A GI physician addresses the question of burping being caused by irritable bowel syndrome.
- Have you been diagnosed with IBS?
- Do you find that you’ve been burping a lot more lately and it seems to be related to your IBS?
It probably is.
“Burping is a not-uncommon symptom in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders,” says Michael Blume, MD, a gastroenterologist at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore.
“It is usually related to problems with the way your stomach empties. We all swallow air, and usually passes through the GI tract and comes out the way air normally comes out.
“In situations where your stomach does not empty normally, air does not travel the way it normally does; your stomach may get distended, and since it cannot travel and be expelled from below, it comes out from above.”
And hence, you burp.
IBS is a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, and to date, no cause has been defined.
This disorder involves symptoms without detectable structural abnormalities.
This is why it’s a diagnosis of exclusion, which means the patient must undergo a colonoscopy, among many other tests.
Despite extensive research, no single definitive cause has been identified.
Instead, IBS is believed to result from a combination of factors, such as gut-brain communication issues, changes in gut motility, sensitivity, microbiome imbalances and even mental stress.
In practice for 25+ years, Dr. Blume treats over 65 conditions including abdominal pain, appetite loss, blood in stool, celiac disease, colon cancer, esophageal and liver disease, gas and IBS.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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