What are antacids? Lucas Macrae

What is an antacid? Antacids are a form of medicine used (normally in a tablet or liquid form) to help restore the pH balance in your stomach. There are many different types of antacids and for this presentation we will use Tums as our example which is chemically known as Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)

Why it’s useful Well, when you don’t eat on time/ eat too fast or when you eat spicy foods you can get heartburn and/or stomach indigestion. When you get this, the pH level in your stomach decreases because it is becoming more acidic.

How they work Antacids are a substance that dissolve in your stomach acids to neutralize the acids and increase the pH level in your stomach. The following video is an example of how it works.

Info about antacids Chemical Equation: CaCO3 + 2 HCl  CaCl2 + H2O + CO2 Type of reaction: Double Displacement Reactants: CaCO3 + 2 HCl (Calcium Carbonate + 2 hydrogen chloride) Products: CaCl2 + H2O + CO2 (Calcium Dichloride + Water + Carbon Dioxide)

Bonding Calcium Carbonate 2 hydrogen chloride (Polyatomic ionic compound) 2 hydrogen chloride (Acid compound) Calcium Dichloride (Binary ionic compound) H2O (Covalent compound) Carbon Dioxide (Covalent compound)

Sources http://www.chemprofessor.com/rxn.htm http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000198.htm http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/50/Antacids.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPART_6df5U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGHpXlBgZA http://humantouchofchemistry.com/how-antacids-work.htm http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/digestive/antacids.htm