Rare belching disorder could be treated with singing, study hints — but not everyone is convinced

People with a rare disorder that causes excessive burping may benefit from an unlikely treatment: singing therapy.

A new study suggests that this singing approach could offer a more engaging alternative to diaphragmatic breathing , or belly breathing, which involves engaging the diaphragm muscle to take very deep breaths.

This is commonly used to help patients stop burps before they happen.

As singing also involves diaphragmatic breathing , researchers wanted to determine if singing might be more engaging for patients while offering the same benefits.

Their results suggest it may actually offer superior benefits to the breathing exercises.

When it comes to singing, however, one expert told Live Science that the approach doesn't address the entire underlying issue behind the disorder, adding that the study had significant limitations.

No ordinary burps The burping disorder, called supragastric belching , doesn't involve ordinary burps.

Instead of releasing air that has collected in the stomach, people with the condition rapidly pull air out of their esophagus and then push it back out as a sort of belch.

"That is why it's called supragastric belching, because it's not gastric," said Dr.

Daniel Sifrim , a gastroenterologist at Queen Mary University of London who specializes in esophageal disorders and was not involved in the study. (The prefix "supra" here means "above," meaning supragastric belching occurs above the stomach.) Supragastric belching is considered a behavioral disorder , as the action is typically a learned response.

It may start when someone is feeling discomfort in the abdomen or experiencing symptoms of reflux and discovers that belching can help relieve the discomfort.

The person then repeats the movement until it becomes habitual, Sifrim explained.

Supragastric belching is considered pathological when it becomes "excessive" and causes significant distress to a person's quality of life.

While rare in the general population , the behavior is more common in people with reflux and other digestive disorders .