‘Who Ya Gonna Call?!’
November 16th, 2021
#whoyagonnacall
© Outhouse Cartoons/C.A.P 2021
Who ARE you gonna call?! Well, usually nobody. Those noises you hear coming from your favourite friend are a common side effect of the digestive process called borborygmi (bar-bo-RIG-mai). Borborygmi is caused by air traveling through your digestive tract through a process called peristalsis which in turn involves muscles contracting within your digestive system to keep food moving along. Alongside this process you have your gastric juices checking in for work, creating a goopy substance called chyme. This chyme is full of gas and air and when moving in a typically empty stomach or empty small intestines, which can actually act as an echo chamber, intensifies the noises for your friends and family to hear.
We all know these noises all too well. I even named my guts, ‘Gus’ after a character in the show Psych, because of it. Gus, in the show, is always eating and when he isn’t, he’s thinking about eating. I thought this name is rather appropriate considering my never ending quest to either gain or keep weight on. I’m currently about to start the FODMAP diet for a couple of weeks to try and identify any food triggers I may have missed over the years. Gus could become rather talkative throughout this process.
Are your guts a chatty Kathy? What’s an amusing anecdote involving your guts? Have you given them a name? Tell us this and more in the comments below.