Ah… farts. The mere word can evoke adolescent memories of pranking friends, annoying family members, 50-50 gambles, and inexplicably having nine in the bank on a first date. Despite being a humorous benchmark milestone in any relationship (how soon is too soon?) they are generally considered a necessary evil — something we have to do from time to time, but immature to talk about, and a little bit taboo in polite society. However, did you know that not only does the body produce 2000 MLs of gas per day, but flatulence can actually be an extremely important signal of your overall health?
It Takes Guts (and Gut Health) to Be Happy
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but it turns out those paths are more closely connected to the brain — for all genders. New research shows that the gut has a bi-directional relationship with the brain (known as the gut-brain axis) and that the latter is actually responsible for 95% of serotonin production; one of the primary ‘feel good’ hormones that impact how we feel.
If we have too much bad bacteria in our gut, and not enough of the good stuff, we are far more prone to depression, anxiety, and a host of other negative conditions. This is why gut health is so important — the more good little guys (gut biome) we have down there, the better we feel.
Now an Australian research company wants to put the power of gut health back in people’s hands through a novel means — tracking their gas.
Chart Your Fart
Chart Your Fart is a very unique and real application — not a very late April Fool’s joke like it may seem. The mobile app has been designed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) — Australia’s national science agency — who are actively encouraging people to start tracking their toots and sharing the data, so that the company can dive deeper into how the gut biome truly works.
This comes after a 2021 CSIRO survey concluded that ‘over 60 percent of Australians reported experiencing what they identified as excessive flatulence, with up to 43% reporting experiencing it most days. Anyone over the age of 14 has been invited to use the app to essentially ‘track their gas’ for three days.
Netflix, fart, track, and chill.
