Does suppressing the urge to toot endanger ones health?
Dear Cecil: My mother has always told me that the real way to spell relief is f-a-r-t. I have always been a person closely attuned to what is truly natural in myself and others and would appreciate an answer to a problem that has haunted me since childhood. If gas pains are caused by intestinal gas, then how come I never feel better when I fart? All I ever feel is embarrassed. — Lauran P., Washington, D.C. Cecil replies: Clearly, Lauran, you are one of the millions of innocent victims of a taboo that has tyrannized mankind since the dawn of time. As early as the 14th century we find a “Boke [Book] of Curtasye” sternly warning, “Beware of thy hinder parts from gun-blasting.” Yet the truth of the matter is that farting is a natural–nay, a beautiful–process by which we bring our inner being into harmony with the universe. The real question we ought to ask is, what irreversible physical and psychic traumas do we inflict upon ourselves by our prejudice against gas? We can but speculate. T
