Chewing gum Speeds Recovery From Colon Surgery
February 21st, 2006 by RespiteMatch.com(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Chew on this new research … a small study shows gum chewing after colon surgery may help you recover quicker.
Researchers from Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Calif. studied 34 patients who had sigmoid colon resection, a surgery to remove part of the large intestine for cancer or recurrent diverticular disease. Half of the study participants chewed sugarless gum three times a day starting the morning after the surgery. The other half did not chew gum.
Results show the group chewing gum left the hospital after an average of 4.3 days compared to 6.8 days for the non-chewers. The gum-chewers also passed gas sooner — 65.4 hours vs. 80.2 hours post-surgery and had their first bowel movement earlier — 63.2 hours vs. 89.4 hours after surgery.
Researchers say chewing gum may stimulate the same nerves in the body as eating and may promote the release of hormones that activate the gastrointestinal tract.
“Earlier postoperative feeding may stimulate bowel motility, however, many patients fed early after colectomies do not tolerate this,” study authors say. “In a study where patients were given water four hours postoperatively, 20-percent of these patients did not tolerate the intervention.”
The authors conclude gum-chewing may be a reasonable alternative.
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SOURCE: Archives of Surgery, 2006;141:174-176
