
WARNING: If words like acetaldehyde, aminoacid l-cysteine, achlorhydric, enzyme, and gene mutation give you horrible flashbacks from Chemistry class, you may want to skip this article.
According to a recent press release, a substance called cysteine can be used to help prevent cancers, especially those of the mouth. A Finnish company, Biohit Oyj, has a patent on the process of putting cysteine into food products. In mid-May, they unveiled a chewing gum containing Cysteine at the 11th International Congress of Oral Cancer in Italy.
In layman’s terms, the gum help prevents cancer, because the cysteine combines with acetaldehyde to eliminate its toxicity. Acetaldehyde is found in cigarette smoke as well as alcohol, and is believed to be a cause of cancer.
Mikko Salaspuro, from the University of Helsinki says,
“We know that with this chewing gum it is possible to eliminate acetaldehyde totally from the saliva during smoking. We do hope that this will in the future turn out to be a novel method for the prevention of alcohol and tobacco smoking associated oral cancers. However, long term randomised controlled trials are naturally needed before the possible cancer preventive effects can be proved. We are currently planning that type of studies”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if most types of mouth cancer could be prevented just by chewing gum?