Question

What kind of chemical substance is an antacid? What is one potential hazard of taking too many doses or too large a dose of an antacid?

Answer 1

Have you never taken the popular, commercial antacid tablets?

Explanation:

These tablets, when you taste them, are quite chalky, and bitter. They are mostly `Ca(HCO_3)_2` and `CaCO_3` (plus some sugar of course to hide the taste of the chalk). The carbonate soaks up excess acid:

`HCO_3^(-) + H^(+) rarr H_2O(l) + CO_2(g)uarr`

And sometimes you burp the carbon dioxide out (which of course you would not do in polite company).

And should you take too large a dose, you would make your stomach produce a lot of carbon dioxide.........and (maybe) gastric reflux would occur; i.e. the stomach acid bubbles up and burns your oesophagus. At moderate doses, of course, i.e. 2-3 tablets, an antacid would be benign.