What Is a 'Fart Walk' — and Can It Improve Your Health?
Wellness influencer Mairlyn Smith coined the term for the gassy after-dinner walk, saying it promotes good health — and doctors agree
Sorrasak Jar Tinyo/Getty; athima tongloom/Getty
Stock image of someone going for a walk; Stock image of someone in gastric distress.Wellness influencer Mairlyn Smith has coined the term "Fart Walk" for an after-dinner stroll that gets things gastrically moving
A “Fart Walk” can help regulate blood sugar, Dr. Matthew Kampert of the Cleveland Clinic tells PEOPLE — no matter what time of day you do it
“Walking is beneficial,” Kampert says, adding that the “fart aspect gets a lot of attention because it's comical”
A flatulent after-dinner stroll can limit your risk of type 2 diabetes and help regulate your blood sugar, claims wellness influencer Mairlyn Smith, who has dubbed the post-dinner stroll she regularly takes with her husband a “Fart Walk."
In the caption for the now-viral video, which has been viewed more than 465,000 times, she says “walking after dinner can help reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”
Experts say she's right about the health benefits.
Dr. Matthew Kampert, sport and exercise medicine physician with an appointment with orthopedic and endocrinology at the Cleveland Clinic, tells PEOPLE the release of gastric pressure is just one of the benefits of the "Fart Walk."
In terms of your digestion — and the aforementioned farts — he tells PEOPLE “after you have a meal, you have what's called the gastrocolic reflex. So whenever you put things in your mouth and you eat and you swallow, it stimulates your gut to move things forward. So it makes room for the food that you're eating.”
“So that's going stimulate things to empty from your stomach and your small intestine and your colon," Kampert tells PEOPLE. "The colon is where most of the bacteria is. It makes the gas.”
And the movement itself helps, he says. “Any time you're exercising — specifically walking or running — you use some of your muscles called hip flexors, specifically PSOAS muscle. The colon sits right over top of those muscles [and they] they gently massage the colon.”
Good Life Studio/Getty
Stock image of someone walking outside.But while you’re farting around town, you indeed may be reducing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as Smith said in her video.
“The whole thing with walking after you eat, it's going to help control your blood sugar. But the thing is: Walking at any point in time will help control your blood sugar,” Kampert tells PEOPLE.
“I would actually argue that exercising before eating is better,” he adds.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
And if you’re sedentary, or pre-diabetic, he says exercise is, indeed, key, and something low-impact like a Fart Walk would be a good place to start.
“It's really the people who have desk jobs. Sitting all day, they're middle-aged, they're slowly putting weight on, the blood sugar is slowly creeping up," Kampert says. "They're in that pre-diabetic range.”
Getty Images
Stock image of a person stepping on a scale.Related: Sherri Shepherd's Diabetes Drastically Improved 1 Year After Starting a No-Sugar Diet
As the Cleveland Clinic explains, type 2 diabetes is caused with “when cells in your muscles, fat and liver don’t respond as they should to insulin. Insulin is a hormone your pancreas makes that’s essential for life and regulating blood sugar levels.”
It can be caused by physical inactivity and excess fat — and up to 95% of the 37 million people in the U.S with diabetes have type 2.
Kampert cited a study that showed that “exercise was twice as effective as the Metformin,” which he explained is “one of the most common diabetes and pre-diabetes medications.”
Overall, he says, “I think the the fart aspect gets a lot of attention because it's comical and catchy.”
As for how she came up with the name, Smith explains, "We eat a lot of fiber, so we have gas. You fart when you walk, so that's why I named it that."
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Kampert wants to stress, though, that this benefit is mostly about getting the body moving. "The thing that I would highlight is that walking is beneficial. So do it early in the morning, if that works better with your schedule."
"You get the benefits by being physically active whatever time of day.”
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
