I have one of those noisy stomachs that can sound not only like an alien but a whole alien invasion. And it doesn’t happen when I am hungry announcing to one and all that I need to eat, it happens just after I have eaten. My family has always gotten a kick out of it, so it is only an embarrassment when I am in a real quiet setting; church, business meeting, or library. Where does stomach noise come from?
Stomach noise is normal. Scientist even have a name for it, borborygmi. Everyone is producing stomach noise some of us are just louder than others. With a stethoscope you can here stomach noise on everyone. Digestion is noisy.
Every one to two hours your digestive juices sweep through your digestive tract to clear out anything that is in there. This can cause gurgling. When you are hungry and haven’t eaten for a while, your stomach is completely empty so when these digestive juices flow through your digestive tract there is no food to help muffle the noise. That is why people will say “you must be hungry” when they hear your stomach rumble. You actually may not be hungry at all just empty at the moment.
Your stomach and intestines digest and move food through the digestive tract by contracting. Digestion is a muscular activity that squeezes and retracts to move that food along. All these contractions moving fluid and food through your system can cause rumbling and growling. Along with all that food and fluid your system also has air in it which can add more noise to an already noisy system.
Swallowing air and eating things that your system finds particularly hard to digest can add to your digestive noise. So try and breathe through your nose normally and stay away from foods that you have trouble digesting.
You should not be concerned about your stomach noise or embarrassed. Bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or constipation may be telling you something is wrong. These are not normal and you should talk with your doctor. If you have these symptoms you may be suffering from gastroenteritis, IBS or Crohn’s disease. But if it is just noise you, like me, are perfectly normal.