I Am A 70 Year Old Male. I'm Vegetarian And

Posted on Mon, 29 Oct 2018

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 Answered on

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Question : I am a 70 year old male. I'm vegetarian and have been for years. For the last 4-5 years, my stomach gas has increasingly gotten worse. I'm not talking about after meal gas. My best example is overnight gas. Long after my last meal has been digested, I will wake up in the night, 4-5 times and burp repeatedly until I'm comfortable. They are not "excuse me" burps, but significant releases of gas. During most nights, I burp 20-40- times. I explored this with my Primary Care Person at the V.A. hospital last year and had an endoscopy with the results showing no significant problems. From what I have researched, bad bacteria seems to be the culprit.

Answered by Dr. Anders Mark Christensen (-4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Bacteria could certainly be responsible

Detailed Answer:
Hi Ruenique,

Small bowel bacterial overgrowth could certainly be the culprit. This can usually be resolved by oral antibiotics, e.g. metronidazole and cefuroxime. You could also try simethcone medicine, which should be prescribed by your doctor, just like the antibiotics.

Hope this helps.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad