• Question: if you do not eat any food for awhile will the acid in your stomach burn right through your body

    Asked by flamo2005 to Sudhin, Sergio, Katie, Frances, Diarmuid, Aoife on 18 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Frances Shiely

      Frances Shiely answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      It would take quite a while, because our stomach is built to protect against the hydrochloric acid in there. But I’m sure you’ve heard of people having stomach ulcers? That is what happens when the acid in the tummy erodes through a patch in the stomach. They are very painful and very difficult to heal up because the PH in our stomach is so low.

    • Photo: Katie Fala

      Katie Fala answered on 21 Nov 2019:

      It shouldn’t, first off your stomach has a sticky mucous lining that protects the cells lining the stomach from acid, the mucous also contains bicarbonate to help neutralise the acid. Secondly, the cells that line your stomach are designed to replicate very frequently – this rapid turn-over means that even if any cells were to get burned through, they would be replaced pretty much immediately.

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