Gastric acid that it does not become too acidic. These cells also produce mucus, which forms a viscous physical barrier to prevent gastric acid from damaging the stomach. The pancreas further produces large amounts of bicarbonate and secretes bicarbonate through the pancreatic duct to the duodenum to completely neutralize any gastric acid that passes further down into the digestive tract. The main constituent of gastric acid is hydrochloric acid which is produced by parietal cells (also called oxyntic cells) in the gastric glands in the stomach. Its secretion is a complex and relatively energetically expensive process. Parietal cells contain an extensive secretory
Gastric acid excess vomiting, patients develop hypochloremic metabolic alkalosis (decreased blood acidity by H and chlorine depletion). The proton pump enzyme is the target of proton pump inhibitors, used to increase gastric pH (and hence decrease stomach acidity) in diseases that feature excess acid. H antagonists indirectly decrease gastric acid production. Antacids neutralize existing acid. The role of gastric acid in digestion was established in the 1820s and 1830s by William Beaumont on Alexis St. Martin, who, as a result of an accident, had a fistula (hole) in his stomach, which allowed Beaumont to observe the process of digestion and to extract