Splenic-flexure syndrome is a chronic disorder that may be caused by gas trapped at bends (flexures) in the colon. Crohn's disease, colon cancer, or any disease that causes intestinal obstruction, may also cause abdominal bloating. Internal hernias or adhesions (scar tissue) from surgery may cause bloating or pain.
For many years it was thought that the maximum number of folds that could be achieved was just seven! This was the case until when in 2002 American teenager Britney Gallivan demonstrated that a sheet of paper can be folded 12 times, provided that it is long enough and thin enough.
I assumed (incorrectly) that the U.S. flag was folded 13 times in honor of the first 13 U.S. states. Even though the practice of incorporating 13 folds did not begin because each fold had a specific meaning, specific meanings have subsequently come to be ascribed to each of the 13 folds.