• Question: Why do our stomachs rumble ?

    Asked by AmyC on 19 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Rachel Allen

      Rachel Allen answered on 19 Nov 2020:


      This is your brains way of reminding you to eat! When your stomach has been empty for a couple of hours your stomach starts making a chemical messenger called a hormone. This hormone travels to your brain and lets your brain know it needs to start moving the stomach. Your brain then sends an electrical message to your stomach which causes it to move. This gets the stomach ready to digest food once you eat.

    • Photo: Ellen Twomey

      Ellen Twomey answered on 20 Nov 2020:


      The rumbling noise comes from the liquid, (stomach acid and digest food), and gas moving out of your stomach! When you haven’t eaten in a while and get hungry, you brain sends a signal to your stomach to get ready to eat food. This signal causes the stomach muscles to tense up, and move food and gas out of the stomach to the small intestine which makes a noise. This noise can also happen if you have eaten lots, which is why your stomach makes a gurgling noise if you are very full.

    • Photo: Alannah McDonnell

      Alannah McDonnell answered on 20 Nov 2020:


      Great question! Lots of different things go through our stomach and into our intestines: like food, liquid or air. Our stomach rumbles sometimes as these things are being moved around!
      The sounds can sometimes be louder when we’re hungry because there is less food or liquid in the way to muffle the sound.

    • Photo: Sarah-Beth Bradley

      Sarah-Beth Bradley answered on 20 Nov 2020:


      Rachel and Ellen gave great answers to this. Fun fact: this noise is also called ‘borborygmi’!

    • Photo: Eoin Gillespie

      Eoin Gillespie answered on 24 Nov 2020:


      Some of the other scientists have given great explanations, but did you know that the growling and rumbling noises do not always come from from the stomach! They can also come from the small intestine further along the digestive tract.

    • Photo: Charlene Rodriguez

      Charlene Rodriguez answered on 25 Nov 2020:


      The other scientists gave great answers but yes, the rumble is our brain sending a signal to the digestive organs to tell you it’s time to eat!

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