TREATING HYPERACIDITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21640, 4 November 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

TREATING HYPERACIDITY

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS / One, important thing "to bear in jnind in treating hyperacidity is that mental disturbance of any sort is very likely to induce an attack. Anxiety, grief, excitement and anger all tend to provoke an attack. The discomfort usually starts about three hours after a meal. This gives us the first indication for treatment. Food should be taken every three hours. This, of cour&e, is difficult for business people as regards solid food, but fortunately a glass of milk—plain or malted —acts equally well. It absorbs the free hydrochloric acid which is the cause of the pain. Other things that act equally well are egg flip, a hunk of dry bread, or bread and butter, or plain dry biscuits. A most important thing for these > patients to remember is that they should never drink without taking food at the same time—milk, of course, is more a solid than a liquid, as the curd immediately forms in the stomach. Alcohol in any form is very bad, and so are effervescent or acid drinks. If such a patient insists on a glass of beer or spirits it must be taken at meal time. Even a glass of water ma 3' bring on an attack if no food is taken 'with it. THE CHOICE OF FOOD Highly spiced foods, pickles, sauces, rich stews and fried foods are badly borne, and soups of acid varieties, such as tomato, should be left alone. Aoid fruits are on the forbidden list, so that' oranges, lemons, tomatoes and even strawberries are taboo. In my experience, says a medical fix pert, such patients do better without much fruit, and what is taken should bo stewed and eaten with cream or milk. Fats, contrary to the popular idea, are well tolerated, because fat discourages the secretion in the stomach of the acid, which is the cause of the pain and distress. So that butter and cream can usually be eaten freely. What does this leave for the menu? Plain roast, boiled or grilled meats, most vegetables, milk puddings, a little pastry (for a treat occasionally). cereals and salads, with a little stewed fruit at times as a change—but as already stated, cream or milk should be eaten with the fwiit.

Of raw fruits you may eat bananas, papaw, melons, peaches, apricots, pears arid grapes. In spite of all precautions attacks will occur at times, and you may obtain prompt relief by the use of a teaspoonful of sal hepatica, taken in two tablespoonfuls of water. With the sal hepatica let the effervescence die down before drinking it.