I have noticed that the gas is much smellier when I haven’t had a bowel movement within the last day. My hypothesis is that the gas itself doesn’t smell bad. But the gas seems to get the bad odor when it’s exposed to fecal matter.
What works for me to reduce gas smell: Consuming caffeine in the morning, and using a bidet sprayer to make sure my colon is cleaned out.
I’ve been ramping up my acarbose use, and it’s been quite a learning experience. For me, broccoli under certain conditions can trigger truly awful gas. Increased gas production seems unavoidable to some degree — but as long as I can prevent diarrhea, I plan to continue using acarbose.
The diarrhea side of things (really, stool consistency) can be managed quite well with undigestible fibers like psyllium, chia, and flax. Getting the timing and dose right took some messy trial and error, and I can understand why many people would find that process unacceptable. Even now, when I try new foods, I have to go with little or no acarbose until I know how my system will react.
(edited) I’ve experimented with higher doses of acarbose and tolerated them well, but only while on a strict high-fiber diet. I’ve recently settled on the standard 3×100 mg daily dosing, which gives me greater flexibility in food choices. From what I’ve read, that dose likely reaches near-maximum saturation for both gut and longevity benefits.
Yes. I have found that if I am very regular, the gas is odorless. I usually have a BM first thing in the morning and 2-3 more during the day. I am very regular. I believe that this regularity comes from the magnesium citrate and other supplements I take.
Prodigious Gas just vanished! Until about a week ago I had epic gas on my acarbose routine, 600mg, sometimes 7, 8 or rarely 900mg a day. If I’m putting carbs/sugar in my mouth, acarbose is going in first. And I had the gas to prove it. I would guesstimate 20x normal production. I’m not a social person, but just getting around the gym I would have several to dozens of flatulence depending on when I had eaten. I do not recall knowing or meeting anyone who would tolerate that level of gas, from a sender or a reciever perspective.
It just “disappeared” a few days ago. I tried pushing it; 300mg and a full package of original ramen noodles, nothing silence. I thought maybe since I left the acarbose bottle out during the day (frequent use) and the sun hit in in the afternoon, that maybe it was “ruined”, but got out a new bottle and still silence.
I checked with AI and it said that my methane consumers reached a critical threshold and boom they take over and munch up all the gas.
But another thing crossed my mind I recently started using Kefir Labs product, high dollar kefir, like $1.50 an oz, $10 a small bottle, and also Bubbies sauerkraut and pickles. AI said they could have helped but still leaned towards the slow accumulation of biome till it naturally reached the explosion point, but accepted that Kefir Labs product could well have introduced new players.
I tried a few more heavy/weird carb/sugar “challeges” but still no gas, its just gone. I think I’ll do another poop biome test, will post results.
I think it is dependent on diet: food with high FOODMAP/ gluten / wheat don’t mix well with Acarbose.
Food like rice and chicken gives less side effects from Acarbose
Have any of you measured the effectiveness of taking acarbose? What I’m wondering is if the gas disappearing is an indicator of lowered effectiveness of Acarbose in reducing glucose spikes?
I’m thinking about doing experiments like that myself. For example, eating a standardized meal first thing in the morning for breakfast, And measuring glucose spike and AUC for a certain amount of time after the meal. Once I have a baseline it would be much easier to see if acarbose is more, or less effective, when I have gas.
That is a logical possiblity that I hadn’t considered. Although I don’t recall it ever being mentioned in the studies I looked over. ChapGPT indicated that mice who “lost” the gas later benefited more regarding longevity, but that sounded kind of flaky to me so I never followed up.
