Monday, August 18, 2008

Chew Gum And Pass Gas


Yes, that's right! This is a headline at BBC News. Well, actually not. The article is entitled "Chewing Gum Aids Bowel Recovery." Here's the deal. When anyone has surgery of their bowel, the normal course is to wait until the bowel starts working again. Which can take a few hours to a few days - there is no real way to predict.

What this study showed is that those patients who chewed gum started their bowels moving sooner than those who did not chew gum. Why is that important? Well, it will decrease recovery time and potentially decrease the number of days in the hospital. And, we all want that, right?

Now, I have to admit something to all of you. When I first glanced at this story, I first thought, "How can chewing and swallowing the gum help following bowel surgery?" Didn't you have that thought as well? No? Ok, well it kind of sounded funny when I wrote it. I guess that's what happens when one doesn't edit. Did I also tell you that I'm trying to get back to writing blog posts? I know, I'll keep working on it.

1 comment:

Mary said...

It makes all the sense in the world when you know that gum is magical! Haha, but seriously, that's a weird discovery! I wonder if it depends what kind of gum, or if the bowels recover faster with a different flavor?? That'd be neat. Then they could use that in their advertising. "Juicy Juice stimulates the nerves in YOUR digestive system five times faster than Trident!!" Hahaha!

Awesome find!