Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes

(sciencedaily.com)

Comments

wnmurphy 7 August 2026
In case this is useful for anyone, this study on high-risk HPV and medicinal mushrooms blew my mind:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25271984/

In 88% (36 out of 41) of patients with high-risk HPV, taking reishi + turkey tail mushrooms daily for 2 months cleared the virus, versus 5% clearance (1 out of 20) in the control group. I suspect that 88% clearance rate would be higher if they continued for longer than 2 months.

wxw 7 August 2026
Tangentially related, apparently xylitol gum can reduce cavity risk by killing off bacteria (which cannot digest but cannot differentiate xylitol from regular sugar) in the mouth.
noisy_boy 7 August 2026
Alternative form of delivery required for Singapore.
nixonaddiction 7 August 2026
apparently it helps reduce risk of mouth cancer..... what im hearing is rotate this and zyns in my mouth, see what happens.
kybishop 7 August 2026
I'm just over here wondering how/where/when I can buy this
VladVladikoff 7 August 2026
I wonder if chewing mastic would be as effective?
jdw64 7 August 2026
I'm curious. HIV has been largely conquered, so why hasn't HPV been conquered yet? Same goes for shingles.
bamboozled 7 August 2026
This is the future I wanted.
colordrops 7 August 2026
Aren't all gum based basically plastic? Including natural ones? So chewing any gum is just going to fill your body with microplastics right? I wonder if the risk offset is worth it.
shevy-java 6 August 2026
Sounds like an ad. "Eat this gum, it is so healthy."
grokcodec 7 August 2026
Not worth the time of day until it can be demonstrated that there is a net health benefit. Precautionary Principle FTW.