In 2003, Raffaella Dainese and co-authors set out determine the optimal body position to pass gas. Their study was published in the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology:
Patients with irritable bowel syndrome and functional bloating frequently report that abdominal symptoms, such as bloating and distension that they attribute to intestinal gas, develop progressively during the day and tend to resolve with bed rest.1 However, the effect of body posture on intestinal gas transit and evacuation has not been investigated.
As gas within the abdominal cavity tends to float and rise to the top, theoretically caudal gas progression would be facilitated in the supine position. Hence we hypothesised that intestinal gas transit and evacuation are enhanced in the supine compared with the upright position. Using a new technique developed in our laboratory,2 we compared the effect of body posture, upright versus supine, on gas transit.
Read the article for the findings.
Two words to take from this: Party Trivia.