The first thing you should do after surgery is not what you’d expect — but an anesthesiologist swears it works

Chew on this.

An anesthesiologist has revealed a surprising hack to make things run a bit smoother after surgery — and by things, we mean your bowels.

“Any surgery in your abdomen stops your bowels from working, basically puts them to sleep. That means nausea, bloating, constipation,” said Dr. Myro Figura.

It’s not just surgery around your stomach — both the anesthesia and any drugs you might take after surgery can slows down your digestion and leave you struggling to go.

However, a stick of gum can kick your guts back to working order.

“Chewing gum sends a signal to your bowels to restart and wake up from sleep,” the doc said.

The clip was made in response to a video by Dr. Zion Ko Lamm, whose GI doc husband fed her a stick of spearmint as soon as she came out of her C-section. But Figura assured viewers that the gum hack is suitable for all minimally invasive abdominal surgery.

It’s a common requirement for patients to have a successful bowel movement before being discharged from the hospital — an evacuation before exit, if you will.

Indeed, GI dysfunction remains a source of death and the primary determinant of the length of a hospital stay after an abdominal operation.

Studies have shown that chewing gum after surgery correlated to a significantly higher rate of regular bowel sound after 3 hours (76% vs. 47% in the control group) and 5 hours (91% vs. 78%).

Experts agree that chewing gum is a cheap, easy, and effective way to get your gut back on track and help with constipation after surgery.

“Gum is a surgical hack that can lead you to leave the hospital earlier and reduce your complications. Crazy,” Figura said.

The comments section is filled with people who believe gum should be post-op protocol and others who are miffed they weren’t told to chew after they went under the knife.