Health & wellness

Benefits Of Chewing Gum For Body And Mind

benefits of chewing gum for body and mind.

Everybody loves chewing gum; they’d pop up with something sweet while walking, relaxing, after a meal or just enjoying their oral fixation. Although you may already know that chewing gum is good for your teeth and keeping your mouth clean, there is also a range of other unexpected health benefits. Continue reading about the benefits of chewing gum for body and mind.

Benefits Of Chewing Gum For Body And Mind

Like other stuff, chewing gum can have adverse consequences for certain people if done excessively, such as jaw strain and migraines. Positive effects of chewing gum, however, can be obtained every day with mild use. Some of the benefits of chewing gum for body and mind are as follows:

 1. Improves Concentration

Now that we are heavily dependent on technology, with all the reports and images online, it’s easy to get distracted.

But, by popping a piece of gum in your mouth, it can help you focus more.

Repetition and monotonous chewing enable the minds of people to remain alert. Gum chewers have been shown to have faster reaction times and a better ability to remember facts.

2. Protects And Whitens Teeth

After meals, chewing sugar-free gum can help neutralize acids that can damage your teeth.

Chewing gum also increases the production of saliva, which helps to wash away food particles between the teeth.

Nevertheless, sugary gum can actually have the opposite effect on the teeth, and anyone who has jaw pain or clicking must refrain from chewing.

3. Manages Your Weight

If you try to lose weight, chewing gum is a good way to keep the cravings at bay. Sugar-free gum is a great way to immediately reward yourself without all the extra calories or tricking your brain when you feel anxious about a sugar snack.

This is also a good way to stop you from unhealthy nibbles of high-calorie snacks while watching television and relaxing.

So if you’re looking to avoid your food cravings, pick a gum stick instead of a candy snack to take out all the unnecessary calories.

4. Sharpens Your Memory

While chewing gum has no direct influence on the digestive process, chewing gum before a meal actually improves digestion.

This happens because the chewing action stimulates the mouth to produce saliva and the stomach to produce digestive acids effectively preparing the system for a meal.

Therefore, not only will it ease in swallowing food, but it also improves digestion by getting the stomach ready. Chewing gum after a meal not only helps keep the mouth healthy but also helps in avoiding indigestion by further stimulating the digestive process.

5. Prevents Dry Mouth

Because chewing gum can help stimulate your glands to produce more saliva, the effects of dry mouth can be treated greatly.

6. Combats Acid Reflux

Acid reflux is a complex problem where stomach acids are congested by the esophagus and the lungs at the same time, triggering the common burning feeling in the throat or neck.

Surprisingly, by clearing the food pipe and neutralizing the acids to give some relief, chewing gum is a good way to ease acid reflux. One study shows that by rising the swallowing reflex and neutralizing the acids, chewing gum clears the esophagus as the gum makes the saliva more alkaline.

It ensures that, while reducing inflammation, the acid reflux is minimized to give you a calming relief.

6. Fights Nausea

People susceptible to morning sickness or motion sickness can be relieved to chew on a piece of gum, particularly the herbal types that contain ginger to improve the production and digestion of salivary.

Surprisingly, even a recent study shows that chewing gum can be as effective for nausea as prescription drugs.

Chewing gums are also often recommended by physicians for a relaxation of the digestive system after a major bowel surgery Further studies support this procedure, due to its lack of side effects and its low costs as an effective intervention.

7. Freshens Breath

This is certainly a no-brainer; gum is the simplest, most effective way if you need to freshen your breath but don’t have a handy toothbrush.

In most gums, the mint taste hides any unpleasant odors, while the extra saliva helps to wash out any excess food that may cause odd odors.

8. Gets Rid Of Your “Earworms

Although this is definitely not the most urgent medical way, it is something that almost all of us have experienced at one time or another.

“Earworms” is when you get a song stuck in your head and you find yourself singing it or talking about it all day long.

But studies show that the same parts of your brain that play a song over and over again get distracted by the repetitive nature of chewing gum— so you can get that song out of your head!

9. Lowers Stress and Anxiety

If you’ve ever been nervous or anxious, you’ll find that for relaxation you’re shaking your legs and biting your nails, chewing gum is more or less the same in stressful situations.

It’s just as nice to chew on a piece of gum to release your nervous energy and relieve instinctive nervous habits easier. One research in 2011 revealed that participants found that those who chewed gum twice a day for two weeks reported significantly lower levels of anxiety than non-chewers.

Among gun-chewers, they also observed lower levels of fatigue and higher moods. Because of the reduction of the stress hormone cortisol, it brings to people, it is believed that chewing gum has a calming effect.

10. Keeps You Alert And Awake

Constant chewing while you snack on a piece of gum potentially stimulates your facial muscles.

It encourages blood flow across the body as it is not a blinking eye-like voluntary reaction.

When you do something long and boring like driving long distances, the blood flow helps keep you alert and concentrated.

These are some of the benefits of chewing gum for body and mind.

You should chew at least three pieces of gum a day. For the best results for your teeth, one after every meal. For the rest of the health benefits, more gum or two during the day should be perfect. If you reach numbers like fifteen out of twenty chewing gum a day, this is the area of danger.

This takes us to the question that chewing gum is good for your health? The response is mostly yes; when you moderately chew gum. It is best to stick to that when you begin to notice the positive effects and not try to overdo it.

Also Read: What Are The Benefits Of Cycling?

 

DISCLAIMER: These benefits may not show results to the people having medical conditions. Results may vary from person to person.

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