Exploding Stomachs

...or, as a professional would say, 'gastric rupture.'
I was cleaning out our fridge and idly picked up the box of baking soda that's been in there for, oh, six months, and which is no longer absorbing odors (and which I rather suspect of harboring rogue odors of its own--the Yemen of my refrigerator). And as I looked at the box, you know how you do, I saw a paragraph on the back describing how one might use it as an antacid. Why, in the era of proton pump inhibitors, one would do this...well, it's cheap, I guess. But it also contains a buttload of sodium (yes, that's the SI unit of measure), and there was a severely worded, bold warning on the side of the box: TO AVOID SERIOUS INJURY, DO NOT TAKE UNTIL POWDER IS COMPLETELY DISSOLVED. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO TAKE THIS PRODUCT WHEN OVERLY FULL FROM FOOD OR DRINK.

Being of the science-y persuasion, and remembering the vinegar and baking soda demonstration from fourth grade, I conjectured: Baking soda + stomach acid = internal volcano? But could a slug of baking soda after a big meal (and really, isn't that when you have indigestion anyway?) truly cause your stomach to explode? After a few minutes Googling around, I found my answer:

NM Downs, PA Stonebridge, Department of Surgery, Royal Infirmary,
Edinburgh. "Gastric rupture due to excessive sodium bicarbonate ingestion"
Scott. Med. J. 34(5) 534-5 (1989)

Around the same time, apparently (the late 1980s were evidently as bad for stomachs as they were for fashion), a young man in Denmark had a large meal of sausages and soda pop, took some sodium bicarb to help settle his tummy, and caused HIS. STOMACH. TO. EXPLODE. So be careful out there, kids. Even the most innocuous things, used in a--comment se dit?--stupid manner, can kill you. Pay the extra money for Prevacid--or (and here's a concept) don't eat so many sausages that you are literally at risk of rupturing your internal organs. Cheers!