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From: warg6606@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: The pH of saliva
Message-ID: <114000005@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 89 10:41:42 GMT
References: <18383@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Lines: 20
Nf-ID: #R:bellcore.bellcore.com:18383:uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:114000005:000:1006
Nf-From: uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!warg6606    Dec  9 17:46:00 1989


I find this difficult to swallow.  Although saliva many have some buffering
capacity, I seriously doubt it is alkaline enough to offset stomach acidity.

More likely, the sensation of having some tasty chew in one's mouth increases
gastric secretion, possibly resulting in a gastric ulcer.  Of course,
the nicotine in chewing tobacco also induces increased secretions of various
sorts as a pharmacological property of the chemical itself.  Put these 
together and you have a lot better senario for an ulcer than simply



	What does nicotine pharmacolgy have to do wth the pH of saliva?  I
was only relating something that had been told to me, and I believed it
relevant to the current topic.  At least we both agree that saliva is alkaline.
					W. R.
P. S. Don't get me wrong-I didn't believe it either in terms of the mechanism
of chewing causing ulcers, and I think what was responded is much closer to
the mark.  But I did think it was a cute fallacy!	
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