Tums (stylized as TUMS) is a brand of antacid made of sucrose (table sugar) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) manufactured by Haleon in St. Louis, Missouri, US. They are also available in a sugar-free version. It is an over-the-counter drug, available at many retail stores, including drug stores, grocery stores and mass merchandisers. It provides relief from heartburn and indigestion ("sour stomach").
History
In 1928, James Harvey "Jim" Howe (born 1873 College Corner, Ohio, and died 1960 Webster Groves, Missouri), a pharmacist in St. Louis, Missouri, developed Tums in the basement of his home while treating his wife's indigestion. The remedy caught on, and commercial production began in 1930 by the Lewis-Howe Company, which took its name from Howe and his uncle, A. H. Lewis, who was a pharmacist in Bolivar, Missouri; Howe worked in his uncle's drugstore as a teenager. Tums were named in 1930 after a radio contest, which was won by a nurse who came up with the phrase "Tums for the Tummy."[1] In 1978 the company was purchased by Revlon of New York, making it no longer a St. Louis–based company. Revlon's Norcliff Thayer unit oversaw the Tums brand.