Department of Preventive Dentistry, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kita-ku, Japan.
Acta Odontol Scand. 2012 Dec;70(6):491-6. doi: 10.3109/00016357.2011.640275. Epub 2012 Feb 27.
Gum chewing may relieve stress, although this hypothesis has not been proven. Heart-rate variability (HRV) is commonly used to measure stress levels. However, it is not known if gum chewing modulates HRV under acute stress. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of gum chewing on HRV under acute stress.
A cross-over study involving 47 non-smoking healthy subjects, aged 22-27 years, was carried out. The subjects received a stress procedure with gum chewing (GS group) and without gum chewing (S group). Additionally, the other 20 subjects were allocated to the gum chewing without stress group (G group). The GS and S groups were exposed to noise for 5 min (75 dBA) as stress. Before and after stress exposure/gum chewing, participants completed the state portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-s) and a single Stress Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) measurement. HRV measurement was performed before and during stress/gum chewing for 5 min.
After the stress procedure, VAS score significantly increased in the GS and S groups. During the stress procedure, the GS group showed a significantly lower level of high frequency (HF) and higher levels of low frequency (LF) and LF/HF than the S group. However, there were no significant differences in the scores of the state portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-s) and VAS between the two stress groups.
These findings suggest that gum chewing modulates HRV, but may not relieve acute stress caused by noise.
咀嚼口香糖可能有助于缓解压力，但这一假设尚未得到证实。心率变异性（HRV）常用于测量压力水平。然而，目前尚不清楚咀嚼口香糖是否会在急性应激下调节 HRV。本研究旨在探讨咀嚼口香糖对急性应激下 HRV 的影响。
本研究采用交叉设计，共纳入 47 名年龄在 22-27 岁之间的非吸烟健康受试者。受试者接受了咀嚼口香糖（GS 组）和不咀嚼口香糖（S 组）的应激程序。此外，另外 20 名受试者被分配到咀嚼口香糖但不产生应激的组（G 组）。GS 和 S 组均暴露于 5 分钟的噪声（75 dBA）中作为应激源。在应激暴露/咀嚼口香糖前后，参与者完成状态部分的状态-特质焦虑量表（STAI-s）和单次应激视觉模拟量表（VAS）测量。在应激/咀嚼口香糖期间，进行了 5 分钟的 HRV 测量。
在应激程序后，GS 和 S 组的 VAS 评分显著增加。在应激过程中，GS 组的高频（HF）水平显著低于 S 组，而低频（LF）和 LF/HF 水平显著高于 S 组。然而，两组的状态部分的状态-特质焦虑量表（STAI-s）和 VAS 评分无显著差异。
这些发现表明，咀嚼口香糖可以调节 HRV，但可能不能缓解噪声引起的急性应激。
