Chewing gum reduces stress and builds concentration!

Gum reduces stress and builds concentration, says Lisa Salmon

INCESSANT gum chewers — with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson chief among them — could be onto something. Besides freshening your breath and improving dental health, new research has shown that chewing sugar-free gum helps people concentrate for longer, possibly by increasing blood flow to the brain — and previous studies have suggested it can also reduce chronic stress.

The most recent chewing gum study, published this month by researchers at Cardiff University, asked one group of people to chew gum and another not to as they completed a 30-minute audio memory task that involved listening to a list of numbers and spotting certain sequences. Those who chewed gum had quicker reactions and were more accurate than those who didn’t, especially towards the end of the task.

Previous research has found chewing gum can benefit various areas of cognition, and Dr Chris Miles, who led the latest Cardiff research, says: “Studies show that chewing gum makes people feel more alert. There’s quite good evidence that chewing gum increases the flow of oxygenated blood to certain areas of the brain.

“But if you ask people to chew without gum, you don’t get the same increase of blood flow, so it seems you need the resistance of gum in your mouth to produce the effect.”

He suggests that chewing gum might help to maintain concentration for someone driving late at night who found it hard to stay alert.

“It seems this continuous motion of chewing is what helps — you might have thought just moving your jaw would improve the blood flow, but you need the gum — and just one pellet per person was all that was needed in our task,” he says.

It’s not yet known how much of the effect is due to the properties of the gum, and Dr Miles adds: “Most people say they chew gum because it benefits their oral hygiene and freshens their breath, not because it benefits their attention.”

Indeed, research by market analysts Mintel has found that 92% of gum users chew it to freshen their breath.

But as well as fresh minty breath and increased alertness, chewing gum has an additional strength — a 2011 review also carried out by Cardiff University psychologists found some evidence that chewing gum reduces chronic stress.

The Cardiff studies didn’t look at the effect gum has on oral health, but Mintel research in December last year found that 58% of chewing gum users believe chewing gum helps keep teeth healthy.

The major effect of chewing gum is that saliva flow is hugely increased. Saliva is the mouth’s natural protective mechanism, containing salts that help remineralise teeth demineralised by sugary food acids and plaque bacteria.