The science behind mastic gum.

We found it. We built the brand around it.

Giga Chew is run by myself, Liam, and my partner, Izzy. We're a tight two-person team. We are both extremely passionate about health and fitness but also looking after ourselves and feeling confident in the way we look.

I believe that health and aesthetics are intertwined. When you break it down, the fastest way to good looks naturally always happens to be the healthiest. That belief is behind everything we make. Products that naturally improve your overall looks whilst providing real health benefits at the same time.

We are not a supplement company with a lab, a marketing team, and a contract manufacturer. We are two people who found something that worked, researched it properly, and built a brand around it. That's it.

A resin. One tree. One island.

Mastic is the crystallised sap of Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia, a tree native to the Greek island of Chios. The same species grows across the Mediterranean. Only the trees in Chios produce harvestable resin, and only in the island's southern villages. Scientists have not fully explained why. The locals have been farming it for 4,000 years.

The Mastic tree being cut to allow the resin to flow

Harvesting is done by hand using a method called kentima. From late June to September, farmers cut shallow incisions into the bark of each tree. The tree secretes sap through the cuts, which drips onto white calcium carbonate powder spread around the base. Over 15 to 20 days, it oxidises and solidifies into small tear-shaped pieces. They are collected, washed, and sorted by hand.

Research has identified over 120 compounds in mastic resin, including triterpenic acids, terpenoids, and a biopolymer found nowhere else. These compounds work together. The antimicrobial activity, the anti-inflammatory effect, the antioxidant properties — they come from this combination, not from a single isolated ingredient.

What chewing actually does to your face.

Giga Chew is not a miracle. It improves your facial aesthetics the same way the gym improves your body's aesthetics. Think of chewing Giga Chew the same as a bicep curl. When you do enough bicep curls with the correct resistance, your bicep gets stronger, thus looking bigger and more defined. Chewing normal gum along with eating soft modern food is the equivalent of curling 1 kg. It is too easy. There is no stimulus.

Developing stronger jaw muscles not only enhances your facial appearance but also plays a role in overall health. Robust jaw muscles support proper oral posture: keeping the mouth closed, aligning the teeth, resting the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and maintaining a stable head position.

Correct oral posture supports nasal breathing, which can deliver up to 20% more oxygen to your body. The jaw is not a vanity muscle. Training it has downstream effects on how you breathe, sleep, and carry yourself. Most consistent users see visible change between 8 and 16 weeks the same timeline you would expect from any other resistance training habit.

Plaque, bacteria, and oral hygiene.

Mastic has been used for dental hygiene for as long as records exist. The Roman physician Dioscorides documented its use for cleaning teeth in the first century AD. Modern clinical research has confirmed what people already knew.

A separate double-blind controlled trial compared participants using a mastic-based dentifrice to placebo over 12 weeks. The mastic group showed significant reduction in gum inflammation, plaque accumulation, and suppression of periodontal pathogens including Porphyromonas gingivalis. Multiple studies have also confirmed that chewing mastic improves jaw muscle activity and stability without causing temporomandibular joint problems.

H. pylori and digestive health.

The most significant published finding on mastic appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998. Researchers at Barnet General Hospital and the University of Nottingham tested mastic against seven strains of Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium responsible for the majority of peptic ulcers and a major driver of gastritis and stomach cancer risk.

A subsequent randomised pilot study with 52 patients tested pure mastic gum as monotherapy for confirmed H. pylori infection. The high-dose group showed meaningful bacterial reduction. One treatment arm combining mastic with a proton pump inhibitor produced results comparable to standard pharmaceutical treatment. The authors concluded the approach warranted larger controlled trials.

Separate clinical trials investigated mastic for inflammatory bowel disease. A trial of 10 patients with mild to moderately active Crohn's disease taking 2.2 grams of mastic daily for four weeks found a significant decrease in disease activity and meaningful reductions in interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein, two primary markers of systemic inflammation.

Cholesterol, inflammation, and cardiovascular markers.

A 2024 review published in Nutrients examined 20 human clinical trials on mastic gum's effects on cardiometabolic health. Across studies ranging from 8 weeks to 18 months, participants showed modest but consistent improvements in total cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting plasma glucose, and inflammatory cytokines. One early study giving 5 grams of mastic daily for 18 months found reductions in total cholesterol, the cholesterol-to-HDL ratio, and apolipoprotein B. A separate study found mastic chewing gum reduced total cholesterol by 11.5 mg/dl and fasting glucose by 4.5 mg/dl, with the strongest effects in participants with higher metabolic risk at baseline.

Across all clinical trials reviewed, no side effects were reported with mastic supplementation. This is worth noting for a substance with a documented 4,000-year history of human use. The absence of reported adverse effects is not coincidental. It reflects a substance that human physiology has long coexisted with.