Re: How long does it take your stomach to produce and new layer of mucus?

Thanks for your question, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, your question has no concrete answer. There is more than one reason why this is the case.

First, the entire layer of mucus doesn't turn over entirely over any period. The mucus layer is made up of about 85-95% water and 5-15% solids, mostly proteins and polysaccharides (complex sugars, or sugar complexes); the water can be reabsorbed and the solids are degraded by proteins and acid in the stomach. It isn't flushed through intact like saliva or mucus in the colon, so it's difficult to characterize that a "new layer" is made in any discrete period.

I tried instead to estimate how much mucus is in the stomach at one time and find out how much is produced in a day to get an idea of how long secretion would take to replace the normal lining. But I could not: I could find *no one* who would estimate how fast mucus is produced in a typical person. This is probably because of the second reason: there is no "baseline" amount of mucus secretion. So many factors affect the production rate of mucus in the stomach that a normal rate is not defined. For example, mucus production is stimulated by vagal stimulation (part of the parasympathetic arm of our autonomic nervous system triggered by eating and appetite among other things), some medications, and some bacterial toxins. On the other hand, blood flow problems, anticholinergic drugs (lots of drugs are anticholinergic, including Benadryl and Dramamine) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like naproxen or ibuprofen) can inhibit its secretion. Smoking, alcohol and reflux of bile (which should stay in the intestine but sometimes makes it backwards into the stomach) can destroy the mucus faster than it is usually destroyed. Also, certain bacteria can dissolve mucus; one example is the bacterium implicated in peptic ulcers, Helicobacter pylori.

Even if we had a study from 20 or 50 years ago that measured how much mucus people made, many of these things have changed markedly since that time (the amount of smoking, the number of people in whom H. pylori has been eradicated, etc.) that the numbers could be as questionable as the website you don't trust.

As much as this doesn't answer your question directly, I hope it helps you understand why we don't have an answer.

Allen A, Flemstrom G. Gastroduodenal mucus bicarbonate barrier: protection against acid and pepsin. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 2005; 288: 1-19 doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00102.2004

Robinson EK, Mercer DW. Chapter 45 - Stomach. Townsend: Sabiston Textbook of General Surgery, 17th ed. Saunders, 2004.