Beware, it can cause diseases

April 25, 2024

How to fight stress? One of the proposals of the new tax reform is to eliminate the zero rate in products such as chewing gum. He points out that by not eating, can not be considered a food, also lists that among its functions is to clean or whiten the teeth, reduce bad breath, anxiety and stress, as well as stimulate concentration. How much will this measure affect those who resort to chewing gum to alleviate tensions?

It is true that some people chew gum as a way to reduce stress, however, the doctor Beatriz Gómez González, from the Faculty of Psychology of the UNAM He noted that consuming this product is a passive habit to deal with stress and said that to control it, more active initiatives are needed on the part of the individual, such as performing a sport, controlling breathing or performing a relaxation strategy.

"Chewing gum is something that can be done while one is exposed to aversive stimulus and that is the advantage it has over other strategies that decrease it, but when the person finds the most appropriate to deal with stress, they are probably the ones that it will begin to be carried out ", explained the also academic of the UAM Iztapalapa.

Beware, it can cause diseases

Normally acute stressors, that is to say, those that we expose ourselves only once and last very short time, cause a rapid response of increased adrenaline and activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Some studies have shown that the organism can recover on average a couple of hours after the stressor was presented.

In the case of cortisol, its response is a little later and has a peak about half an hour after exposure to the aversive stimulus, then it relapses progressively and in a couple of hours the basal levels are also reached.

"This occurs when the organism is exposed to a stressor that occurs only once, that is, it is acute; When chronically exposed to stressors, for example, people who work long hours, who have a hostile environment at work or are stuck in traffic every day and several hours a day, allow the stress response to also be maintained. chronic way, "said Dr. Gómez González.

It should be noted that when stress is chronic it can cause physiological alterations that eventually lead to cardiovascular, metabolic and even neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, it gets to influence that people suffer more high blood pressure, increase their heart rate and respiratory rate.

Strategies to manage stress

There are different strategies to manage stress, however there is not one that is the best, explained the researcher. Therefore, each individual must determine what is useful to decrease it, for example, some people exercise, practice yoga or some other strategy of meditation and relaxation.

Dr. Gómez González noted that there are people who chew gum to regulate their response to stress and said that there are several studies done in humans, who put chewing gum and have aversive stimuli, such as high intensity noise.

"It turns out that when measuring cortisol levels, heart rate or sweating in the hands, chewing gum reduces the physiological variables of the stress response.

"That is, there are individuals who are stressed by exposure to a high intensity noise and those who are chewing gum have decreased cortisol levels, in the levels of heart rate and in sweating of the hands compared to individuals They are not chewing gum, but they are exposed to the same stress condition. Therefore, it seems that chewing gum is a good strategy to deal with stress, "he concluded.