Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dino!atanasoff!drues
From: drues@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (Michael E. Drues)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: The pH of saliva
Message-ID: <2096@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 89 23:40:58 GMT
References: <18383@bellcore.bellcore.com> <114000002@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Iowa State Univ.
Lines: 29
Reply-To:drues@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu

warg6606@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:


>	I had a friend in college who suffered from gastric ulcers because
>he chewed tobaco.  His physician told him that because he "chewed," he was
>spitting too much.  The good doctor's point was that the saliva was required
>to help neutralize the gastric juices secreted during the chewing.  This
>of course implies that the saliva is alkaline.
	   ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^

No, no, no. (Atleast not necessarily).  What this implies is that
saliva is a buffer solution (which is true).  This does *not* imply
anything about the pH of the solution (acidic or alykaline).

Perhaps you should brush the dust off your old chemistry text and check
for your self.  8^)

Mike

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