MEDICAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 209, 3 September 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

CHRONIC INDIGESTION. TREATMENT OIJ> AND NEW. IMPORTANCE OF DIET. (By PEEITUS.) Wlien the proposed regulations for the Auckland Hospital are in force, the dyspeptic will be able to gam, as an outpatient, a definite diagnosis of the cause of his trouble, by means of a test meal, a barium meal, blood examination, etc., and have the beet possible treatment, because it will be directed to the discovered cause and not to the symptoms. For about one hundred yeare the public have understood that the locality of the pain is the eite of the disease, and ever since the medical profession has discovered the vagaries of "referred" pain —such ae pain about the heart on the left side, when it is caused by the gallbladder on the right side —patients feel certain that they need attention "where it hurts." The doctor who of old time quelled stomach pain with morphia and bismuth did not bother hie head very much about causes. There wae a pain; he could stop it; the patient was pleased; if the pain returned, it could again be relieved; everybody satisfied. This sort of thing is not scientific, not modern, not popular with the profession, and only the ignorant patient resents being treated like the pelican of the travelling zoo, with whom it was always feeding time (when visitors paid extra), for his food was tied to a string and pulled up again after he had swallowed it—a test meal. The Dyspeptic. Well, the stomach is a bag with a peculiar lining, which seems to think, and even to express its thoughts. The bag ia unhappy if too full, and almost equally unhappy if very long empty. Et fora* habits and resents sudden changes, and has a way of juggling with acids and alkalis, both its own and those introduced from outside, like a chemical experimenter in a laboratory. There is, in fact, much chemistry about the process of dissolving food and making it fit for conversion into blood, and the man with a window in his etomach and silent film announcements of the processes within, would be a most popular feature for any ehow. What you want to be able to do is to put anything for which you have a fancy in the stomach, and go about your business with pink cheeks and a good temper, feeling always fit, and snapping your fingers in the face of anybody who declares any reasonable diet bad, and would persuade you that only a few things contain vitamins and are therefore good. The great majority of dyspeptics are neurotic. The neurotic gradually "cuts off" this or that in his normal nutriment until he can take only a meat lozenge and hot water, and.lie down for half an hour before and after. Unless you have an ulcer or cancer or other abnormal thing, but are not comfortable with your daily bread, sit down quietly and make a list of what has seemed to cause internal discomforts, and make sure of their influence by deliberately using them" for a day, thus proving or disproving their guilt. If they are guilty, cut them all out from your food list for a day and discover how you are without them (drinks included). Personally, I have great faith in a stomach holiday. Three or four days' fast and plenty of water, then back by way of fruit, vegetables and soup, fish, chicken and custard, to mutton, beef, grains and starches, fats and sweets.

Some Questions. Natural methods failing, there must' be more questions' asked. Is elimination thorough? Is mastication good and slow? Is too much starchy food taken, or too much tea? Does the skin have enough bathing and friction? Is the mouth kept clean? Is there enough (and not too much) exercise? We may have to resort to drugs, but first try the juice of one lemon with eugar and hot water once in 24 hours, perhaps at bedtime. The secrution of acid may be checked sometimes by a simple tonic (tincture of mix vomica). Ten drops two or three times daily in half an ounce of water does much good in nervous cases and far better than trying to neutralise the excess acid by giant doses of alkali. Short starvation (one day to three) as a remedial measure is reasonable, but to starve as a habit and try to live down to what your stomach seems willing to accept is to go steadily downhill, to where food is not required. Fresh Food. Finally, eat slowly; do not drink very much with food; avoid as often as possible all food which has been preserved by any snch means as great heat, freezing, canning, bottling and overcooking, or chemical preservatives. Farm produce, direct from the farm, is excellent. Meat, butter, fruit, milk, cream all have a flavour killed by preserving, and so with fish. Fresh caught, it is quite different from what it is off the ice. Happy should be the country people with home supplies at their freshest and best, and a real dislike of anything not "our very own." Milt is a great standby. Dr. Hutchinson used to say] that a well-made bread pudding contained more easily digested nourishment than any other composite dish (bread, butter, eggs, sugar, sultanas, milk and lemon), and it is of attractive flavour.