Stomach Noise

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.

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Heather
8. October 2010
Heather
8. October 2010
I'm having these loud noises also feeling sick, vomiting and on and off diarrhoea and constipation. Stomach is so hard it hurts to touch.

Mary
9. May 2010
Mary
9. May 2010
I have the same problem. I am so sick of hearing that it is normal.It is not normal.

kris
25. November 2009
kris
25. November 2009
even i am struggling with this. its really emberassing situation. how we can come out from this problem.

Wendy
8. April 2009
Wendy
8. April 2009
Stomach noise is normal for sure, they are a sign that peristalsis is occuring. You shouldn't be able to hear this noise though, the level of noise that you are talking about sounds to me to be very excessive. If you have that much noise chances are that you have a food intolerance, this will result in lots of gas that cause the extra noise but it will also damage the lining of your gut if you continue to eat the foods.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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