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Gum allergy

About 3 weeks ago I began having severe shortness of breath. I have a history of exercise induced asthma and thought that maybe I just needed to increase the use of my albuterol. Unfortunately, I didn't have any refills that weren't expired. I usually don't have any asthma problems, just when I was in high school athletics. I toughed it out for 5 days and decided I needed to see my doctor. She was out of town so I saw someone else and he told me that I needed to see someone else if my problem doesn't go away after taking albuterol. Well, it didn't. I decided to go to the ER because I needed to know what was the deal. They told me I had acute bronchitis, with very little coughing. After 2 weeks, I could breathe again. BUT, last night I chewed some Orbit clean mint gum and have had the same shortness of breath since. Has anyone even heard of being allergic to chewing gum? I figured that something about this gum triggered an allergic reaction.
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Avatar universal
This is so interesting. I began suspecting that my gum (Orbit Sweet Mint) was causing my shortness of breath a few months ago. For some reason today the shortness of breath was especially noticeable. I found this string after searching "mint gum deep breath" and was surprised to find the same gum mentioned more than once!
Has anyone gotten tested for this particular brand of gum's ingredients? It would be nice to know if anyone has definitively identified what causes the sensation of not being able to get a full, deep breath.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I chew the orbit sweet mint gum all the time. today I put two pieces in my morning and the reaction almost made me choke to death. it lasted about ten minutes until I could breath and swallow normally. I am not certain if it's the dust, the flavorings or the just saliva mixing when you first chew a piece.
either way I almost choked to death. I experienced my sinus and throat constricting and shortness of breath. The taste was so thick in my throat i thought it would never go away. what bs for wrigleys. what happened to juicy fruit, double mint and plain old bubble gum. I miss the 70's!
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Avatar universal
I have never chewed Orbit gum. I used to chew Juicy Fruit and started getting horrible headaches and stomach aches. It never just to have back when I was younger,but they recently changed Juicy Fruit and made it sugar free (which means now it has aspartame. I can't do any sugarless gums. If you look up aspartame I don't think you would ever consume anything that has it in it again. It is a horrible product.
Anyways so I switch to Double Bubble Gum, which has no aspartame. Was good for a while, but then I was noticing I would start to kind of choke after I started chewing the gum. I figured it had to be something with the gum, but I liked it so continued chewing it. But have noticed now that it still does it and now I notice I get shortness of breathe with it. The other thing that I have noticed it that it takes fake.  My nephew learned in school that gum is made out of rubber and plastic. I was like okay, but continued to chew it. Now I think he is right. That gum as soon as the flavor is gone smells like plastic, and the consistency is like rubber. And I want to chew that why?
The gum industry has totally changed how gum used to be, just like they have changed everything else. No more gum for me.
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Avatar universal
I had a severe reaction to inhaling the powder on the orbit mint chewing gum sticks. Someone made me laugh as I put the stick in my mouth while it was still dry and powdery. My air passage closed to the point that I people thought I was choking on food. A colleague even gave me the heimlich manoeuvre. Of course I was panicking and desperately trying to breathe.I was on the verge of passing out, and had come to a point of resignation to the end, and I relaxed, and as soon as I was relaxed my air passage reopened and I could breathe normally. This episode lasted about five minutes.
So there we have it, whatever is in that powder is the cause of mine.
Gum is off my menu.
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Avatar universal
Wow.  I can't believe that I found this.  I actually just did a google search for "allergy to ingredient in Orbit gum."  I have had this shortness of breath thing that has occurred for no rhyme or reason and without warning for about 12 years now.  It happened earlier this week.  I have always suspected an allergy to explain this but have never had allergy testing.  It's hard to get a full breath in when this happens and, while not life-threatening, it's extremely frustrating.  I am a runner and LOVE to chew gum while running.  I bought a pack of pink ORBIT gum and chewed that earlier this week.  Shortness of breath.....it went away when I was not able to run the last two days. The shortness of breath was gone before my run today.  I decided to try something --- chewed the gum and within moments, it came back!!!!!!  So I spit it out, am done with my run, but that shortness of breath is still there.  This is so interesting to me ..... it's not ALL gums, like I said, because I have been chewing gum my whole life while running w/o this happening.  It's the gum.  I know it.  
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Avatar universal
Exactly the same thing happened to me with orbit mint ....can not be a coincidence
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Avatar universal
I came upon this site because the same thing happened to me with ORBITZ gum. I have adult onset asthma. Although my symptoms are not fully under control, last night I had about 3 sticks. While sleeping and the next morning all my symptoms worsened. This happened to me before maybe 4 months prior and I thought it was just a coincidence ( I remember then throwing it out just in case), it was not.
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Avatar universal
Yes, you can be alllergic to gum!  Two of my children are allergic to the gum base-and gums are used as preservatives in many processed foods (especially frozen ones).  The allergist can order tests for you.  My kids are allergic to xantham, guar, acacia, caraya.... Avoid any food with "gum" in the label and see if your symptoms improve.
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Avatar universal
I am allergic to gum since I have been allergic to latex all my life. Another important thing to know is the fact that many other foods cross over with latex allergy and not just paint, medical gloves or gum. The Mayo Clinic website has a list of the foods. Soy is one of them and it is in inumerable food products including breads, cereals, etc..
It is very important when you are dining out to be sure the restaurant does not use latex anywhere in the kitchen. They may say they will remove their gloves but, the cross contamination from the powder can kill also from anaphylactic shock. The older you get the worse the allergy gets. I am 56 and my allergy is a lot worse than it used to be. Now, instead of just rapid heartbeat, my mouth and throat swell and once the inside lining of my mouth peeled off. It can be very scary not being able to breath. I always carry Benadryl and you are supposed to carry an Epi Pen if you have severe allergys. I know someone who died when exposed to a cat. She forgot and left her antihistamine at home. A latex allergy isn't anything to take lightly. I've also heard of a Dr. who had it, didn't know bananas crossed over with latex proteins, and died in her sleep after consuming a banana prior to bedtime . Sometimes the reaction can be delayed as much as 6 hours. Everyone reacts differently.
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Avatar universal
Hello I am allergic to Gum not all gum though, I even chewed this gum from extra that had an allergy warning, whic I saw after my asthma came on and I started to sneeze.... LOL
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Avatar universal
I am a 51 year old male and I am also allergic to gum, mostly Mint gum.  Last year I told my doctor that I had trouble (short of breath) singing in church and at my singing lessons (I always did chew gum before church and before my lessons).  The problem would come and go. The doctor offered me an inhalant, which I refused.  Then I got tested for asthma (negative) and for allergies and nothing helped.  I did not want medications.  My wife noticed that every time I started chewing gum I would sneeze.  She suggested I stop chewing mint gum for a while.  I am a different person now.  I went back to the allergist and asked to be tested for mint and we got a positive.  The doctor’s comment was “first time in five years that I get a positive to mint.”  Well..., he may not ever found another case of mint allergy because it is not in his “default” test repertoire, and people don’t even suspect it to request it.   I started chewing non-mint gum but the improvement was not 100%, even with non-mint gum.  Now I do not chew gum at all and I am doing much better.

DCinBC
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681148 tn?1437661591
I think being allergic or sensitive to chewing gum is a lot more common than people realize.  I'm sensitive to everything in the stuff, particularly the latex.  I get sick to my stomach if I chew it myself.  I am also affected by the pungent smell it gives off when someone else chews gum around me.  Sometimes the smell itself will make me a little short of breath.  It always makes me get a headache and feel dizzy and nauseous.

A friend of mine is affected in a similar manner to chewing gum.  I know that it makes her sick to her stomach, too.  I'm not sure about whether she is affected by the smell of the stuff or not.
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Avatar universal
I went through a similar situation and misdiagnosed to have asthma "growing" after a stress test. Then I had knee surgery and the true culprit showed to be a DVT in my left leg. Deep vein thrombosis (spelling may be off) was shooting emboli to my lungs causing the difficulty breathing. After hospital stay and meds doing much better but I would never had thought this was the Dx. It coincided with too many other things - perhaps your gum too. Have it checked out.
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351246 tn?1379682132
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
Yes, it is possible to be allergic to chewing gum. You can be allergic to the latex used, to the flavoring agent and to the sweeteners. However it could also be a coincidental finding. The only way to be sure is to get an allergy test done for the ingredients of the chewing gum.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!
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