Chewing Gum Makes Brain Stronger

Chewing gum makes your brain stronger

Gum has been studied for its beneficial effects on memory, alertness, anxiety reduction, appetite suppression, mood and learning.  Attributes of gum that have gone under the microscope include its flavor, texture and density, to name a few.

The hunch that spawned gum studies was that chewing gum might increase blood flow to the brain, and that may in turn spark other important effects. Studies like one from Cardiff University in the UK take a comprehensive view of gum’s potential across multiple areas: learning, mood, memory and intelligence. chewing-gum-strengthens-brain The findings in this case were that both alertness and intellectual performance were increased in gum-chewing subjects, while memory showed no significant improvements.

Other studies, like the one highlighted in a New Scientist article have found that some aspects of memory seem to be improved by chewing gum, particularly immediate and delayed word recall, while others are not.

An especially significant 2011 study, reported on by Live Science found that chewing gum before taking a test improved performance, but chewing gum throughout the test did not. The possible reason for this result is that chewing gum may warm-up the brain, something gum researchers refer to as ‘mastication-induced arousal’.

Bypass your Gag Reflex

If you make a fist with your left hand and squeeze your left thumb, this will bypass your gag reflex.

One of the most uncomfortable feelings you can experience is involuntary gagging. Unchecked, it can leave your throat raw and sore, and give you a painful case of laryngitis. If you have a sensitive gag reflex,Restraining-gag-reflex-by-squeezing-fist you might have trouble swallowing pills, visiting the dentist, or eating foods that you’re not particularly fond of. Perhaps every time you go to the doctor and have your sore throat cultured for strep, you almost lose your lunch on the poor doctor!

The gag reflex is your body’s natural defense against choking on foreign objects, but up to one-third of healthy people don’t even have it! Fortunately, there are ways to ease your gag reflex, and one of these many of us may not have heard of before.

All you have to do is make a fist with you left hand, and squeeze your thumb (inside the fist). It actually works and was proven in a 2008 study by three scientists which was to be published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA).

Blue Whale’s Heart

A blue whale’s heart is the size of a Volkswagen Beetle!

Being the largest animal on earth, the blue whale weighs as much as 33 fully-grown elephants, that is about 200 tons. With that said, you can now begin to understand why the heart could measure as big as it does – the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.blue-whale-heart

That’s the heart. What about the stomach? The blue whale’s stomach is capable of holding a ton of krill (shrimp-like crustaceans) but that’s not all – its daily requirement is four tons of krill! The blue whale is simply a biological phenomenon. Did you know which is the loudest animal on earth? Well, you just reading about it. The sound is produces is enough to rival a jet engine’s!

Their calls register 188 decibels, and if you care to check, a jet engine hits just 140 decibels. Why haven’t you heard this sound you might be curious? The sound is low frequency and isn’t audible by the human ear alone and requires special equipment to be able to. It travels hundreds of miles and is believed to be communication amongst the blue whales. Such a splendid creature this.

Cat’s Brain

A cat’s brain is million times faster than an iPad and it is able to store 1,000 times more data.

A cat’s brain bears a lot of resemblance with the human brain. Studies conducted over four years ago point to numerous similarities between the two. We often think of man’s best friend – dogs – as the smartest domestic pet. But according to some feline intelligence experts, cats are as smart as dogs — just in different ways.

A cat can fend for herself — she is not a pack animal as is a dog, who often depends on others for hunting food. And when have you seen a healthy cat who could not take care of most of her own grooming needs? Adding to cats’ high intellectual standards and their cautious behavior is their outstanding curiosity.

Even after years of studying the cat’s brain, which is highly developed, we will probably never learn all there is to know about feline intelligence levels. But an article by the Scientific American on how different brains compare versus computers put a cat’s data storage capability at 1,000 times more than the iPad with the speed a million times faster!