You have to wonder about research priorities sometimes. We have a lot of health care problems; we could do a much better job of creating consensus guidelines for treating diseases and conditions; we could do much more to evaluate how well various treatments work; we could understand whether there are techniques that would do a better job of reining in health care costs and spending. But apparently for the Journal of the American Medical Association, studying farts has great relevance. The Journal publishes a study on flatulence patterns among community-dwelling Australians. The study wasn’t published on April 1, so I assume it is real, but it is hard to take seriously.
The study participants used an app called Chart Your Fart (yes, I know, just sounds so fake) to report each release of noxious, or not so noxious, gas from their nether regions. Participants reported an unbelievably low number of farts, at least in my experience, around two to seven a day, averaging five. Males had more than females and older people more than young people. More farts occurred in the evening. Now that we have this invaluable data, I am sure substantial progress can be made in solving our health care problems. (JAMA Article)
