Chewing gum helps in kidney dialysis

LONDON: A study has revealed that a phosphate-binding ingredient in chewing gum can help dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Vincenzo Savica and Lorenzo Calò of the universities of Messina and Padova, Italy, respectively, tested patients with high levels of phosphate in the blood to see whether there might be a benefit to binding salivary phosphate. The findings — published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology — showed that chewing gum could maintain proper phosphate levels and also help prevent cardiovascular disease in patients. agencies.

Chewing Gum Sweetener a Serious Threat to Life

Many sugar-free chewing gums contain a sweetener called sorbitol. Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. An article in this week’s British Medical Journal (BMJ) warns of the dangers of excess sorbitol intake.

The warning comes after doctors came across two patients who had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. After lengthy investigations which could not identify why the patients were losing so much weight and had chronic diarrhea and pains, a detailed analysis of eating habits put the problem down to eating too much chewing gum with sorbitol.

One of the patients, a 21-year-old woman, had been eating the equivalent of 18-20g of sorbitol each day. The average stick of gum has about 1.25g sorbitol – so, she was chewing through 15-18 sticks of gum each day. The other patient, a 46-year-old man, was chewing about 20 sticks of sorbitol-containing gum plus approximately 200g of sweets (candy) each day – his total sorbitol daily intake was about 30g, the authors wrote.

As soon as sorbitol intake was stopped, both patients started having normal bowel movements (diarrhea subsided) and normal weight gain was achieved.

The authors say consumers are generally unaware of the possible side-effects of sorbitol, even though details are included in the small print of foods containing it. When consumers have gastronomical problems they are unaware that they may be caused by the laxative effects of sorbitol.

The authors conclude that sorbitol consumption may not only cause chronic diarrhea and functional bowel complaints, but also significant unplanned weight loss of about 20% of body weight. Any investigation of unexplained weight loss should include a detailed dietary history with regard to sorbitol-containing foods.

What is Sorbitol?
(Source – Wikipedia)

Sorbitol, or glucitol, is a sugar alcohol which our bodies metabolize slowly.

Sorbitol can be found in cough syrups, sugar free mints, chewing gum, diet foods, diet drinks and ice creams. Sorbitol occurs naturally in some stone fruits and berries from trees of the Sorbus genus. Apples and pears also have natural amounts of sorbitol.

Sorbitol, which retains 60% of its sweetness, provides dietary energy of 2.6 kilocalories (11 kilojoules) per gram, compared to sugar which provides about 4 kilocalories (17 kilojoules).

As a food additive Sorbitol has an E-number E420.

Sorbitol is also used as a non-stimulant laxative. It is either an oral suspension or a suppository. It stimulates bowel movements by drawing water into the large intestine.

Driver chokes to death on chewing gum

A LEXUS driver is believed to have choked to death on a wad of chewing gum that slipped into his trachea thanks to the big bump he received when his car was involved in a collision.

Rescuers at first ignored the driver because “the car seemed to have suffered only minor damage” in the accident at about 2am today in Shenyang, the capital of Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, according to the Shenyang Evening News.

They put all their efforts into saving the occupants of the other car — a cab that had been badly damaged in the collision and in which the driver and four passengers were trapped.

They were able to get the cab’s driver and a female passenger out of the wreckage but they had to wait for firemen to arrive because the other three male passengers could not be rescued.

The last man to be rescued was pronounced dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital, said the report.

When firemen finally turned to the black Lexus, they found the driver has stopped breathing.

Witnesses told police they had seen two women step out of the luxury sedan and walk away right after the collision leaving the driver sitting there.

“We thought he was drunk or had lost consciousness,” said one witness.

Doctors found a piece of chewing gum blocking the man’s trachea after they couldn’t insert a pipe into the trachea.

“Someone must have ignored the red light,” police said. However, a witness, another taxi driver, told the newspaper that the Lexus had caused the tragedy.

Natural Appetite Suppressant Chewing Gum can Treat Obesity

Scientists at Imperial College, London, are developing an appetite suppressant drug based on a naturally occuring hormone that could be used to tackle obesity and eventually be dispensed as a gum that is chewed after a meal.

The project, which is led by Professor Steve Bloom of the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College, who has been working on it for some years, has been awarded 2.3 million pounds by the Wellcome Trust which is pouring 91 million pounds (178 million dollars) into research projects to tackle obesity, cancer and other diseases under its Seeding Drug Discovery Initiative.

Professor Bloom has been having difficulty getting commercial sponsorship for the project because the compound he is developing is too large to make into a pill. He leads a team of 30 scientists who are looking at the role played by regulatory peptides and hypothalamic growth hormones and neurotransmitters in controlling energy balance in mammals. They use a range of techniques including adult gene manipulation and hypothalamic implants to explore appetite and energy regulation mechanisms.

They have recently discovered the important role played by peripheral peptide hormonal signals in the gut in controlling appetite.

Prof Bloom has received the funding for developing the naturally occurring gut hormone pancreatic polypeptide (PP). Prof Bloom was keen to use something that the body itself produces to regulate appetite as opposed to a potentially toxic drug. He is of the view this method would not have the side effects of current obesity drugs such as Sanofi-Aventis’s Acomplia.

“Developing a treatment based on natural appetite suppression, mimicking our body’s response to being full, has the potential to be safe and effective,” says Professor Bloom. “We believe that pancreatic polypeptide may be the answer.”

He is hoping that eventually the compound could be used in a pen-based applicator, similar to the one for insulin, and that it could be available within 5 to 8 years, and eventually a chewing gum based or nasal spray version could also be available.

Over 1,000 people die prematurely from obesity in the UK each week, and according to their website, there are no effective treatments, a fact that spurs Prof Bloom and his team on to do this work.

Two other funds have also been awarded by the Wellcome Trust under its Seeding Drug Discovery Initiative, one to a Bristol University team who are working on a new way to switch off cancer tumour cells, and another to the biotech company Prolysis who is working on a way to prevent MRSA bacteria from getting hold of a protein they use to replicate themselves.

Wellcome’s intention with this type of funding is to bridge the gap between the small grants awarded by government and the larger funds from private capital such as venture capitalists who tend to wait until the later, less risky stages of drug development.

Ted Bianco who is Wellcome’s director of technology transfer, said that the aim was to get “more players involved in the business of drug discovery”.

Chewing Gum Related to Gas Pains

Q. I get a lot of gas and someone told me it would help if I stopped chewing gum all the time (ex-smoker). That sounds like bunk to me. What do you think?

A. It’s not bunk. When you chew gum, you swallow more often and some of what you’re swallowing is air. In addition, artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol that is found in some gums can give you gas.

But, what exactly, is gas?

Most people produce between a pint and a half-gallon of gas each day. Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen from swallowed air make up a large part of gas or “flatus.” Fermenting foods in the colon produce hydrogen and methane as well as carbon dioxide and oxygen.

The unpleasant odor of some flatus is the result of trace gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, indole, and skatole, which are produced when foods decompose in the colon.

We release gas upwardly by belching and downwardly by flatulence. When we swallow air and don’t release it by belching, the air will work its way down and out the rectum. About half the gas passed from the rectum comes from swallowed air.

For the record, normal people pass gas about ten times each day. Twenty times daily is still considered normal.

Some people suffer from bloating caused by gas. Most who suffer from bloating do not generate excessive gas, but they don’t move swallowed air fast enough. Sometimes, gas in these people moves in the wrong direction, returning to the stomach. The gas accumulates and produces discomfort. Some feel more discomfort than others because they don’t tolerate intestinal stretching well.

Another major cause of gas is partially digested food passing from the small intestines to the colon, where bacteria process the food further and produce gases.

Combination of Chewing Gum and Art

Here is the combination of some weird pictures of how can we formulate an art sculptures with the use of chewing gum.

Wiimote chewing gum for geeks and gamers

The chewing gums are cased in this Wiimote shaped and desiged case. Look nice and I love it seriously. Geeks and gamers and Nintendo fanboy will love it a lot. Yes, I am a geek, wondering does it ships to Malaysia?

Excess of Chewing Gum Can Lead to Gas

Q. I get a lot of gas and someone told me it would help if I stopped chewing gum all the time (ex-smoker). That sounds like bunk to me. What do you think?

A. It’s not bunk. When you chew gum, you swallow more often and some of what you’re swallowing is air. In addition, artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol that is found in some gums can give you gas.

But, what exactly, is gas?

Most people produce between a pint and a half-gallon of gas each day. Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen from swallowed air make up a large part of gas or “flatus.” Fermenting foods in the colon produce hydrogen and methane as well as carbon dioxide and oxygen.

The unpleasant odor of some flatus is the result of trace gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, indole, and skatole, which are produced when foods decompose in the colon.

We release gas upwardly by belching and downwardly by flatulence. When we swallow air and don’t release it by belching, the air will work its way down and out the rectum. About half the gas passed from the rectum comes from swallowed air.

For the record, normal people pass gas about ten times each day. Twenty times daily is still considered normal.

Some people suffer from bloating caused by gas. Most who suffer from bloating do not generate excessive gas, but they don’t move swallowed air fast enough. Sometimes, gas in these people moves in the wrong direction, returning to the stomach. The gas accumulates and produces discomfort. Some feel more discomfort than others because they don’t tolerate intestinal stretching well.

Another major cause of gas is partially digested food passing from the small intestines to the colon, where bacteria process the food further and produce gases.

Xylish Chewing Gum to be Advertised Via Underwears

In what can only be described as a “brief” promotion, the makers of Japan’s popular Xylish chewing gum are giving away 10,000 pairs of wild & wacky underwear.  Now there’s an alternative to sourcing your pants/panties from a vending machine!

Meiji is one of Japan’s top candy & confectionery makers and business couldn’t be sweeter. The company’s “Xylish” chewing gum with xylitol, a tooth-friendly sugar substitute, is a big hit but apparently not big enough as Meiji’s latest wacky promotion indicates. I’ve written about Japan’s weird chewing gums before, but Xylish extends the weirdness to the marketing end of things.

Wear a prize above your thighs!

The path to the top of the rock candy mountain evidently leads from underneath… your waistline, that is. Want to win some wacky undies? First buy some Xylish xylitol gum.

“Happy Anniversary, Honey!”
Here’s how it works – find the numerical promo code inside a pack or plastic tub of Xylish xylitol gum – look for the red briefs-shapped icon on the label. Then visit the dedicated website and type in the code.

Select from mens underwear or women’s hipster panties, note your preferred size & pattern (and there are 30 to choose from, including infamous Number 21, “Gas”), and input your contact info. If you’re one of 10,000 winners of the draw conducted this December, start checking the mailbox for your new shorts!

Ingredients Used to Make a Chewing Gum

Up until WWII, chewing gum was made of a substance called chicle mixed with flavorings. Chicle is a latex sap that comes from the sapodilla tree (native to Central America). In other words, chicle is a form of rubber. Just like rubber bands don’t dissolve when you chew them, neither does chicle. Chicle is a good bit softer than rubber bands and happens to soften more when it gets warm in your mouth. If you freeze chicle with ice, it gets very stiff — chicle hardens and softens over a pretty narrow temperature range.

Gum bases are mixed with sugar and other flavorings to make chewing gum.

After WWII, chemists learned how to make artificial gum bases to replace chicle. These gum bases are essentially synthetic rubbers that have the same temperature profile as chicle. Gum bases (either natural or artificial) are mixed with sugar and other flavorings to make chewing gum. When you chew it, the rubber releases these flavorings into your mouth. ­