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THE EFFECTS OF CHEWING GUM ON MEMORY AND CONCENTRATION
Abstract
BACKGROUND Increases to functional attention as a result of pharmaceutical advances have enhanced the lives of individuals with attention deficit disorders and their ability to function properly during everyday life. [1] Although there have been many studies done on the relationship of memory, concentration and chewing gum, the question of does it really help students perform better in classwork such as tests has been vague. In order to further test this study, I set up a controlled testing environment, in which I observed and recorded student concentration behaviors and memory test scores, with and without chewing gum. METHODS Participants were subjected to experimental conditions (Chewing Gum vs. Not Chewing Gum) during two trails and were expected to perform random tasks as directed in the folders given to them. Students in the study were under video surveillance and the video footage was used to monitor expressive behavior that would indicate a distracted state over the course of the study. [1] RESULTS All sixteen subjects displayed distracted behaviors when gum was not presented to them in the non-chewing gum trial whereas, the same subjects were more focused and attentive when gum was presented to them in the gum chewing trial, regardless of the randomized trials. CONCLUSIONS After each trail was taken place, there was a high correlation between chewing gum with memory and concentration. As when the gum was not provided, participants did not engage in the activities assigned and lost focus.
Introduction: Cognition is the mental process of acquiring
knowledge and understanding through aspects such as
awareness, perception, reasoning, memory and judgement.
Chewing movement of jaw stimulates memory parts of brain by
increasing blood flow and glucose delivery. Taste and odour of
mint is also known to stimulate memory areas of the brain. The
synergistic effect of chewing and flavour is expected to have a
greater effect on cognition than chewing alone.
Aim: To assess the effect of use of mint flavoured, flavourless
and absence of chewing gum on an individual’s cognitive
function among the medical undergraduates.
Materials and Methods: This comparative, interventional study,
was conducted in the Department of Physiology at Velammal
Medical College and Hospital, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India,
August 2019 to September 2019. Study involved 75 (39 females,
36 males) MBBS first year students, aged 18-20 years. Only
students with cognitive score between 28-30 based on MiniMental State Exam (MMSE) score were included in the study
and were divided into 3 groups. Group A (n=25) who were given
mint flavoured chewing gum, Group B (n=25) given flavourless
chewing gum and Group C (n=25) the control group, not provided
with chewing gum. Baseline memory, Heart Rate (HR), Reaction
Time (RT) and Stress Levels (SL) were recorded. Groups were
taken into separate rooms where they were allowed to study a
particular topic i.e Parkinson’s disease for 30 minutes. Then they
were allowed to take tests on standard Parkinson’s questionnaire
for 20 minutes and assessed based on the test performance.
Group A and Group B were provided with chewing gums both
during studying the topic as well as taking tests. Post intervention
test performance (short term memory), HR, RT and SL were again
recorded. Test performance was also assessed after one month
to assess the effect of chewing gum on long term memory. Oneway Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and paired t-test were used to
compare all the post test parameters between the three groups.
Results: A statistically significant increase in short term memory
(p-value=0.001) and HR (p-value=0.001) were observed after
intervention. Similarly, short term memory level of the three
groups subjects statistically differed (p-value=0.001). When
considering the reaction time (p-value=0.068) and stress level
(p-value=0.927), there was no significant difference among the
three groups after the intervention. Assessment of the test scores
alone after one month (long term memory) showed a significantly
higher score (p-value
Background
Plasma uric acid has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome. Conflicting data regarding plasma uric acid levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus and their role in the development and progression of diabetic complications have been observed by many studies. The present study aimed to evaluate plasma uric acid levels in type 2 diabetic patients and to determine the effects of hypoglycemic drugs and pharmacologic insulin on plasma uric acid concentration.
Subjects and methods
The study included 162 type 2 diabetic patients divided into three groups (insulin taking group (N=58), glibenclamide taking group (N=40), and metformin taking group (N=64), and 47 normal healthy controls. A questionnaire that included variables such as age, sex, duration of disease, and body mass index (BMI) were answered by all the participants. Blood samples were collected and estimated for serum uric acid (SUA), fasting blood sugar (FBS), and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) using standard methods and the data were statistically analyzed.
Results
Diabetic patients showed a significant increase in serum uric acid, fasting blood sugar, glycated hemoglobin, and body mass index when compared to control subjects. The serum uric acid levels of metformin and glibenclamide taking groups were significantly higher than the control group. The difference of serum uric concentration between the insulin taking group and both the control and metformin groups was statistically non-significant. On the other hand, obese diabetics showed a significantly higher serum uric acid than overweight and lean diabetics. Furthermore, serum uric acid had a significant strong positive correlation with body mass index.
Conclusion
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with high serum uric acid levels. Hypoglycemic drugs and pharmacologic insulin do not have a large impact on SUA concentration, but obesity seems to be the primary determinant of SUA levels in T2DM patients. The condition of diabetes may have a direct effect on the oxidation of the purine nucleotides resulting in the increased uric acid (UA) levels. In addition, hyperinsulinemia could lead to hyperuricemia by increasing the rate of xanthine oxidase synthesis. There is a strong relationship between T2DM and obesity with high uric acid levels.
Recent research suggests that chewing gum may increase alertness and lead to changes in cognitive performance. The present study examined effects of chewing gum on these functions within the context of a single study.
This study had four main aims. The first was to examine whether chewing gum improved learning and memory of information in a story. The second aim was to determine whether chewing gum improved test performance on a validated intellectual task (the Alice Heim task). A third aim was to determine whether chewing gum improved performance on short memory tasks (immediate and delayed recall of a list of words, delayed recognition memory, retrieval from semantic memory, and a working memory task). The final aim was to determine whether chewing gum improved mood (alertness, calm and hedonic tone).
A cross-over design was used with gum and no-gum sessions being on consecutive weeks. In each week, volunteers attended for two sessions, two days apart. The first session assessed mood, immediate recall of information from a story and performance on short memory tasks. The second session assessed mood, delayed recall of information from a story and performance of an intelligence test (the Alice Heim test).
There were no significant effects of chewing gum on any aspect of recall of the story. Chewing gum improved the accuracy of performing the Alice Heim test which confirms the benefits of gum on test performance seen in an earlier study. Chewing gum had no significant effect on the short memory tasks. Chewing gum increased alertness at the end of the test session in both parts of the study. This effect was in the region of a 10% increase and was highly significant (P < 0.001).
The results of this study showed that chewing gum increases alertness. In contrast, no significant effects of chewing gum were observed in the memory tasks. Intellectual performance was improved in the gum condition. Overall, the results suggest further research on the alerting effects of chewing gum and possible improved test performance in these situations.
To examine the prevalence rates and correlates of non-medical use of prescription stimulants (Ritalin, Dexedrine or Adderall) among US college students in terms of student and college characteristics.
A self-administered mail survey.
One hundred and nineteen nationally representative 4-year colleges in the United States.
A representative sample of 10 904 randomly selected college students in 2001.
Self-reports of non-medical use of prescription stimulants and other substance use behaviors.
The life-time prevalence of non-medical prescription stimulant use was 6.9%, past year prevalence was 4.1% and past month prevalence was 2.1%. Past year rates of non-medical use ranged from zero to 25% at individual colleges. Multivariate regression analyses indicated non-medical use was higher among college students who were male, white, members of fraternities and sororities and earned lower grade point averages. Rates were higher at colleges located in the north-eastern region of the US and colleges with more competitive admission standards. Non-medical prescription stimulant users were more likely to report use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and other risky behaviors.
The findings of the present study provide evidence that non-medical use of prescription stimulants is more prevalent among particular subgroups of US college students and types of colleges. The non-medical use of prescription stimulants represents a high-risk behavior that should be monitored further and intervention efforts are needed to curb this form of drug use.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the major dementia diseases affecting people worldwide with an increasing incidence rate amongst the elderly population. AD is a neurodegenerative disease with symptoms starting slowly then progressing over time. There has been an extensive research conducted on the possible treatments and prevention of AD; however, there has been no development of a definite cure. Several drugs are being researched for the treatment and prevention of AD with a rising interest in specific dietary compounds as potential interventions for AD with lower side effects. One such dietary compound being tested is phytoestrogen. Phytoestrogens are chemically, structurally, and functionally similar to estrogen. Estrogen has numerous functions as cognition promoting agent; however, supplementary estrogen can be damaging. Hence, phytoestrogen has the unique ability to substitute for estrogen in elderly individuals with Alzheimer's disease and depleted estrogen levels. This manuscript aims to contribute to the collective understanding of phytoestrogen's role in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease by providing information regarding its various mechanisms including its ability to decrease amyloid beta peptide production, promote calcium outflow, promote acetylcholine release, and reduce Tau protein phosphorylation. This paper also addresses phytoestrogen's role as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent for the cholinergic neurons associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Over the past few decades, caffeine has been well-recognized as a stimulating substance whose effects can be detected particularly in the central nervous system. A stimulating effect of caffeine has been found useful in treating patients with many neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is reported to be a rapidly increasing public health problem with lack of a remedial treatment. However, the assumed protective effects of caffeine against AD are of huge interest. This study substantiates caffeine’s role as a potential prevention agent against AD through several epidemiological studies. More than 75% of available study reports supported the opinion that caffeine has a favorable effect against cognitive decline and AD. Moreover, other studies have discussed the effect of caffeine drinking and concluded several positive effects on cognitive functioning. The present study, however, focuses more on the potential mechanisms by which caffeine diminishes effects as well as delays the onset of AD.
Two experiments independently investigated the basis of the chewing-gum induced context-dependent memory effect (Baker, Bezance, Zellaby, & Aggleton, 2004). At learning and/or recall participants either chewed flavourless gum (Experiment 1) or received mint-flavoured strips (Experiment 2). No context dependent memory effect was found with either flavourless gum or mint-flavoured strips, indicating that independently the contexts were insufficiently salient to induce the effect. This is found despite participants’ subjective ratings indicating a perceived change in internal state following administration of flavourless gum and mint-flavoured strips. Additionally, some preliminary evidence for a non-additive facilitative effect on memory of receiving gum or flavour at either learning and/or recall is reported. The findings raise further concerns regarding the robustness of the previously context-dependent memory effect with chewing gum.
Baker, J. B., Bezance, E., Zellaby, & Aggleton, J. P. (2004). Chewing gum can produce context-dependent effects upon memory. Appetite, 43, 207–210.
In recent years, chewing has been discussed as producing effects of maintaining and sustaining cognitive performance. We have reported that chewing may improve or recover the process of working memory; however, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena are still to be elucidated. We investigated the effect of chewing on aspects of attention and cognitive processing speed, testing the hypothesis that this effect induces higher cognitive performance. Seventeen healthy adults (20-34years old) were studied during attention task with blood oxygenation level-dependent functional (fMRI) at 3.0 T MRI. The attentional network test (ANT) within a single task fMRI containing two cue conditions (no cue and center cue) and two target conditions (congruent and incongruent) was conducted to examine the efficiency of alerting and executive control. Participants were instructed to press a button with the right or left thumb according to the direction of a centrally presented arrow. Each participant underwent two back-to-back ANT sessions with or without chewing gum, odorless and tasteless to remove any effect other than chewing. Behavioral results showed that mean reaction time was significantly decreased during chewing condition, regardless of speed-accuracy trade-off, although there were no significant changes in behavioral effects (both alerting and conflict effects). On the other hand, fMRI analysis revealed higher activations in the anterior cingulate cortex and left frontal gyrus for the executive network and motor-related regions for both attentional networks during chewing condition. These results suggested 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.
The effect of chewing gum on performance was examined. Four Grade 3 (8- to 9-year-olds) classes in a German primary school participated; 2 class-es chewed gum during a 16-min. concentration test. Chewing gum had a significant and positive effect on concentration performance.
Two independent cross-over studies have now been carried out to evaluate the effect of a regime of chewing sucrose-containing gum on enamel lesion remineralization. The first study has been reported in detail elsewhere. This further study aimed to increase the data set with an additional 13 volunteers. Similar protocols were followed in both studies. Weighted averages from the two studies showed delta z values corresponding to 16.8% remineralization for the gum versus 11.6% remineralization for the control (p = 0.046, two-sided). A significant difference between test and control was evident for lesion body (p = 0.0004, two-sided) but not for surface zone (p = 0.32, two-sided).
The release of sucrose and menthone from chewing gum was measured in-mouth and in-nose, respectively, during eating. Swabs of saliva were taken from the tongue and analyzed using a rapid, direct liquid-mass spectrometry procedure. Menthone concentration in-nose was monitored on a breath-by-breath basis using direct gas phase atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry. Simultaneously with the volatile release, trained panelists followed the change in mint flavor by time-intensity (TI) analysis. Two types of commercial chewing gum were analyzed. Both showed that the panelists perception of mint flavor followed sucrose release rather than menthone release. The temporal analysis of the chemical stimuli, with simultaneous TI analysis, provided unequivocal evidence of the perceptual interaction between nonvolatile and volatile flavor compounds from chewing gum.