Last weekend my girlfriend and I spent the night in a mountaintop lodge at an elevation of 9,000 feet, about 6,000 feet above the town in which we live. The romantic intent of the evening was slightly stifled by the fact that we both had a serious gas problem. It was distracting to have to constantly fight to hold back a fart. It seemed odd that we both developed this problem at the same time. We didn’t eat the same thing, so it was probably not the food. The problem went away when I was back in the valley the next day. I came up with the theory that the lower air pressure at the higher elevation caused our bodies to expel gas in order to balance internal and external pressure. Could this be, or should I dump this farting woman? –B.M., via the Internet
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Medical researchers have a pretty sorry record when it comes to answering the vital questions of life, but by God, when it comes to flatulence they’re on the case. In 1967 the New York Academy of Sciences devoted a two-day conference to gastrointestinal gas. The gas issue was hot then because of the space program. Many feared man’s mission to the stars might come to grief if an astronaut had a little too much chili before liftoff and the crew was, you know, overcome.
FED UP
Is there something you need to get straight? Cecil Adams can deliver the Straight Dope on any topic. Write Cecil Adams at the Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611, or E-mail him at cecil@chireader.com.
