Stomach Gurgling

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

After years of studying stomach noises, ground-breaking research has proven that your digestive system has a language all its own! Long, low rumbles that occur during midmorning, for example, have been translated as:

"Pardon us, but we've been reassessing this breakfast thing. And, well . . . speaking for the entire group, we're willing to compromise. If you'll make sure we're fed sometime before, oh, let's say, 9:30 a.m., we'll promise to keep quiet during your important staff meetings. If not, we'll be forced to take matters into our own intestines."

Kidding aside, doctors do have a word for stomach noises. It's called borborygmi, basically the sounds that come from your digestive system as food, air and gas move through. To get an idea what's happening down there after a meal, think of the motion of a slithering snake. Bathed in stomach acid, your food is squeezed slightly forward and slightly back through your digestive tract, helping break the meal down and absorb nutrients, and sometimes creating noise. Within four to six hours, most of the food is emptied from the stomach, says Jorge Herrera, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile and member of the American Gastroenterological Association and the American College of Gastroenterology.

Whether you've eaten or not, however, every one to two hours, there's a rush of digestive juices sweeping through the digestive tract to clear out anything that remains behind, says Dr. Herrera. This can also cause gurgling sounds, he says.

An upset stomach and irritable bowel syndrome can also cause stomach noises.

Symptom Relief

If your stomach is trying to get your attention and you're tired of the turmoil, try these tips.

Sip some warm 7-Up. Warm 7-Up or ginger ale may be just what the doctor ordered for a gurgling stomach—if the gurgles are caused by gas or air, says Thomas A. Gossel, R.Ph., Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology and associate dean of the College of Pharmacy at Ohio Northern University in Ada. Putting soda bubbles in your belly may help encourage gas trapped in your stomach to come up as a belch, says Dr. Gossel.

Sneak a snack. You probably don't have time for a meal, but sneaking a snack should silence your stomach. "If you're in a hurry, you could eat a cracker or a piece of bread. That could stop the noises from happening," says Dr. Gossel.

Don't gulp. Ever tried to take a deep breath to stop your stomach from gurgling? You may have made the situation worse, says Dr. Gossel. "You're just taking in more air—part of the problem in the first place. So if you do take a deep breath or yawn, try not to swallow the air."

For information on irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive problems that create discomfort along with gurgling noises, see Stomach Pain below.