I've heard all kinds of abdominal gurgling in massage sessions, and I have also heard apologies time and time again. The truth is, no apology is ever needed when your stomach decides to let itself be heard!
Here are some of the little know facts as to what it is and why:
- There is actually a term for 'the rumbling or gurgling noise made by the fluid or gas moving through the intestines' it is called borborygmus (bor-bo-ryg-mus)
- When your back is getting massaged - especially the lower back- your intestines are getting some of the benefit, they sit just beneath the muscles, and this helps to improve their function.
- When our brains perceive stress, our body takes it as a sign of distress and goes on high alert, which slows down our rest and digest system, and puts our energy and resources into our fight or flight system instead, it diverts blood flow and resources to our arms and legs (so we can punch or run), to our eyes (to see what we are hitting or where we are running), and to our hearts and lungs. *the stress can be due to work deadlines, driving on winter roads, an argument with a friend or partner, or even just seeing a spider on the roof over there, we are a pretty high stress society!.
- The part of the nervous system (parasympathetic) that is responsible for getting our digestive system working is coined as the 'rest and digest' division. The reason being, when we enter into a relaxed state, it signals to the body it is the optimal time to digest and kicks our digestive system into working.
-or you could just be hungry.
So during a massage your body gets time for much needed rest and starts (or resumes) getting to it's digestive work, which leads to all kinds of noise, which quite frankly, as a holistic massage therapist, I don't really even notice nearly as much as you do (and I am happy to hear it, it means you are relaxing!). So do yourself a favor and when you hear a gurgle, take a moment to just be happy that your body is doing an amazing job, and just go back to relaxing!
