Scientists develop first-ever fart measuring underwear

Scientists in America have created a rather unusual type of underwear.

For the first time ever, a new, tiny wearable device has been designed to measure human farts.

By recording the amount of certain gases produced, experts say the new invention will help researchers track how often people pass wind.

It's hoped that the information collected could help them better understand a range of health issues which affect human digestion.

Farting - or flatulence to give it its scientific name - is a natural part of human digestion.

It mainly occurs as a result of harmless bacteria, called microbes, which live in the human gut.

They help the body by releasing nutrients from the food we eat, however by doing so, they create gases such as hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulphide.

Some of these gases are naturally absorbed by your body, but the rest has to go somewhere - hence why we fart.

The new invention was created by experts at the University of Maryland in the United States.

They developed a tiny wearable device that can be attached onto underwear.

Researchers say it uses special sensors which can track this gas production by the body, around the clock.

It might seem an unusual thing to look at, however the team explained why this was important.

Professor Brantley Hall, from the University of Maryland, said: "We don't actually know what normal flatus [fart] production looks like.

"Without that baseline, it's hard to know when someone's gas production is truly excessive."

The team say they have already made some discoveries thanks to the device.

They found that healthy adults fart an average of 32 times per day - around double the previous estimate.

Some people passed wind more than others, with daily totals ranging from as few as four, to as many as 59.

Experts say that by finding out more about how diet and microbes affect the amount of gas people produce, it could help them better understand a range of health issues that can affect human digestion, such as food intolerance's.

"We've learned a tremendous amount about which microbes live in the gut, but less about what they're actually doing at any given moment," Professor Hall added.