If the patient still has no appetite, more exercise, deep breathing
and abstinence from all food for a day or two are desirable. This will
give the system a chance to clear itself of waste and when the waste
is relieved through exercise and diet the desire for food will assert
itself.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Indigestion and Dyspepsia]
Indigestion or Dyspepsia is the broad term commonly applied to most
chronic stomach and intestinal difficulties—due, not to structural
disease, but to their being incapable of normally performing their
functions in digesting ordinary foods. The term includes troubles
arising from so many different causes that the cause must be determined
and remedied before definite results can be attained through diet.
Most chronic cases are due to improper hygiene,—such as irregular
meals; over eating; insufficient mastication; wrong choice of foods;
or to a general run down condition, with a weakness of muscles of
the stomach, due to insufficient blood supply; or to a weakened or
over-strenuous condition of nerves controlling the stomach.
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, with following of above directions, will gradually regulate
digestion.
Without doubt, the intelligent medical treatment of stomach
difficulties in the future will be directed by a chemical analysis
of the stomach contents. If the stomach is not secreting normal
proportions of pepsin or hydrochloric acid, the deficiency can be
regulated. The chemical analysis of the gastric secretions will alone
determine what elements are lacking. As stated above, the permanent
relief must lie in gaining a good circulation of blood through the
entire body and through the stomach, that it may be strengthened and
thus enabled to secrete these elements in proper proportions.
Many cases of stomach difficulty are due to the condition of the nerves.
* * * * *
=Nervous Indigestion= is due to the general nerve condition. In such
cases the entire nervous system should be regulated through exercise,
breathing, relaxation and a change of thought. Physicians usually
recommend change of scene to direct change of thought.
The diet should be light and laxative and low in protein. Cream soup,
bread and milk, crackers and milk, custards, egg lemonade, and gruels,
furnish an easily digested list. No tea, coffee, very little meat and
no fried food. Where the walls of the stomach are weak and distended,
light food six times a day is preferable to a hearty meal, which
distends the stomach walls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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