Chewing Gum as a Recovery Method Who Would-a Thunk?

After having colon surgery, keeping up with a colon surgery diet can be difficult.  You may have in your mind that you have to cut out all of the foods that you love and commit yourself to a life of eating bland, boring food.  While immediately after your surgery, it is important to ease back into your normal, every day diet, you certainly will most likely not have to say goodbye to all of your favorite foods.  You may even be surprised to know that researchers have recently discovered that chewing gum can help aide in your colon surgery recovery process and may help to shorten your hospital stay!

Researchers conducted a study of patients who recently had part of their colons removed due to cancer or diverticulitis (inflamed or infected pouches that grow on the colon wall). Many patients who have received any type of surgery have difficulty producing a bowel movement post-operation since it takes a while for your intestines to start working properly again.  It is most hospital’s policy that a patient must have a bowel movement in order to be discharged.

This is where the gum part comes in…

Patients who were given sugarless chewing gum three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening), chewing for one hour each time were found to be hungry more often which in turn produced more gas, which brought on more bowel movements, so therefore, were allowed to leave the hospital much faster than those not given the chewing gum prescription.

What is the magical secret with the chewing gum, you wonder?  Scientists say that when you chew gum it somehow triggers and stimulates the digestive track, causing the urge to produce a bowel movement.  While drinking water and eating high fiber foods can also produce the same effect, many patients cannot tolerate consuming such foods so quickly after a surgery.  It is not known whether chewing regular come containing sugar in it would give the same effect or if it is the aspartame inside of the sugarless chewing come that somehow triggers the intestine to start to constrict.  Researchers found that comparison studies of those who tried the chewing gum experience to those who had not resulted in 3 less days of being in the hospital.  The study also shows that the gum chewing patients also felt hungry almost 10 hours earlier than the comparison group and the gum chewing group had a bowel movement an astounding 26 hours before the non-gum chewing group did.

Many hospitals now are trying the chewing gum plan as a post colon surgery diet instead of administering suppositories or laxatives in pill form as a way to produce the required bowel movement.  It is much less costly, far less invasive and may bring around results in a much faster way.