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gastric juice
(redirected from Gastric acid)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.07 sec.
gastric juice, thin, strongly acidic (pH varying from 1 to 3), almost colorless liquid secreted by the glands in the lining of the stomach. Its essential constituents are the digestive enzymes pepsin pepsin, enzyme produced in the mucosal lining of the stomach that acts to degrade protein. Pepsin is one of three principal protein-degrading, or proteolytic, enzymes in the digestive system , the other two being chymotrypsin and trypsin .
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 and rennin (see rennet rennet, substance containing rennin, an enzyme having the property of clotting, or curdling, milk. It is used in the making of cheese and junket. Rennet is obtained from the stomachs of young mammals living on milk, especially from the inner lining of the fourth, or
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), hydrochloric acid, and mucus. Pepsin converts proteins into simpler, more easily absorbed substances; it is aided in this by hydrochloric acid, which provides the acid environment in which pepsin is most effective. Rennin aids the digestion of milk proteins. Mucus secreted by the gastric glands helps protect the stomach lining from the action of gastric juice. Gastric secretion is stimulated by a number of hormones and chemical substances, by the presence of food in the stomach, and by a number of psychological factors, such as the smell of a favorite food. A decrease or total absence of gastric juice secretion may be a congenital abnormality or a concomitant of advanced age. Certain cells of the stomach lining secrete a substance known as intrinsic factor, which is necessary for the absorption of vitamin B12; absence of this substance results in pernicious anemia, or B12 deficiency (see vitamin vitamin, group of organic substances that are required in the diet of humans and animals for normal growth, maintenance of life, and normal reproduction. Vitamins act as catalysts; very often either the vitamins themselves are coenzymes , or they form integral parts
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).


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? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
A new mechanism has recently been proposed as an inciting factor for sinusitis: nasal or nasopharyngeal irritation from gastric acid reflux.
And it would eliminate two categories of drugs--antihistamines and gastric acid reducers--from coverage altogether, said USA Today.
Addition ally, exposure of the esophagus to gastric acid is largely responsible for symptoms.
 
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