Send your doctor after the question. How much chewing do I need to do to improve neurogenesis? Any laughter is grounds for firing that doctor.
The impact of mastication on cognition: evidence for intervention and the role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis
+ Author Affiliations
Abstract
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) in
the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus has been shown to affect mood,
cognition, learning
ability and memory. A growing area of interest is
whether mastication or chewing also affects AHN. This article aims to
collect
the evidence from animal and human studies to
ascertain whether mastication is an oral environment enrichment capable
of having
a modulatory effect on AHN and associated
behaviors.
Current data point toward a causal
relationship between masticatory ability and cognitive function.
Experimental studies on
mice and rats have consistently shown that
impairing masticatory function results in physical and behavioral
changes. A recurring
theme of decreased neural stem cells proliferation
in the hippocampus was seen in most of the studies found. Human
population
study has shown that tooth loss and masticatory
difficulty are positively correlated with having greater odds of
cognitive
impairment. However, no causal mechanism has yet
been found to explain the effects of mastication on AHN.
Further clinical studies, in humans, are
currently conducted to ascertain whether mastication could be used as a
potential
health intervention to slowdown cognitive decline
in the aging population or delay the onset of diseases such as dementia.
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