[mir]

Coffe helps people with heartburn. But why is that?
Coffe is slightly acidic, right?
And in a coffecup you have 150 mg Caffeine, hardly enough to level down any pH (caffeine is a base).

[P-man]

How can you say that coffee is slightly acidic and then say that caffeine is a base when the main ingredient of coffee is caffeine? I am thinking that as it goes down you esophagus it scrapes the hydrochloric acid from your stomach back to where it belongs.

But I am not at all sure.

[patricio2626]

The main ingredient of coffee is caffeine?  Hmm, not according to http://www.douwe-egberts.co.uk/uk/Retail/TheWorldOfCoffee/CoffeeFAQ/ , which states:
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 "Normal coffee beans contain between 0.8 percent and 2.5 percent caffeine depending on origin and variety
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I've never heard of coffee helping heartburn, rather, that it causes/aggravates the situation.  I have acid reflux and have had to limit my intake.  See the national institute of health's page on heartburn and look for coffe under foods to avoid: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003114.htm. 

I'm by no means a chemist/biologist, but if I remember right from reading the directions that came with my Prilosec (thinking hard about it, it may have been a journal somewhere), caffeine/coffee can stimulate the proton pump to secrete more acid, backing it up into the esophagus.

Here's a quick Google result (http://ezinearticles.com/?Heartburn-and-Coffee:-Break-the-Connection&id=86689)  By no means a scholarly source, but I have read this several time before in medical literature
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What links heartburn and coffee? The contents of the human stomach are naturally acidic, so that is normal. You don't really feel that acidity as long as things are in control. And that acidity is actually necessary for the proper digestion of food. It is when that acidity grows to abnormal levels and rises from the stomach into the food pipe, that you experience heartburn.

There are many substances that may cause this excess of acidity by irritating the stomach. And among the many kinds of stomach irritants, caffeine is one of the most potent. It stimulates the stomach into producing more acid than normal. This is what connects heartburn and coffee. And this is why doctors advise against coffee for chronic patients of acid indigestion.
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[lemonoman]

It's hard to say whether coffee has an effect on heartburn or not.  In my search for an answer, I came across articles saying "Yes!  Of course it does!" (usually untrustworthy sites that spew common knowledge...and coffee=heartburn seems to be a deep-seeded 'fact' in the world).  I also found sites that said, "Coffee and Heartburn aren't linked"...of course, they weren't trustworthy either.  One was written by a coffee conniseur (unbaised I bet  ) and also had an advertisement for something called, "Vitamin U"  LOL

So the search goes to journals.

The Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology says NO LINK
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=n2feyg7j7d98x4ph

The journal "Digestion" says NO LINK
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7227671&dopt=Citation

New England Journal of Medicine indirectly said "THERE IS A LINK"
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/303/3/122

and MOST INTERESTINGLY...the journal "Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics" says that the amount of heartburn after coffee can be decreased by decaffinating the coffee!
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/apt/1997/00000011/00000003/art00006

Hope that helps!

[mir]

How can you say that coffee is slightly acidic and then say that caffeine is a base when the main ingredient of coffee is caffeine? I am thinking that as it goes down you esophagus it scrapes the hydrochloric acid from your stomach back to where it belongs.

Well, caffeine is still a base in an slightly acidic medium. Because it is only a weak base, and a small amount is still unprotonated.

Coffe keeps and pH around rainwater (pH5.5) I think.

[constant thinker]

The pH of your stomach is around 2. If coffee were to raise the pH of your stomach to about 5.5 you wouldn't be able to digest anything! Some of this speculation may come from people thinking that coffee is causing the pH to rise and your stomach goes into over drive pumping out more acid. Then instead of reaching an equilibrium with what it's suppose to be normally the pH drops close to 1. Remember the pH scale is not a linear counting scale. Each number is exponential by 10 starting from 7 which is 0. The jump between 2 and 1 is a big jump.

Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't. If someone finds a good, unbiased, truthfull article then post it.

[Borek]

Each number is exponential by 10 starting from 7 which is 0.

I don't understand a word.

[xiankai]

The pH of your stomach is around 2. If coffee were to raise the pH of your stomach to about 5.5 you wouldn't be able to digest anything!

the supposed need to raise pH comes from excess acid spewing out of your stomach back into the esophagus, thus causing pain somewhere near the heart, above the stomach and around your chest.

i saw all this info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartburn, of course