An U.S. group of scientists discovered that chewing gum helps the recovery after bowel surgery. Studies conducted on a small group of 34 patients showed that chewing gum speeds up the recovery of normal bowel functions after colon surgery.

Seemingly, gum stimulated the same nerves as eating, helping with the release of hormones in the gastrointestinal tract. Any abdominal surgery can lead to a decrease or a stoppage of intestinal function, thing which can cause pain or vomiting and can prolong the patient's recovery.

Normally, post-surgery recovery sums up in the U.S. at about $750 million a year. Half of the patients that were tested chewed gum three times a day and left the hospital in about 4.3 days, as opposed to those who did not chew gum, who stayed in the hospital for about 6.8 days; the gum chewers in the study also passed gas sooner (65.4 hours in comparison to those who did not - 89.4 hours) and felt the need for food sooner (63.5 hours as opposed to 72.8 hours).

Dr. Michael Harris, associate clinical professor of surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, declared: "It certainly is very appealing and cheap to do; although I'm not a huge believer that this is going to change the world, I certainly am going to offer gum to people in my own practice. There's really no downside".

As these results seem to have positive outcomes, future studies aim to study all the effects of this new found treatment. "It's a nice study and I'm probably going to end up saying if you want to chew gum, chew gum, I don't think gum is the magic bullet, but it can't hurt."