more attention when there isn't as much you can do on the physical end in way of treatment.If you have a heart attack and are depressed afterward you are much more likely to have another heart attack than someone who has a normal mood.http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20...er-heart-attack I don't think they know which is first in that case (are you depressed because you had a heart attack versus depressed first) but having both after the first heart attack is not a good thing.


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## Vi Dette (Oct 16, 2009)

Hi thelibertine, dont worry its not jst u it happns to me too. mine began wen i was 15: i got it every time i ate, wen i lay down, in th mornings, worse at night, and wen im nervous, jst like urs. my ibs got worse ovr th years, it got so terrible my life went down in shambles. but im sorting it now, dont ever let it take ovr!


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## wer41pcr (Oct 13, 2009)

Hi.You have my total sympathy as I suffer the exact same problem - unpredictable and embarrassing stomach rumbling.For the last few days I've tried a diet made up mainly of soluble fibre, and it has eased my symptoms! It's early days for me but worth a try perhaps?


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## Improvement! (Oct 26, 2010)

Not sure if you're still active on here or not, but I also have the same issues, and it can be very difficult to deal with. I'm a very shy girl so when I'm in public and my gut starts going crazy, it's hard to not wanna hide.. how did the endoscopy/gastronomy go?


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## Damianjmcgrath (Jan 29, 2011)

thelibertine said:


> I know the noises arnt bad persay but they can be embarrasing if particularly invasive, I eat probitiotic yoghurt for breakfast everyday and tried taking a tablet for 3 months but it actually made the sounds louder and gave me gas so I stopped taking it.I also find that I can have a vibrating sensation in my bottom with the noises. It's very odd.Is there any chance the yoghurt I am eating for breakfast could be causing them? Or that I should try a different probiotic.


I love that you posted this, I've literally been searching for months for someone with the same issues as me. I've got exactly this - very loud stomach rumbles and gurgles, and even the vibrating sensation you describe. I sometimes get an empty feeling in my stomach too, like someone's pushing down on my stomach. I sometimes get bloating just to the right of my tummy button, and very occasionally, I need to go to the toilet quickly, but that's not very usual. My bowel movements are reasonably normal - they do change occasionally, but never to the point of what I would call diarrhea or constipation. They can be a bit loose or a bit hard but not to their extreme ends of the scale. I hardly get any pain, almost none. It's an uncomfortable feeling - the rumbles and gurgles make me feel weird, but I wouldn't call it pain. I get no rectal bleeding, or any bleeding of any kind.I often think I'm feeling sick because in my head, I associate the rumbles and gurgles to an unsettled stomach that I remember having with stomach upsets and sickness bugs, so in my head, I probably make myself feel more nauseous than I actually am, so I wouldn't necessarily class nauseous as a symptom of what I've got.I tried testing for food intolerances by cutting out gluten and wheat and saw a small improvement over the first week to 10 days, but then it went back to the normal symptoms. I don't notice myself feeling better or worse after certain foods, and any symptoms seem to happen randomly - not necessarily after eating. It's actually more common when I lie in bed at night, or when I've gone longer than usual between meals.Doctor thinks I have IBS, but I think that's an easy thing for him to say. I had negative tests for Celiac so it's probably not gluten intolerance.I read IBS for Dummies book, and it very briefly mentioned bowel cancer, so I looked that up and the symptoms seem very mild, so that's got me worried!I'd be interested to learn how your endoscopy/gastronomy went, and whether I should be requesting that?


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