# Can stress make your stomach produce excess acid?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-stress-make-your-stomach-produce-excess-acid/371957>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-stress-make-your-stomach-produce-excess-acid/371957 "2006-09-08T18:46:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kitchen\_Wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kitchen\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kitchen_Wench)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-stress-make-your-stomach-produce-excess-acid/371957/1 "2006-09-08T18:46:36Z")

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Well, there it is. Any docs in the house?

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**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-stress-make-your-stomach-produce-excess-acid/371957/2 "2006-09-09T11:17:43Z")

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seems to, in my case…

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**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-stress-make-your-stomach-produce-excess-acid/371957/3 "2006-09-09T17:37:44Z")

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Well, it depends on what you mean by ‘stress’.

There is no doubt that major physical stress, such as that associated with overwhelming infection, severe burns, major trauma, and, especially, head injury is associated with increased stomach acid secretion and the development of ulcers.

On the other hand, the effect of psychological stress is less clear. [Here is an abstract](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=10772394&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum) that lists some of the reasons for the dispute.

Known causes of release of gastric acid include anticipation of food, mechanical distention of the stomach (by food and anything else), and the presence of food, itself, in the stomach.