All questions intended for this department should be addressed to Dr. F. M. Rossiter, 294 Van Buren St., Battle Creek, Mich.
14-16.—A COATED TONGUE—BILIOUSNESS DEFINED—CURE OF BILIOUSNESS.
IN a REVIEW of recent date Dr. Paulson asks: “(1) Do you know what kind of diet to recommend in order to clear up a coated tongue? (2) Are you aware that the average attack of biliousness is only an indication of decomposition and fermentation in the stomach? (3) Do you know what a simple thing it is to cure it?” As I do not know these things, will you kindly answer these questions by telling us, through the department, The Physician by the Fireside, how to treat these conditions, and thus greatly oblige several readers of the REVIEW? M. S.
ANSWER.— 1. Principally a fruit diet. Raw fruits are best, next come cooked or stewed fruits. Fresh fruits in their season may be eaten freely, but without sugar. In case of a badly coated tongue, prepared sweets of any kind should be avoided. Fruit sugar as found in ripe fruits is refreshing, and a source of energy to the muscles. Among fresh fruits may be mentioned apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, plums, grapes without the seeds, lemons, limes; or the fresh juice of any of these fruits may be taken instead. Apples can be obtained throughout the greater part of the year, and are among the best of fruits. If eaten raw, they should be thoroughly masticated. Next in efficiency are baked apples. Canned fruits that contain but little sugar may be used with much benefit.
With the fruits, some form of toasted bread should be eaten. Zwieback is the best. This may be made at home by toasting sliced bread so thoroughly that it is all like the crust of the bread. When starch is subjected to prolonged high heat, it is changed into dextrin, which is a form of sugar. Dextrinized foods are much more easily digested than starch. They will not ferment as readily as starchy foods, yet are just as nourishing as bread. No one need fear that he will starve to death if he attempts to live on fruits and zwieback for a number of days.
No diet is more effectual in cleaning up a coated tongue than this. Milk should be avoided. A highly nitrogenous diet, such as peas, beans, lentils, and nuts, will often produce a coated tongue and a bad taste in the mouth. Most individuals would be benefited by living on a fruit diet for a few days every few weeks.
Drink freely of water, not large quantities at a time, but a small amount frequently.
2. Biliousness is indicated by headache, a clouded brain, coated tongue, a sick feeling in the stomach, or even vomiting, constipation, a heavy feeling in the region of the liver, a tired feeling, and in time the skin becomes dingy, and the white of the eye looks dirty.
Biliousness does not necessarily mean the vomiting of bile, or even bile in the stomach, though this may happen. It is a condition of self-poisoning due to the formation of poisons in the stomach and intestine from the fermentation and decomposition of foods. These poisons are taken up by the blood, and first carried to the liver, there interfering with its work, and making the circulation sluggish; and this holds the blood back, and so makes the circulation sluggish in the stomach and intestine.
The most common causes of biliousness are indiscretions in eating,—the free use of milk, eating freely of sweets or confectionery, eating heartily of a highly nutritious diet, such as meat, beans, nut foods,—bad combinations, late suppers, lack of exercise, congested liver, a dilated stomach.
3. During a bilious attack one should abstain from all solid foods, even fruits, for twenty-four hours, and then live on a fruit diet for a few days, drinking water freely. If there is vomiting, wash out the stomach, and take a hot enema. In place of using the stomach tube, one may empty the stomach very effectually by drinking quickly several glasses of lukewarm water, to which a little salt has been added.
In very severe attacks of biliousness a good thorough cleansing of the bowels will be attended with marked benefit.
