The hydrogen sulfide contained in flatus has the ability to help reduce blood pressure, according to a recent medical study, yet researchers at Zhongda Hospital at Southeast University in Nanjing are still unsure of the amount needed to be beneficial and whether patients are willing to accept "eating farts" as a form of treatment, reports our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.
The smell of flatus comes from hydrogen sulfide, a substance that has been proven effective in controlling blood pressure in mice in an experiment at John Hopkins University. The study has been published in the journal Science.
Despite the treatment's potential, using gas to treat high blood pressure has yet to be tested on humans, said Yao Yuyu, an associate professor at Southeast University. 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, Yao said.
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