When it comes to farting, experts have found that the female is indeed deadlier than the male – and they think they know why after conducting tests which saw judges conduct blind sniff tests
A boffin who revels in the moniker ‘The King of Farts’ has good news and bad news for women worried about the whiff when they break wind.
Science now reveals the female fart is deadlier than the male – but an extra-niffy bottom blast can protect us from Alzheimer’s.
We all trump up to 23 times a day, according to Dr Michael Levitt, the ‘King of Farts’. But the gastroenterologist has been studying bottom burps for almost 30 years to find out which guffs batter our nostrils the hardest and why.
The results from his research since 1998 are now in. And men win for volume, passing larger amounts of gas. But women deliver a “significantly higher concentration” of the whiffiest elements of a fart, giving their air biscuits a “greater odour intensity”.
Dr Michael Levitt recruited 16 healthy adults with no history of gastrointestinal issues for his study. Each strapped on a “flatus collection system” with a tube up their bum connected to a bag.
The test subjects enjoyed a dish of pinto beans with a laxative for dessert. Then the researchers collected the farts that followed.
Levitt and his colleagues not only used gas chromatographic-mass spectroscopic analysis to break down exactly what went into those bags. They also put the samples to a sniff test.
Two judges were brought in to rate each fart on a scale of 0 to 8, with 8 being “very offensive”. The judges weren’t warned, though, that they were sniffing human farts.
The researchers found that the main gases responsible for the pong of human farts are sulphur-containing compounds, especially hydrogen sulphide, the chemical behind the classic stink of rotten eggs.
Female farts carry “significantly” more of these eye-watering gases so deliver “greater odour intensity”, boffins said.
The research won’t be welcomed by heterosexual women, who were revealed in a 2005 study as most bothered about people hearing or smelling when they pass wind. Heterosexual men were least fussed about blowing off.
But a truly reeking toot has an unexpected health bonus. Hydrogen sulphide, while poisonous in big amounts, can help protect our brains in the doses delivered when a lady lets rip.
The pongy gas helps brain cells communicate by chemically tweaking proteins in a process called sulfydration. This process decline with age, especially in patients with Alzheimer’s.
A 2021 study by Johns Hopkins Medicine gave genetically engineered mice a hydrogen sulphide-carrying compound called NaGYY and studied them over 12 weeks. Tests found hydrogen sulphide improved cognitive and motor function by 50%.
Do your partners farts smell worse than yours? Let us know at webnews@dailystar.co.uk
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