Newsletter
KFAR SABA, Israel: Scientists from Tel Aviv University in Israel have investigated the relationship between gum chewing and headaches and discovered a possible connection. In a study, they analysed children and teenagers and found that 87 per cent of those participants who quit chewing gum experienced significant relief.
Headaches are common in childhood and become more common and frequent during adolescence, particularly among girls. Typical triggers are stress, tiredness, lack of sleep, heat, video games, noise, sunlight, smoking, missed meals, and menstruation. Little medical research on the relationship between gum chewing and headaches has been conducted so far.
In their study, researchers at Meir Medical Center’s Child Neurology Unit and Child Development Center and community clinics affiliated with Tel Aviv University’s School of Medicine asked 30 patients, including 25 girls, between 6 and 19 years old (median age of 16) who had chronic migraine or tension headaches and chewed gum daily to quit chewing gum for one month. They had chewed gum for at least an hour up to more than six hours per day. After a month without gum, 19 of the 30 patients reported that their headaches had stopped entirely and seven reported a decrease in the frequency and intensity of headaches. In order to test the results, 26 of them agreed to resume chewing gum for two weeks. All of them reported a return of their symptoms within days.
Previous studies linked gum chewing to headaches but offered different explanations. One study suggested that gum chewing places stress on the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ, the place where the jaw meets the skull. Another study blamed aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in most popular chewing gums. TMJ dysfunction has been shown to cause headaches, while the evidence is mixed on aspartame.
Dr Nathan Watemberg, Chairman of the Child Development Institute and the Child Neurology Unit at Meir Medical Center and member of the research team, favours the TMJ explanation. Gum retains its flavour only for a short period, which suggests that it does not contain much aspartame, he said. If aspartame caused headaches, he reasons, a greater number of headaches caused by diet drinks and artificially sweetened products would be reported. However, people chew gum well after the taste is gone, placing a significant burden on the TMJ, which is already the most used joint in the body, he said. “Every doctor knows that overuse of the TMJ will cause headaches,” said Watemberg. “I believe this is what’s happening when children and teenagers chew gum excessively.”
Watemberg said that his findings could be put to use immediately. By advising teenagers with chronic headaches to stop chewing gum, doctors can provide many of them with quick and effective treatment, without the need for expensive diagnostic tests or medication.
The study, titled “The influence of excessive chewing gum use on headache frequency and severity among adolescents”, was published in the January issue of the Pediatric Neurologyjournal.
