Of Antacids and the Crazy Year of 2020
The article may be behind a paywall, but it offers commentary for the mental health issues as a secondary effect of the pandemic.
TL, DR:
- There’s an increase in stomach acid when your body is stressed.
- The increase in stomach acid causes heartburn and reflux symptoms.
- A spike in heartburn and reflux cases at doctors’ offices – “pandemic stomach” – first seen when the pandemic started, and again in November during the election season.
- People also self-medicated… therefore over the counter antacids went out of stock. Everywhere. Including Amazon and other online retailers.
- People were eating more and drinking more alcohol and caffeine… alcohol, caffeine and being overweight contribute to reflux and heartburn symptoms.
- It didn’t help that preliminary study results showed that an antacid, famotidine, may help reduce coronavirus symptoms – so people without heartburn or reflux symptoms bought that too.
- Those who *were* able to buy antacids did some hoarding… therefore they contributed to the overall shortage of medications.
- Perfect example of society and health intersecting – that’s medical anthropology and the social determinants of health for you!
(Gee, I guess I did learn something in class)
Social Media
