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? asked in Science & MathematicsMedicine · 1 decade ago

What effect would tar from cigarettes have on the stomach mucosa of long-term smokers with/without GERD/NERD?

Update:

BTW: I'm looking for evidence WRT this Q. I can't find anything relevant on PubMed. Maybe I'm not keying in the right terms....

Update 2:

I have found quite a bit of info (albeit, conflicting) to do with ph alterations and GORD/GERD/NERD among smokers. Also, predispositionary type evidence, but nothing specifically to do with tar as an irritant....

Update 3:

Could tar serve as a primary irritant?

Update 4:

Perhaps this is just logical? Tar may "stick" to stomach mucosa?

Update 5:

Thanx, Psyengine :-). Was wondering if anyone would answer. Most of what you said, however, isn't true.

Update 6:

Thanx, Spreedog. I figured tar may be a primary irritant in exacerbating GERD/NERD conditions, causing them, or mimicking them. I guess you have a point, though. The fact remains that cigarettes can irritate stomach mucosa, but the identity of the primary irritant is likely multifaceted and attributable to a host of chemicals, not just tar.

4 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I can think of no way to separate out the irritant effects of the tar from the dozens of other potential chemical irritants / carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Here's a cute little study from Hawaii looking at diet, alcohol, and cigarette consumption linked to stomach cancer. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abst...

    Of course many studies have indicated a link between smoking and cancers of the mucosal surfaces of the respiratory and upper digestive tracts. Cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, and stomach are clearly associated with smoking history. What is interesting in this study is that there did not appear to be a dose related effect. The number of cigarettes did not seem to matter. Any amount of smoking carried some risk of stomach cancer regardless of diet or alcohol.

    One anecdotal historical bit I like to use in lectures is that John Wayne, a five to six pack per day smoker for some 40 years, survived lung cancer with a pneumonectomy in 1964 only to die of stomach cancer in 1979. Both malignancies were likely related to his prolonged exposure to tobacco smoke.

    In a pamphlet blasting tobacco smoking, a king of England once wrote that tobacco smoking was "loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/kjcounte.htm

    He wrote this in the first decade of the 1600's - while his version of the bible, the King James bible, was being compiled by English scholars.

    Tobacco smoking is harmful to human mucosal surfaces in so many obvious ways that it seems futile to attempt to separate out just the tar moiety from all the other chemical irritants. There is no way to adequately test for just this one factor.

    Source(s): MD
  • 4 years ago

    1

    Source(s): Holistic Acid Reflux Secrets - http://heartburnnomore.duebq.com/?Ruy
  • 1 decade ago

    Being a smoker, very little if any would get to the stomach unless a smoker was in the habit of swallowing smoke. To my knowledge tar doesn't get any farther than the lungs. My guess is any mucus would serve as a barrier to tar as it is also acid resistant. Nicotine, on the hand, may exasperate acidic release, possibly due to confusion in nerve function in regards to stomach content.

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    This is a natural program that you can try to cure your acid reflux http://acidreflux.toptips.org/

    Acid reflux disease, also known as gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), occurs due to the coexistence of several medical and lifestyle conditions. Physiological factors that trigger GERD include lower esophageal sphincter (LES) hypotonia (the gradual weakening of the LES), along with retrograde flow of stomach contents into the esophagus, and the level of sensitivity of the esophageal mucus to the reflux content.

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