What next? My sister said she read "somewhere" (didn't remember where) that chewing (verb) gum frequently (how often you do it)sometimes helps prevent AD. To me, that falls in the category of x-words or being sociable helping to prevent. Supposedly chewing gum stirs up something in your brain. S
I didn't see the chewing gum article, but last May there was an article about people with short legs being more prone to develop AD, and it was the last straw for me. For my amusing take on this nonsense, go to the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com, click on "previous blogs" on the left, and read #182 - Doomed to develop AD.
There is another blog on all of these studies - #292.
OK let me stretch a point. Sugarless gum promotes more saliva, also cleans teeth. Both reduce inflammation. Inflammation MAY cause aterial damage and AD.
My two boys are so friendly that everyone loves them. A friend will give the one his medication and a neighbor will feed and do litter box duty. I use the sifting liners so all she has to do is lift the liner and shake. Clean litter drops through to the next liner and the rest goes in the trash. I dog walk for the neighbor when she is out.
Are they both Maine Coone? I thought you had two, but usually you talk about the Maine Coone, so I wasn't certain. You have good neighbors and are a good neighbor!
Interesting... My DH never chewed gum and in the last few months he began chewing sugarless gum faster than I could bring it home. I had to hide the gum and give him a piece when he asked for it. I have found that I can get him to brush his teeth by rewarding him with gum. This makes me feel bad but sometimes you have to treat them like the toddlers they are.
Well, this search was quite enchanting, but I had to cut it short to go feed my husband. Briefly, however:
I learned that chewing gum is supposed to help the intestines function better after surgery to remove all or part of the colon. Results show those who chewed gum took an average of .66 fewer days to pass flatus (gas) and an average of 1.10 fewer days to have a bowel movement -- both signs of their intestinal function coming back. (The article was posted on a couple of AD web sites. No explanation as to why AD patients would be interested.)
I also learned that chewing gum also may keep you slim, according to reporters who talked with Mayo Clinic researchers, who found chewing calorie-free gum burned off 11 calories an hour. (So since obesity has been linked to AD...) And that chewing gum may help reduce stress. (And since stress has been linked to AD...) And may prevent heartburn. (I'm still working on that relationship.) I had also come up with bluedaze's idea that gum chewing promotes healthy teeth, and infections have been linked to AD, but I failed to come up with the inflammation concept ... good work, bluedaze!!!!
I want to know who comes up with these ideas for research and ... much more importantly ... who is paying for it.
Now, to be a tad bit more on point (and moving to a new post since, as usual, there is just TOO much information for one...)
There was a study, done in Great Britain in 2002, that made a huge splash. They announced that gum chewing improved immediate word recall, and delayed word recall, in healthy, young subjects. During tests to recall 15 words, the gum-chewers remembered two to three more than the non-chewers. (Gasp!!!) They suggested that the most likely mechanism involved was that the heart rate of the gum chewers was somewhat faster, and so there might be more oxygen and glucose delivered to the brain. (Which might do some good in healthy subjects, but are we forgetting that the brains of AD subjects have impaired ability to metabolize glucose?) According to one reporter: "The scientists hope to use the information to produce drugs to combat dementia or AD." Another breathlessly announced, "Although chewing gum was first marketed in America more than 150 years ago, Dr Scholey's work is the first to look at its impact on mental performance." (I wonder why.)
Hard on the heels of this came a paper, published in 2003 by a team of Japanese scientists, who used functional MRI to look at regions of the brain that are active during gum chewing. Now, keep in mind that there are many muscles involved in chewing and in swallowing, and the secretion of saliva would be stimulated, and the brain might be processing sensory input (including taste, texture, and smell), and one might even think about chewing and swallowing (and where to spit the gum out), and your brain would be involved in all of these processes.
The researchers noted that the areas of the brain that were more active depended upon age, and that in older subjects, it was the hippocampus that tended to be more active. Apparently forgetting that a given area of the brain can be involved in multiple functions, the researchers quickly made a series of the most breathtaking leaps I've ever seen: "Aged subjects showed a significant increase in memory acquisition after chewing for 2min, whereas chewing had no effect in young subjects. ...Based on the above findings, we propose that chewing by the elderly indirectly activates the association areas by mediating the neuronal circuits in the mastication center. Sensory information in this center is projected through the perforant path into the hippocampus. The hippocampus is the first brain region to show neuropathological changes with advancing age and plays a crucial role in learning and memory. Furthermore, chewing warms up neuronal activities in the circuit between the hippocampus and the prefrontal area, which plays an important role in maintaining input activities in the brain that are indispensable for suppressing neuronal degeneration. Therefore, we strongly suggest that chewing is a useful therapy for preventing senile dementia."
...now, how one leaps from a transient increase in recall in healthy older people to the prevention of AD is beyond me, but there you have the logic (or lack thereof) behind this startling conclusion. (They also were either unaware of, or chose to ignore, the findings of the British team that chewing gum improved memory in younger subjects.)
Naturally, the two papers kicked off a whirlwind of research. Nobody wanted to be left behind.
Sadly, quite a few studies conducted since then (as recently as this year) have been unable to reproduce the earlier findings. One actually concluded that gum chewing "significantly impaired recall." Another delicately suggested, "The findings raise further concerns regarding the robustness of the previously reported context-dependent memory effect with chewing gum."
Durn.
However, there is still hope. One recent paper concluded " is that only in older persons with full dentures the relationship between mastication, episodic memory, and executive function becomes evident when the functional status of the masticatory system decreases." So maybe the other, more recent studies forgot to compare people with a full complement of natural teeth, people with dentures, and people without a mouthful of teeth.
Oh, forgot to mention ... the type of gum that is chewed does not appear to affect the results ... no matter which results were seen. Although there may be a difference between hard gum, somewhat hard gum, and no gum at all (i.e., pretending to chew.)
Are you saying I should stop the rationing of gum? Maybe 50% of my food purchases should be gum. The problem is I do not see any improvement with the gum chewing. My DH is going down hill fast with everyday forgetting how to do things. He is getting lost in this small townhouse where he has lived for three years. I never know what a new day is going to bring. Never did like surprises.
Interesting.....My DH never cared for gum....period, before he was diagnosed with AD. Now, if he sees a pack sitting on the counter he pops a stick in his mouth and chews, chews, chews. Loudly, mouth open, and he "pops" his gum. Kids have to hide their gum now.
Be careful. my DH loved gum to until he started swallowing every peice he'd get and then some! i have to hide my gum and any candy that has gum in it..they wont remember its gum and needs to be spit out after a while. Divvi
When we were researching dx I search the internet for possible things that could cause memory problems. I printed off hundreds of pages about Equal sweetning and stopped using it ourselves. On the site about mercury fillings there is tons of information about it leeching out in your mouth especially with chewing gum because that would make it worse. We had our mercury fillings removed at no small expense. We went out of town to a Homepatic Doctor who did "blood cleansing". Forgot the name of it but it was to remove blood and cleanse it of metals and undesirables. We didn't do that but we did start taking large units of Vitamin C.
I don't know if any of those things "helped" but it was satisfying at the time to be doing something about trying to stop or slow down symptoms. I felt relieved to get the fillings out of my mouth.