Scientists Used 'Smart Underwear' To Count Farts. The Results Challenge A Common Assumption

If you can get past the stinky nature of flatulence, it can be an intriguing field of scientific study, which is referred to as flatology. Researchers have been finding a scientific basis for some fart myths for decades. For instance, silent farts having a more malodorous scent compared to loud farts is actually a smelly fart myth backed by science. Now, a team of scientists at the University of Maryland (UMD) has created a pair of Smart Underwear with the goal of giving physicians a way to measure flatulence and help people who struggle with intestinal gas issues.

The UMD Smart Underwear is the first wearable of its kind that can monitor gut microbial metabolism and farts. Rather than a piece of clothing, though, it's a small electronic device that can attach to any pair of underwear. According to the study published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X, the smart device features a microcontroller with Bluetooth, batteries, memory, and electrochemical sensors. Direct memory access allows the sensors to monitor for farts continuously, conserving power and only waking the microcontroller from deep sleep when it detects a fart so that it can record the event. It also wakes every five minutes to record humidity, movement, and temperature data. Already, the prototype has provided some interesting results.

Using the Smart Underwear device in a study, the UMD scientists determined that people fart much more frequently than experts thought. Previous studies underestimated the prevalence because they couldn't account for forgetfulness and missed events, including passing gas while sleeping. That's why, if you search for how many farts a day is normal, you may come across various answers.

For example, a study published in The European Journal of Surgery in 1998 found that women averaged 7.1 farts per day, while men averaged 12.7 farts a day. An earlier study published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences in 1996, though, found that people passed gas 10 times a day on average with an upper limit of 20. As a result of these and other studies, experts have believed that farting up to 25 times a day is normal and anything more than that is excessive. The findings by the UMD research team could change that — although, it's worth noting that there's a scientific reason you can't help farting more on an airplane.

For the study, 38 healthy participants followed a specific diet and fasting period before wearing the Smart Underwear on two days for eight hours each day. The monitoring device recorded an average of 32 farts per day, while the minimum and maximum number of flatus events was four and 59, respectively. With such promising results, UMD Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics assistant professor Brantley Hall and his team are launching the Human Flatus Atlas. This project will record fart measurements from hundreds of people using the Smart Underwear, day and night, establishing a normal flatus range.