Summary
It may be concluded that the clinical syndrome of so-called “hyperacidity” is spurious in so far as there is no evidence that acid plays a direct part in producing the symptoms. As a clinical designation the term hyperacidity should be abandoned as inaccurate and above all misleading, since the symptoms are generated by motor and not by secretory disturbances.
Certain people, usually with duodenal ulcer, secrete under basal conditions a larger volume of gastric juice of higher acidity than is ever attained in normal asymptomatic individuals. These excessive degrees of acidity may be correctly designated “hyperacidity” but this is a purely physiological (laboratory) diagnosis without definite clinical implications. Hyperacidity is only revealed when spontaneous (basal) gastric secretion is studied, since powerful stimuli such as histamine stimulate as high degrees of acidity in some normal people as are ever encountered in disease.
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Bloomfield, A.L. The problem of gastric hyperacidity. American Journal of Digestive Diseases 6, 700–702 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02997154
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02997154