Chewing Gum Is Good For The Brain And Can Boost Alertness By 10%
Forget those teachers who told you not to chew gum, as new evidence suggests that chewing gum is actually good for your brain, and can stimulate alertness and brain activity by 10%.
Chewing gum is actually quite good for the brain, according to the Japanese research published in the journal Brain and Cognition, as up to eight areas of the brain are affected by chewing.
Chewing temporarily increases blood flow to the brain, which may be the reason why the act increases brain activity.
Volunteers were asked to carry out tasks while chewing and not chewing gum.
While they completely the tasks, their brains were scanned.
During the tests, participants pressed a button with their left or right thumb in response to the direction of an arrow on a screen.
Those who were not chewing took 545 milliseconds to react, compared with 493 milliseconds among the chewers.
The brain regions most active during chewing were those involved with movement and attention.
“The effects of chewing on reaction time are profound. Perhaps football managers arrived at the idea of chewing gum by accident, but they seem to be on the right track,” said Professor Andy Smith of Cardiff University, a leading specialist in health-related behavior.
“Our results suggest that chewing induced an increase in the arousal level and alertness in addition to an effect on motor control and, as a consequence, these effects could lead to improvements in cognitive performance.”
So chew away, and get those juices flowing to your brain! It can’t hurt, right?
Jordan Shepherd | Elite.
