What is actually happening inside of you when your stomach growls?

Question

just curious. and pls explain in simple terms, not difficult medical terminology. thanks!

Answer 1

Your stomach is a muscle. When food enters the stomach, the stomach squeezes together. The walls of the stomach press against the food and break it into smaller pieces.

But what happens if there is no food in your stomach? The walls of the stomach press against each other and make noise. These are the growls you hear when you are hungry.

To stop your stomach from growling, make sure there is always a little bit of food in it. You can do this by eating a healthful breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Don't skip breakfast. If you do, your stomach will be growling.


http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-16808566.html

here's more:

Everyone’s stomach growls, some growl more than others. The growls, technically called borborygmi (pronounced BOR-boh-RIG-mee), are caused primarily by contractions of the muscles of the stomach and small intestine and, to a lesser extent, by contractions of the muscles of the large intestine (colon).

The stomach and intestines are hollow organs consisting primarily of muscle. The muscles are important for digesting food. Different actions of the muscles can cause the food to be ground, mixed, stored, and transported along the length of the intestine and expelled. As part of the process of digestion, fluid is secreted into the stomach and intestines. Gas also appears in the stomach and intestines either as a result of swallowing air or production of gasses by intestinal bacteria. Thus the stomach and intestines contain a mixture of digesting food, liquid, and gas.

As the muscles of the stomach and intestines contract and squeeze their contents, the contents move. It is the movement of the food, liquid, and particularly the gas that gives rise to borborygmi. Because food, liquid, and gas are most commonly present in the intestines after a meal, this is the time when we most frequently are aware of borborygmi. We also may be more aware of them at night while lying in bed because—at least if the TV is not turned on--it is quiet.

Borborygmi may be prominent in a few abnormal conditions. Thus, they may occur when there is physical obstruction of the intestine that blocks the transport of the digesting food, for example, by a tumor. Because of the blockage, muscle behind the blockage contracts more strongly and frequently trying to overcome the blockage. This can give rise to louder borborygmi. Unlike normal borborygmi, however, the borborygmi associated with obstruction usually are associated with crampy abdominal pain. If the obstruction is not relieved, the muscle eventually gets tired and stops contracting. The cramps stop, gas and fluid continue to collect behind the obstruction, and the abdomen swells.

Another situation in which borborygmi may be prominent is a condition called bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine. In this condition, gas-producing bacteria increase in numbers in the small intestine and produce abnormally large amounts of gas. The increased amount of gas (and possibly stronger contractions of the intestinal muscles caused by additional distention of the intestine by gas) gives rise to louder borborygmi. Bacterial overgrowth often—but not always--gives rise to an increased amount of flatulence (farting) and even abdominal bloating or distention.

Sometimes there is no explanation for prominent borborygmi. I remember a friend who called me about his teenage daughter who was having a difficult time with her first period study hall in high school. It seemed that she was having embarrassingly-loud borborygmi made even worse by the fact that the school room was quiet. The daughter was healthy and without other gastrointestinal symptoms. Fortunately, we were able to solve the problem by giving her a teaspoon of olive oil with her breakfast. (Fatty acids that are released from the digestion of fat and oils in the intestine are potent blockers of intestinal contractions. The olive oil reduced her borborygmi by reducing the strength of her intestinal contractions.)

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=77935

Answer 2

When you hear the noise of your "stomach growling," it's actually not coming from your stomach. Your gastrointestinal tract is one long pipe from your mouth to your anus. It's filled with food/stool and air/gas. There are a few points along the way where the path narrows to a really small opening. When the food/stool and air/gas pass through these small openings, it makes noise (similar to the way that gas makes noise when it comes out the small, constricted opening at your anus). Your entire GI tract (not just your stomach) is continually contracting and relaxing throughout the day to push its contents along, so periodically there is some stuff passing through these small constrictures. The sound sort of reverberates through your insides before making the sound you hear.

It's sort of like an internal fart ;)

Answer 3

The medical term is borborygmi.
In simple terms, the food and water you eat all turns into a liquid slop called 'chyme', along with quite a bit of gas.
It moves through your 5-6 meters of guts slowly over a few hours, by 'peristalsis', which means slow waves of contraction.
Every now and again there are bigger strong waves of contraction that flow through the gut muscle, forcing the chyme along with more force. The chyme then moves with a gush through downstream gut, and gas moves back or forth where food isn't, making a loud grumble.
OK?

Answer 4

Contractions of the empty stomach are known to be associated with hunger pangs in humans. The mechanism of hunger is more complicated than this, however, and is only incidentally related to the stomach.

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Answer 5

Your abdomen is often growling, whether you're hungry or no longer. the reason you will pay attention it once you're hungry is with the help of the fact your abdomen is empty and it echos. Its like yelling in a room packed with mattresses whilst in comparison with yelling interior a cave.

Answer 6

Well, your body liquids are wanting energy so they move through the body but I do not know how they make noise. sorry. I hope it helped anyway!

Answer 7

It's just gas moving through.