Before the rise of modern medicine, was there anything to combat stomach acidity!
Question: If not, a lot of those people must have suffered the tortures of hell!
Answers: If not, a lot of those people must have suffered the tortures of hell!
Depends what you mean by modern medicine. When I was a medical student the chronic management was consumption of antacids, the simplest of which was bicarbonate of soda, which has been used for hundreds of years. A hundred years or so branded things like 'Andrew's' were in use.
Then deglycerized licorice was used to help treat ulcers and milk drips were used to manage acute problems. The only way to 'cure' the acid problems long term was to surgically sever the Vagus nerve to the stomach. In the 70's a wonder drug appeared cimetidine, initially only available for intravenous use for acute ulcers it soon became available orally, but had to be taken for long periods and sometimes indefinitely.
In the 90's 'the ulcer bug', helicobacter pylorri was discovered and using the newer acid lowering drugs, together with antibiotics, ulcer problems could finally be cured without surgery.
I've read a lot of old home remedies that included milk and other calcium products to absorb the acid. Broccoli was also listed as a remedy...
Imagine using all kinds of things from ground shells to chalk... yuck.
Clay. Many people would eat a spoon of light clay to help settle the stomach. Sometimes cream, or fresh butter.