Chewing gum and learning are linked
Teachers have a ‘thing’ about chewing guns in class: it scares them. They never think about the future, that when the dam breaks, the gum can be used to plug the cracks and save us all. It’s a joke. Chewing gum is a learning tool – as real as a big, red,
juicy apple.
If you want to seriously improve your memory by up to 28%, improve your IQ by about 15 points and focus like Al Einstein…
Did you know that Al was a lifelong ‘dyslexic’, and was
totally frustrated with reading because your brain reversed the words and spelling?
Dyslexia taught Einstein to trust his ‘imagination’ – the right side of his brain.
To access your memory and concentration, become a master-apprentice… Chew gum. What happens is that the act of chewing speeds up your heartbeat and blood pressure enough to wake up your left and right hemispheres to “synchronize.”
work together.
Does it have to be gum that you chew?
An apple, a turkey bone, or a slice of bread works anyway, but in class or in the library.
chewing gum (without sugar) is more discreet, right?
Who says that?
The original research began in 2001 and reached the major leagues the following year at Northumbria University in Britain. The Lead-
The investigator is Professor Andrew Scholey, who used control groups for his
experiments Later investigations with fMRI (brain scans) reinforced their conclusions.
How does it work?
It turns out that the action of chewing creates a bodily rhythm (mouth and jaw) that the brain copies, so that the mind and body go into ‘training’ (synchronized).
What happens next is that “insulin” starts to flow because the mind and body are tricked into expecting real food to reach the stomach, not just the saliva produced by chewing.
The first discovery was that there are ‘insulin’ receptors (receptors), both in the left and right hemispheres (cerebral cortex). When insulin appears in the
left and right brain sulci: excite the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex into cognitive activity. In plain language, not neuroscience, our attention (concentration), memory, and comprehension (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) kick into gear and our learning abilities increase.
The test itself?
Dr. Scholey’s team uses a group that chewed gum, a second that did not move its
lips and jaws, and a third that had no gum, but pretended to chew by moving its
jaws up and down – they chewed “air”.
The results were revealing: gum chewers doubled the scores of those who did.
nothing more than to keep their jaws shut. The ‘sham’ group did improve, but less than 25% of the ‘gun chewers’, but significantly compared to the ‘normal’ (non-chewers) people.
What’s going on in Mind and Body?
We conducted our own experiments over a twelve-month period and reproduced Dr. Scholey’s results: he made us believe in ourselves.
What happens is that the insulin connection helps to change the Central Nervous System from the Sympathetic System to the Parasympathetic System; fight or flight
to-relaxation-mode.
Hormones, enzymes and neurotransmitters activate ‘acetylcholine’ instead of epinephrine (adrenaline). When we go to Parasympathetic
and ‘inhibit’ fight or flight (cortisol), we learn and think with fluidity and speed.
You probably know that your three-pound coconut uses 22% of all the oxygen and glucose in the body (body fuel). When you study and learn, you need an extra 10% oxygen to run your brain at full speed.
The parasympathetic system conducts greater amounts of oxygen and glucose, and removes greater amounts of carbon dioxide, than the sympathetic nervous system. It’s the insulin that makes it all happen.
final words
I don’t remember when we chew gum our heart rate increases an extra three (3) beats per minute. Just keep in your long-term memory that “insulin is
Produced by the action of chewing. Everything good happens from physiological change: more oxygen, more glucose (fuel for the body and mind) and elimination of more
CO2 – (the waste and toxins that damage our blood vessels and immune system).
Chewing gum during a test, study session, giving a presentation or listening to one,
it is a Speedlearning 100 strategy because it works. You have ‘will’ (volition), and
can exert ‘effort’ (persistence and determination), to improve language areas
of your brain – (left hemisphere) and the “pattern recognition” area of your right hemisphere. Making both work ‘in sync’ allows you to hit your personal best
talents and gifts – to achieve your goals.
But, it requires a personal decision, Professor Jeffrey M. Schwartz of the UCLA School of Medicine calls it DWE: Directed Voluntary Effort. You must activate: your Intention – your Attention – and finally your Will.
It is your job first, to ‘pay attention’ (concentrate), second, to ‘try’ – to reach the goal of your ‘burning desire’, and third, to make a decision (choose).
Volition is using your will and effort, and requires making a new choice each time.
Tell me, don’t you need a ‘hoop’ to shoot, to know if you scored?
The score is the result of you making the decision to be persistent and determined to achieve your goal.
That’s DWE – Directed Volunteer Effort.
Please, never forget that you are the boss of yourself, so decide if you really want to win by exerting the necessary effort. It’s wired with the freedom of choice,
and you can choose the correct behavior or veto the work on your desired goal.
Volition is using your will to choose.
Oh yeah, reading while chewing gum increases your reading speed by up to 80%.
See you,
copyright ©
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org