The number everyone quotes is about 14 times a day. It appears in textbooks, patient handouts, and clinic conversations. It now looks low.
Researchers at the University of Maryland built a small electrochemical sensor that snaps onto ordinary underwear and tracks intestinal gas continuously, day and night. In a study published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X and announced by the university, healthy adults averaged 32 flatus events per day. Individual totals ranged from four to 59.
