Gastritis is often confused with gastric cancer, and in diagnosis it is difficult to speak with authority as to whether the case is ordinary gastritis, as above described, gastric ulcer, or gastric cancer. The diagnostician in making up his opinion must be governed largely by the time the condition has endured, and the immediate causes, giving especial care to the food and drink that has been consumed just prior to the attack.
GASTRITIS—THE REMEDY
In severe cases the patient should be given a glass of cool water. In fact, one of the best means of allaying the inflammation of gastritis—or as a matter of fact any other inflammation—is cool water.
All food should be omitted for at least twenty-four hours, then the patient should be given vegetable juice prepared as follows:
Grind spinach, carrots, squash, or turnips, any two or three of these, very fine; cook about ten minutes in enough water to make a pint of thin vegetable soup. Put through a colander; strain through a coarse cloth, discarding the pulp. Give this to the patient every two hours in quantities not more than one or two ounces, dependent upon the condition.
The diet may be varied by changing vegetables, always selecting one green plant such as spinach, lettuce, beet or turnip-tops. As the patient improves more of the pulp may be used. After the second or third day a thin puree may be used, care being exercised not to overfeed.
Foods to be used in the treatment of gastritis
In milder cases the patient should be fed after the same methods, only more of the vegetable pulp may be used, thereby increasing the strength of the diet after four or five days; or, when the patient shows signs of substantial recovery, egg whites, baked potatoes, and the ordinary fresh vegetables may be given in moderate quantities.
Inasmuch as stomach fermentation is the beginning or parent cause of gastritis, the causes, symptoms, and menus given for fermentation would apply in cases of gastritis, limiting the quantity of food according to the severity of the condition.
In cases of gastritis: