Effect of chewing hard material on enhancing cognitive function
frontiersin.org
frontiersin.org
We're about $60K in to her treatment. She's had the meniscus of the joints on both sides of her jaw surgically repaired and now is undergoing orthodontia to permit her jaw to safely re-align.
This after a year of excruciating pain (the TMJ was bone to bone contact), and a year of painful muscular rehab. Unless you are a maxillofacial surgeon or perhaps a particular specialty of orthodontia you are probably unaware of just how many muscles in the head have to re-learn how to work after TMJ problems.
The "straw that broke the camel's back" in her case?
A pistachio nut.
Aside - so much for that touted improvements in US medical care bills. I've mentioned this before as a massive differentiator between Europe and US from what I can see from distance, and was shushed here on HN that only total losers get insurance that basically doesn't cover everything these days... 60k, wow, how many folks can't just fork that out of pocket and have to take a loan or just suffer till end of days?
I've had last year paragliding accident with both legs broken and badly bruised knee, underwent months of treatments, physio, tons of scans and still doing some hospital visits (ie had 2 MRIs few weeks ago). Cost? What cost? 3 weeks fully off work, salary kept coming 100%. This is in most capitalistic country in Europe - Switzerland, on basic health insurance (but accidents are 100% covered by employer's insurance by law here).
From the study: > In the wood-chewing group, changes in GSH concentrations demonstrated a positive correlation with immediate memory (r = 0.520, p = 0.008) and story memory (r = 0.439, p = 0.028) scores (Figure 3). However, no significant correlations were observed in the gum-chewing group.
I am not convinced that chewing on wood sticks for a few minutes will require dental work at all. Much less extensive dental work.
Why do you think it would require extensive dental work?
> The primary purpose of teeth is to chew food. Including moderately hard materials such as roots, etc.
Roots like carrots? Sure! In fact, I'm inclined to think it's unhealthy to just eat soft foods. Roots like a stick? Our teeth were not designed for that.
Fun fact, beavers incisors keep growing their whole life. Not mine though.
Also, excessive chewing can lead to TMJ issues.
Stanford research published after that article provides that answer: Face shape. It's not just better cognitive performance but the alternative contributes to face shape commonly perceived as "not beautiful".
The Stanford research, and no I don't have a link, concludes there are two activities responsible for these traits: slurping soft foods and mouth breathing. The alternative to chewing hard foods is slurping soft foods and the frequent activity of slurping alters the shape of a person's face as they grow because humans were really only designed to consistently slurp soft foods in infancy, but the shape of the face will elongate to compensate for slurping along with inferior jaw bone strength.
The alternative to nose breathing is mouth breathing, which drastically lowers oxygen intake which mimics and contributes to sleep apnea like conditions even while awake. There is a measured cognitive decline associated with the degree of oxygen suppressed in air intake. Mouth breathing also negatively contributes to developmental face shape, but less so than slurping soft foods.
However, my nose is decorative, and I must breath though my mouth. No repercussions as I can mountain climb.
Just search google images for "pharynx". The visual difference in size is striking.
2. Compare the aperture size of the nostrils to the mouth and throat
3. Just look at the internal structure of the nasal cavity. It's a sensory organ and designed to maximize surface area contacting the air. In other words, it's full of obstructions that intentionally reduce airflow
Your thesis here is nonsense. You can't change a downstream restriction by changing conditions upstream.
If anything, adding restriction is probably what helps. By restricting airflow upstream of the lungs, you create a partial vacuum within the lungs which probably substantially alters the conditions for gas exchange. A partial vacuum probably greatly enhances CO2 rejection from the blood, but I'm not a biochemist.
One of my biggest complaints about software developers is that so many claim to be engineers, but instead of measuring things (which is what engineers do) so many invent their own conclusions that tend to be wrong almost every time. It's disappointing.
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-996/xylitol
Now I know, now I know. Interesting new fact of the day.
I wonder how it affects the teeth? Perhaps it helps strengthen them. Perhaps it wears them down more quickly. I couldn't hazard a guess.
[ETA: After reading about the TMJ elsehere, it looks like that mandibular joint is of greater concern. Gotta be careful with that wear-and-tear.]
Raw mastic gum seems to be gaining popularity in the US.
Neither is popular for the explicit purpose of cognitive enhancement, though.
that is for cleaning the teeth, and I read somewhere that there is some evident that it is somewhat effective in reducing tooth decay.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miswak
in India there was or is a toothpaste brand called Meswak, which includes miswak as an ingredient.
nice wordplay in your username :)
evidence, voice typing error.
Licorice sticks might be used too.
"Chewing diamonds increased memory assessment scores over chewing sticks"
/s just in case it needed to be spelled out