Bifalgorithm post

Your stomach acid can corrode steel, so why doesn't it corrode your stomach? Cells in your stomach wall pump out hydrochloric acid. On an empty stomach, the pH drops to about one and a half. That is roughly a million times more acidic than your own blood. And your stomach is made of exactly what the acid is designed to break down. Protein. It should be digesting itself. It doesn't because of a layer of mucus, half a millimeter thick, pinned to the wall. And bicarbonate pumped up into it, neutralizing the acid on the way through. Cross that half millimeter and the pH climbs from two to nearly seven. A chemical cliff, thinner than a credit card. And the cells on the surface are replaced every three to five days. You are not resisting the acid. You are outbuilding it. Break that repair system and ulcers appear within days. Your stomach was never acid-proof. It just rebuilds faster than the acid can win.

Your stomach acid can corrode steel, so why doesn't it corrode your stomach? Cells in your stomach wall pump out hydrochloric acid. On an empty stomach, the pH…