Stinky Farts

When I was 12 years old, staying with my grandparents in Hawai'i with the rest of my family (well, my sister, and my three cousins), I got in trouble for farting too much one day.

Seriously. The smell was awful, and I was being a bully farting everywhere, that I finally was put on restriction.

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice's blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents' blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is "no doubt" produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

(Turning on fan). If I didn't get my blood pressure medicine for free, I might have had to consider discussing the alternative ... a prescription to fart anywhere, anytime, in public!