STOMACH DISORDERS
Most chronic cases are due to worry; to improper hygiene, such as irregular meals; fat and greasy foods; hasty eating; too much sweets; insufficient mastication, with resulting lack of saliva; wrong choice of foods; too frequent eating, giving the stomach no rest; too large an amount of food; too highly spiced foods; coffee or tea; a general run-down condition, with a weakness of muscles of the stomach, due to insufficient blood supply; to a weakened or over-strained condition of nerves controlling the stomach; and usually to insufficient exercise and fresh air.
Indigestion or Dyspepsia
Indigestion or dyspepsia is the broad term commonly applied to most chronic stomach and intestinal difficulties, due, not alone to structural disease or to displacements, but also to their inability to perform their normal functions. The term includes troubles arising from so many different causes that in each case the cause must be determined and remedied before definite results can be attained through diet.
The most usual is that the gastric glands are pouring out an insufficient amount of secretion; almost always there is a deficiency of hydrochloric acid. In some cases in which the food has irritated and inflamed the stomach there may be a sufficient secretion of this acid, but an inflamed stomach throws off more mucus and the extra quantity of mucus neutralizes the hydrochloric acid.
When the acid is deficient or absent, the proteins are not well digested and the food may ferment; bacteria may produce putrefactive changes and the formation of gas. The gas interferes with the movement of the diaphragm, pressing it against the heart, causing pain and even palpitation.
Indigestion is usually accompanied by constipation, or by irregular action of the intestines.
Plenty of fresh air, and exercise, directed definitely to muscles and nerves of the stomach, that it may be strengthened by a better blood supply, as well as exercises and deep breathing to build up the general health, should be systematically followed.
Easily digested food, well masticated, and regular meals served daintily, will gradually regulate digestion.