By Staff Writer - February, 2nd 2014

Teenagers are notorious for chewing a lot of gum. The lip smacking, bubble popping, discarded gum stuck to the sole give teachers and parents a headache.

Natural Health News — Teenagers are big consumers of chewing gum.

It may seem like a harmless habit but new research has found it could be the source of headaches in both teenagers, and younger children as well.

In a small study published in the journal Pediatric Neurology, Dr. Nathan Watemberg of Tel Aviv University-affiliated Meir Medical Center suggests that ditching the gum could help treat countless cases of migraine and tension headaches in adolescents without the need for additional testing or medication.

Right under our noses

Headaches are common in childhood and become more common and frequent during adolescence, particularly among girls. Typical triggers are stress, tiredness, lack of sleep, heat, video games, noise, sunlight, smoking, missed meals and menstruation.

In his own practice Dr. Watemberg noticed that many patients who reported headaches were daily gum chewers. Teenage girl patients were particularly avid chewers – a finding supported by previous dental studies. Dr. Watemberg …

Aspartame is a known excitotoxin, literally exciting your cells to a state of death. Excitotoxins can also cause a loss of brain synapses and connecting fibers. Consuming a lot of aspartame may inhibit the ability of enzymes in your brain to function normally, and may lead to neurodegeneration. No good. Natural and Artificial Flavors – now technically this is their way of covering proprietary information, but the FDA does allow the term to cover a host of ingredients, one of the main ones being MSG. MSG is that nasty exictotoxin that is found in Chinese food. MSG is a HUGE no no. We don’t want our brains turning to mush.

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