Foul smelling gas?

I need some help here. I was speedreading an article a few days ago about the amino acid ornithine from 1999 that was blah blah, just casual amino acid hooplah to stay fresh.

What sparked my interest was a bit of info in this magazine I came across today that blew me out of the water. You know when that little lightbulb goes off over your head? I started putting two and two together and I'm kinda onto something here.. no joke.

Here's where I need ya'lls help and please don't be shy, this is big boy stuff here and you know I don't BS if any of you have read anything I've written.

From the experiences of those of you who have enter/exited flares have any of you noticed smelly (rotten egg, decayed flesh, etc) gas during an onset or exit of flare? This is all about putrescine and cadaverine at the moment.

For me over the years I have always noticed when a flare is about to hit I get rotten gas for a couple days. If I couldn't manage it and it turned into a flare, the gas was usually accompanied by loose BMs for a few more days. As the flare continued, the gas smell dissipated and was replaced by frequent and urgent loose BMs. It wasn't until I began to exit the flare and form mushies the gas returned and replaced the BMs. As I began to form solids and the BMs became less frequent the gas smell went away again and into remission I went.

Can any of you here relate to any of this or have had any deviations of this process?

Thank you guys and gals in advance.

Thank you for your response Mackster. I know alot of people don't like talking about this subject but it's for science. I'm trying to figure out how common it is and how much of a role it plays during onset and exit of flares. Could be a cause, not an effect. Idk.

Everyone wants a better understanding of this disease and its friends like you that help me do my thing. Thank you. This is everyone's chance to contribute a bit to assist some real science. I'm assimilating alot of good information from reading posts from everyone here.

Its a bit more complicated than just observing the gas and connecting dots my friend. Sheesh, give me some cred here.. I'm a biochemist not an observer.. Lol

I know this is probably a bunch of blah blah right now but this is where I'm at so far: (I promise I will make sense of it at some point, I just need to do some thinking for awhile)

A limiting step in polyamine synthesis/utilization is production of putrescine from ornithine. That all makes sense, but here's where it gets tricky.. This reaction is catalyzed by ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) yet inhibited by difluoromethylornithine. ODC levels are skyrocketed when stress levels are increased. With that mouthful said, bacteria in the intestines produce large amounts of said polyamines. Polyamines are majorly responsible for the repair of ulcers in the mucosa..

Anyone see where I'm going with this yet? Hopefully it is tying in stress and bacterial imbalance. I'll try and clear it all up and make a better model of it all at some point when I can clear it all up in MY head first. haha. Alot of open-ended questions that need to be answered.

I'm not stupid my friends, I know what I'm talking about and this is real deal stuff. Call me crazy, but hopefully it will take a crazy guy like me to hit this moving target someday.

Thank you for your reply. I hear ya on the don't use the bathroom after me when flaring. Actually everyone knows not to use the bathroom after me even when not flaring. LOL. Strangely my dog has the same problem with gas. So does the cat, especially when company comes over. I'm sure they both secretly hate me after years of falsely being accused of gas issues and being ousted from the room. Not sure if anyone still buys it but it still gets a laugh. and so far from what I'm thinking you may not be all that far off with the increased intensity correlating to increased severity of the flare.

Its the odor that I'm paying attention to right now. It seems putrescine may be the indicator, or even the cause, of a biochemical imbalance.

Here's what I have so far (sorry about the lack of spacing, I'm just going to let it flow)

ODC levels are increased from stress, the more stress the higher the levels. That equals more putrescine made from ornithine (stinky). The main enzyme involved in polyamine regulation is ODC. Increased ODC levels from the stress possibly downregulates polyamine levels. This has the potential to affect bacterial populations as they are large producers of polyamines. Bacterial imbalance is created as the body tries to regulate the production of these polyamines so certain bacterial populations could be targeted if the body sees them as threat to this critical polyamine balance. This trigger could shift the microflora balance around so the bacteria that produce less polyamines are allowed to survive. This can be a major cause of food intolerance and could possibly allow for bad bacterial populations to increase temporarily, thus weakening the mucosa of the colon. This could be one of the reasons why we respond so favorably to probiotic supplements. While damage-repairing polyamines are being held in check, the mucosal lining is not being replenished fast enough.. thus creating bleeding ulcerations. The body's immune system now sees this as a threat and begins attacking the bacteriod infections caused in the perforation of the mucosal lining of the intestine (possibly naturally present B.Fragilis, or even some friendlies, and could be why pathogen testing comes up negative and why pus and mucus are found in stools). That could be why anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs work so well (polyamines affect gene expression) and why UC is thought of as an autoimmune disorder. The worse the mucosal lining gets, the more colon is affected. As these drugs hold the immune system in check (somewhat), the body is able to naturally resume its polyamine balance and begin healing. The genetic/hereditary component could be attributed to a genetic defect in the ability of the body to resume its polyamine balance correctly.

Thats my hypothesis so far. Its a bit out there right now and in raw form but agree with it or not, I managed to tie it all together with some hard science. Ugh, brain hurts now.

Thx my friend.. I welcome any and all input you have because I need brains like yours on this as well. Just from what I have read from you so far I respect your mind. Thank you my friend for going 20000 leagues under the sea with ole Capt Nemo here. Help me put some of these pieces together I'm missing in this puzzle.

I'll be honest I had to reread this hypothesis a few times myself this morning and I only got a couple hours of sleep last night. LOL, it was a bit in the deep end. Work is gonna be rough today.

It appears I completely destroyed the living room last night in my frenzy. Papers, printouts, magazines, open books, I actually managed to dig out my cellmol and biochem books from college. Lol. Not even going to get into what the computer zone looks like I'm sitting amongst..

I think I have a better chance of convincing you guys here I'm not crazy than my own family sometimes. LOL. They understand how I get.. I just hope I don't end up like that guy from A Beautiful mind movie and wake up one day in a mental hospital with my family sitting around me with loving concerned faces. A doc will walk in carrying a bunch of my assorted papers with gibberish, stick figures and smiley faces.. a testament to my "research." LOL.

I'm running low on time right now to get into anything and I'm going to attempt to pull this living room together quick before I get the "he's at it again speech". I need to do some thinking..

Thank you all so far.

ucwarrior,

What you posit is very interesting.

I've noticed that when I eat the wrong things: gluten, dairy, wheat - that's when I get the noxious, cadaverous gas.

And based on your postulate, it makes sense since your gut is unable to digest those food intolerances...creating stress... and thus a vicious cycle is borne?

Rotten egg smell, sulfur smell, probably do to increased SRB's.
Not enough sulfur detox going on in the colon.
To much sulfatase from bacteria in general,possibly,attacking the sulfur amino acids in the mucus,
and other proteins.
To much taurine conjugated bile, generating excess Bilophila wadsworthia.

Before my son got his first attack, he could clear a room for 15 minutes, bad sulfur smell.
I don't have much smell anymore, unlike my wife, who has what I would call healthy poo smell.
My son says americans don't know what healthy poo should smell like.
Speaking for myself I have not been able to find a aboriginal person to check poo smell.

Just noticed this is an old thread.

Old Mike

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 4/2/2015 3:19:29 PM (GMT-6)

Hello!

I've been lurking for over a year since my wife contracted UC in 2014. A colonoscopy showed minimal inflammation in her lower colon. The cramping's gone, but the mild bloating remains. She's a Thai national incidentally, 35 years old, medium build and weight, physically active and consumes a healthy diet.

Her symptoms are exactly the same. These occasional smelly farts DO precede a flair and I guess I didn't make the connection before. Her food choices are generally the same; fish, vegetables, fruit, rice... and that's it. I can't tell y'all enough how close to the edge of the bed I need to be just to keep my nose away from these suffocating toxic fumes. I'd go far enough to say her gas is flammable. It only occurs during the span of about 24 to 36 hours, then afterwards it subsides followed by sudden urges to rush to the nearest toilet five or six times daily. The crushed pink Prednisone enemas clears things up rather quickly after that.

"Perhaps it was something she ate." I'd think, yet never tends to deviates from her strict food regimen. We're trying different things: yogurt with live bacteria in it, Thai tree bark juice for now. We're not even sure if that or the Salofalk is even working. I guess we'll know with further experimentation.

* She's currently taking 750mg Salofalk (250mg x 3), Vitamin D 2000ui, Magnesium supplements.
* Crushed Prednisone enemas whenever needed.

I have the same issue as most of the posters.. for a couple of days ahead of the flare I get the sulphurous smelling gas... it is disgusting and does smell like something died. My flares are now so painful that I have to go on prednisone almost immediately so the gas goes away in a few days.

I get nasty gas too, but it seems to be less of a problem as long as I don't have Red meat, eggs or other foods that break down into a lot of gas.
I think it's awful that your boss made you quit. Honestly having to quit or being fired from jobs because of my UC is one of my biggest fears for my future life with this condition.

I think that stinks ( no pun intended)
It's horrible to lose your job because of UC
And I also noticed before I got really sick that my farts were horrific and lingering

I experience this as well - very foul gas while entering and exiting a flare but not much gas or smell during a flare.

I have the same experience as warten, UCfishD, suffering succatash, talliecat, McCool and Carlie. Evil smelling gas a few days before serious symptoms of a flare appear. In fact, this smell is my 'Oh crap!' trigger when alarm bells start to go off. As for causes, I suppose this odor occurs because your microbial flora (your gut bacteria) have gone out of balance - the good guys are getting massacred and the bad guys are taking over (I suppose).

Ipoop that's got to be the funniest description of a fart I have ever read in my life.