Medicinal Chewing Gum, courtesy of Shutterstock
So let's say you had surgery a day or so ago, and now doctors insist on putting a stethoscope on your abdomen while asking embarrassing questions such as, "... and have you passed gas?"
There's a good reason for that, since undergoing general anesthesia frequently results in a condition known as ileus, which is an immobile gastrointestinal tract. And since you need the GI tract to be mobile and pass food along, if it's not active, you don't get to eat, and might also be uncomfortable from bloating or other consequences. Rather than just wait for nature to take its course and get things moving again, there may be something you can do to help it along chew gum.
A recent study examined the hypothesis that chewing gum could speed up recovery from post-surgery ileus. Authors of the report were Sacide Yildizeli Topcu and Professor Seher Deniz Ãztekin from Trakya University, Turkey.
Sixty patients who had undergone colorectal surgery were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Those in the control group had usual postoperative care, while those in the experimental group chewed gum three times per day. The researchers found that chewing gum was indeed beneficial. Patients in the experimental group passed gas and defecated sooner than those in the control group. In addition, the gum chewers reported less pain between the third and fifth days after surgery. They were able to begin eating sooner and were discharged from the hospital sooner than the people in the control group.
Although small, this was a controlled trial with positive results, which should be relatively easy to replicate. It will be instructive to see if the ileus that results from other types of surgery also responds to chewing gum. If so, would the results be different if the gum were sugar-free, regular sugar-containing gum, or even bubble gum? Sugar-free gum may be sweetened with sugar alcohols, some of which can cause increased intestinal motility perhaps they might be more effective. Further research is obviously in order.
