Chewing Gum Increases Focus

Question

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4449949/#:~:text=Chewing%20gum%20has%20enhanced%20sustained,performance%20%5B6%2C%207%5D.

According to National Institutes of Health, chewing gum has enhanced sustained performance in previous research. It is proven to enhance both alertness and attention. it also states that chewing gum can decrease stress levels as well as anxiety. I think that overall, this claim is true.

Answer 1

According to an article by Scientific American, "researchers say that gum increases the flow of oxygen to regions of the brain responsible for attention.". Which leads me to assume that this claim is correct.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gum-chewing-may-improve-concentrati-13-03-26/ 

Comments

The link you attached doesn't work for me, but I found it online using the quote you provided (I've reattached the podcast link below). The source is from 2013 so it's a bit outdated. However, I agree with your conclusion because I found more recent studies, such as the one from 2019 attached below, corroborating the original claim.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gum-chewing-may-improve-concentrati-13-03-26/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31125164/

Answer 2

This claim comes from BioMed Research, a trusted publisher that puts out peer reviewed studies. The claim that chewing gum helps with focus is backed up by the content of the study. 

"Chewing gum has enhanced sustained attention performance in previous research [3, 4], consistent with an alerting effect of chewing gum [4–6]. There is some evidence that this effect may be moderated by time-on-task, with the ameliorating effect of gum being greater following a long period of performance [6, 7]."

In addition, an academic article from the University of Newcastle supports this claim with similar findings. 

"Chewing gum can be an inexpensive and effective way to help relieve anxiety and boost attention."

https://www.newcastle.edu.au/hippocampus/story/2023/can-chewing-help-manage-stress

This claim appear to be true. 

Answer 3

A test conducted from an article states that the results of chewing gum are correlated to greater alertness and an increase in mood. Reaction times also increased with gum condition, which increased with the difficulty of the task. Chewing gum also improved heart rate, and cortisol levels were higher when chewing. The article states, “Conclusions: Overall, the results suggest that chewing gum produces a number of benefits that are generally observed and not context-dependent. In contrast to some previous research, chewing gum failed to improve memory. Further research is now required to increase our knowledge of the behavioral effects of chewing gum and to identify the underlying mechanisms.”

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41407501_Effects_of_chewing_gum_on_cognitive_function_mood_and_physiology_in_stressed_and_non-stressed_volunteers