Understanding Gastric Mucosa
Your Stomach's Protective Barrier is Failing
Your stomach produces acid powerful enough to dissolve meat. What keeps this acid from dissolving your own stomach? A specialized protective layer called the gastric mucosa—essentially a slippery, self-renewing coating made of mucus, bicarbonate, and specialized cells.
When you take NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen), have a bacterial infection like H. pylori, or experience chronic stress and poor diet, this protective barrier breaks down. The acid eats through to the underlying tissue, creating an ulcer—basically a hole in your stomach wall.
The damage doesn't stop there. Once the mucosa is compromised, inflammation takes over. Blood vessels become exposed and fragile. The stomach's natural repair mechanisms get overwhelmed. Without intervention, the ulcer can perforate completely, spilling stomach contents into your abdomen—a medical emergency.
"Your stomach's defense system is being outgunned by acid and inflammation."
This is where gastroprotective peptides come in. Rather than just reducing acid (like PPIs do), these peptides actually rebuild and heal the damaged tissue, restore the protective barrier, and restart the stomach's own repair mechanisms.