Farting may help cure high BP

Flatulence could help treat patients with high blood pressure, according to a new research.

Hydrogen sulphide — a toxic gas that is generated by bacteria living in the human gut — has been shown to control blood pressure in mice.

The study showed that the rodents with higher levels of the gas had lower blood pressure than those with less.

Boffins at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, US, found that hydrogen sulphide in flatus — informally known as a fart — is also produced by an enzyme in blood vessels where it relaxes them and lowers blood pressure.

Now researchers at China's Southeast University in Nanjing are trying to figure out the possibility of using this to create a treatment for people suffering from high blood pressure.

"Despite the treatment's potential, using gas to treat high blood pressure has yet to be tested on humans," the Sun quoted Professor Yao Yuyu from the uni's Zhongda Hospital as saying.

"The effective dosage could prove difficult to establish due to the difference in size between humans and mice."

"The gas could also have negative effects on other parts of the body," he added.

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