(1888PressRelease)
March 30, 2007 - A burp is the process where gas is released from the digestive tract through the mouth in a sudden and violent expulsion. A burp can be accompanied by a typical belching sound and sometimes a pungent odor.
Burping is also known as belching or eructation. Most commonly a burp occurs when we drink or eat to fast. While eating fast, we swallow more air and need to expel it due to discomfort. The air expelled during a burp is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. While the sound of burping is caused by a vibration of the cardia as the gas travels through the esophagus.
From a social point of view, a burp is considered impolite so the majority of burping humans prefer to cover their mouth with a hand. This gesture is similar to the one used to cover a yawn. However children consider burping as a humorous act and they often engage in contests to determine who can produce the loudest burp or similar related burping games. There are also some cultures, which do not consider a burp as an impolite event (for example the Bengali people).
Another form of belching is burped speech. This can be done voluntarily by swallowing air and then forcefully expelling it to form words or more commonly the alphabet. The vocal tract is manipulated and burped speech is produced. This trick is often used by children as a means of entertainment, but it can also be useful for people who have undergone laryngectomy, with the burp replacing laryngeal phonation or speech. This is known as esophageal speech.
We can also speak of infant burping as another particular form of belching.
Yes it is true, burps also occur in infants because babies are sensible to gas accumulation in the stomach while feeding and this can cause considerable agitation to the child unless it is burped. The act of burping an infant involves placing the child in a position that is favorable to gas expulsion. Such a position would be to place the baby over the adult's shoulder, with the infant's stomach resting on the adult's chest. The infant is patted on the lower back and a burp should occur. There is also a side effect from burping infants. Burps can cause vomiting in young babies and adults are advised to place a burp cloth or burp pad on their shoulder in order to protect their clothing from an inadvertent discharge of foods.
In the end, I want to mention an interesting fact about burps. In 2000 Paul Hunn, a London man, set the Guinness world record for the loudest burp.
The burping sound hit the 118.1 decibels mark. To give you an idea about how loud this is, it is considerably louder than a chainsaw at a distance of 1 meter.
We can conclude that whether we like it or not a burp can occur quite often in us humans. In order to avoid a sonic burp, try to eat slower and avoid gulping large amounts of air while eating. When you feel that a burp is imminent, you could go to a private location such as the restroom in order to minimize the burp effect on the surrounding public, although, the urge to burp is usually too intense to relocate to a more private location.
For more information please visit www.planmarc.com/burp.html
