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Comment by dsego | Hacker News Reader

Not related to beans, but I had serious issues with bloating, gas and bad smell comparable to sewage. It went on for years until I had a short massage to adjust my stomach, the lady was pushing and shifting things around. This was a few months ago. Ever since I haven't had that type of gas, and I burp now which I haven't for years. I didn't change my diet at all.

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Not my field, but I wonder if this could have been a case of a bezoar of some kind, perhaps Phytobezoar[0], that got loosened by the massage?

After seeing reports[1] a few years back about the use of Coke as a non invasive way to clean these out, I now drink the stuff when my stomach is upset. With n=1 I can report it has a real effect on me.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytobezoar

[1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3292399/

I clicked the link out of interest but am quite happy that the article had no image.

Could be, almost like something was trapped and fermented inside.

Years of digestive issues resolved by a single massage? I've never heard of an outcome like that before. Could you explain more about how it worked and what this lady's approach purported to do? Who was she? Genuinely curious!

Sounded like alternative medicine, but it was supposedly centering my stomach or adjusting the intestines to be in their optimal place, e.g. some people have organ displacement, the stomach is too low or too high, and somehow that affects digestion and health.

Was this a normal body massage, where they also worked on your stomach or specifically a massage for the stomach promising a cure for your specific issues?

Sounds like the massage moved his intestines around

I understood that. Just wanted to know if the masseuse specifically pitched the idea to OP, after hearing his complaint or whether it was just a happy co-incidence.

It's a specific alternative therapy, a traditional practice associated with adjusting or repositioning the stomach in folk healing. The woman who performed this on me is a physiotherapist.

Thanks for clarifying it - does this alternative therapy have a name?

Honestly, I don't know, translated it would be stomach alignment, it was popularized by a traditional healer and herbalist nun who lived in Bosnia.

Did the massage trigger a giant fart? I would be terrified of somebody massaging my stomach, lol

It felt uncomfortable and I needed to pass gas but managed to hold it.

There are yoga poses that can be done solo, that have the effect of massaging internal organs. This can also be helpful for the lymphatic system, in which lymph circulates passively, encouraged by movement of the relevant body parts.

Do you know the name of those poses by chance?

Are you a Batman villain by any chance?

Please say more; this is breaking my brain.

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