It's a smelly subject, in some cases breathtaking, but I think it's worth talking about flatulence in this page. It's a situation that I find creeping up more and more frequently in my life. Up to the age of 40 I had only sporadic personal experiences with emitting gas. It happened so rarely that I remember thinking the boys in high school were not just exaggerating but over-exaggerating as they recounted veritable epistles on "holding it in" when meeting the parents of a girlfriend or even while alone with the girlfriend.They would knowing nod through these long accounts, laughing not so much at, as with, the storyteller. I always felt it was some male ego type of thing to relay these tales.When I started at the Gazette over 10 years ago, there were two men (boys) who had an ongoing farting competition. When each felt "one" coming he would dash to the desk of the other, make the pronouncement, then let it go — hoping that it merited expletives or at least exclamations of it's malodorous integrity.Being the consummate lady I cannot boast what I myself have been able to produce in the past few years. It's completely embarrassing and even at home alone, I fly out of the house in an attempt not to knock myself out.I've researched the matter and discovered that it's a common consequence of ageing. Gas enters our digestive tract by swallowing. We actually swallow air as we eat. Gas is also produced in the digestive tract in the chemical interaction of enzymes on the food and the work of microorganisms in the gut that are also breaking down the food. The work of some bacteria on carbohydrates in the intestines, for example, is fermentation. Gas is a product of fermentation.The American National Health Institute reports that flatus gases, that is gases released through the anus, mainly contain carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, methane and some sulphur. It's the sulphur that makes it olfactory detectable (the methane gives it a flammable quality).As we age our intestinal enzymes often work differently and we tend to metabolise our food at a slower rate. This slower rate results in more gas being produced and thus more flatulence.Scientists have also discovered that many people stop producing lactase, the enzyme that breaks down the milk sugar lactose. Without lactase people become lactose intolerant. The milk sugar then moves to the intestines where it ferments and can cause flatulence and also bloating.People who have become lactose intolerant often completely resolve flatulence problems by removing dairy from their diets or by taking the enzyme lactase. This enzyme is in probiotic yoghurt.In my case, flatulence would appear to be the result of a slowed metabolism and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh apples, broccoli, cauliflower and onions entered my diet around age 40, and they are big flatulence culprits. Bananas were also on one list I read and I've always eaten them (great source of magnesium). I know I'm much healthier eating the fresh food so I won't stop. I'll eat less, get more exercise to raise my metabolism and stay outside in the "fresh" breeze more.