Chewing xylitol gum may be able to prevent preterm birth. A three-year study of more than 10,000 pregnant women in Malawi, a country in southeastern Africa, found that pregnant women who chewed sugar-free, xylitol-sweetened gum had a 24 percent reduction in the incidence of preterm birth compared to women who did not. Xylitol is a sugar-free sweetener derived from xylose, which can be extracted from birch trees and corn cobs.
Preterm birth occurs when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Those who received the xylitol-gum intervention experienced a 30 percent drop in the delivery of very-low-birth-weight babies and a 24 percent reduction in babies born before 37 weeks compared to the control group, said Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, medical director of HCA Healthcare, who began the study at the Baylor College of Medicine.
The participants in the trial chewed xylitol gum from early pregnancy until delivery, which, according to researchers, helped improve oral health more accessibly than traditional methods, which can be difficult to implement in low-resource settings. The findings are specific to Malawi and have not been shown to apply to other regions. “We do need to confirm the findings in the United States and other settings before that is a generalized statement that’s made up throughout the world,” Valentine told The Epoch Times.
The researchers also plan to test the xylitol-gum intervention in lower-resourced communities in the Seattle area. “This finding could pa.
