Dyspepsia | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 31, 1878

Dyspepsia.

CAUSES OF DYSPEPSIA.

HAVING observed some of the more important of the symptoms of dyspepsia, we are now somewhat prepared to consider understandingly the various causes which, singly or concurrently, operate adversely upon the functional integrity of the digestive organs. But in order to obtain a still clearer view of the manner in which morbific agents affect the digestive organs, it will be advantageous to consider, briefly, at least, the manner in which those organs comport themselves in health. We will take a hasty glance, then, at the principal organs of digestion, and the several processes in which they are employed.

PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION.

The organs of digestion are (1) the mouth, connected with which are the teeth and salivary glands; (2) the stomach, with the gastric juice which it secretes; (3) the intestines, in which are found the pancreatic and intestinal juices, and also the bile, which is elaborated by the liver.

Now let us observe the changes through which a portion of food passes in the process of digestion. After being taken into the mouth, it is comminuted by the teeth, aided by the muscles of the lower jaws. This process is called mastication; and while it is being performed, another, known as insalivation, is taking place, which consists in the thorough admixture of the food with the salivary juice, which is the product of the three pairs of salivary glands situated about the mouth. The office of the saliva is two-fold; 1. It moistens the food, and thus assists mastication and deglutition; 2. It assists in the digestion of the farinaceous portions of the food, or those portions consisting of starch. Mastication and insalivation being properly completed, deglutition is performed, which is a somewhat complicated mechanical process, by which the prepared food is introduced into the stomach through the œsophagus, or meat-pipe.

Having reached the stomach, the food is immediately acted upon by that organ for the purpose of performing gastric digestion, or chymification. The initiatory step of the process is the absorption of whatever superabundant fluid there may have been taken with the food, by a large number of venous absorbents situated in the mucous membrane of the stomach. Then the gastric fluid is poured out, and by means of its solvent properties the food is converted into a soft, pulpy mass called chyme.

While this process is in progress, the muscular walls of the stomach are constantly contracting in such a manner as to keep the whole contents of the organ in a state of agitation, thus bringing the digestive juice in immediate contact with every particle of the food. That this may be accomplished efficiently, it is obvious that the food must first have been properly masticated and softened in the mouth, before its introduction into the stomach.

The chyme thus formed in the stomach is not a strictly homogeneous mass, except in appearance. The gastric fluid acts only upon the albuminous portions of the food, as the gluten of vegetables and the muscular fiber of animal food; hence, we have mingled together the digested albumen, the partially digested starch, the wholly undigested fat (if eaten), and some undigested gluten or albuminous matter, together with the saliva and the gastric juice.

Having reached this stage in the process of preparation for assimilation, or conversion into living tissue, the whole mass is slowly passed along through a kind of valve in the lower extremity of the stomach known as the pylorus, into the upper part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. Here it is subjected to the action of both the intestinal and the pancreatic juices, the latter being the product of the pancreatic gland. There is also present a greater or less quantity of bile, which enters the intestine in company with the pancreatic juice.

Here the work of digestion is completed, a process termed chylification. The intestinal juices finish the work begun by the gastric juice upon the albumenoid substances, while the pancreatic juice completes the digestion of the starch, which the saliva had only begun. The pancreatic juice, possibly assisted somewhat by the bile, also reduces the fatty portions of the ingesta to a state of emulsion which admits of its absorption.

The only work now remaining to be performed is that of absorption, by which means the prepared food may be introduced into the blood and so carried to all parts of the body and utilized. This process has already partially taken place in the stomach; indeed, a little portion of the food was doubtless absorbed even in the mouth.

Now let us observe the mutual dependence of all of the various processes which we have been considering. First of all was prehension, which is certainly of the greatest importance, as it is quite impossible for the most efficient digestive organs to manufacture good nourishment out of poor material.

Next is mastication, which, as already observed, is very essential to stomach digestion. It is equally important as a means to secure the thorough insalivation of the food, a process very essential to perfect digestion. Hence we see the evils which must arise from hasty eating. The food will be crowded into the stomach in so coarse and undivided a state that it cannot be properly acted upon by the gastric juice. It will also be deprived of an important digestive fluid, so that an extra task will be imposed upon the remaining juices.

If the food is improperly acted upon in the mouth, or if it is improper in kind or quantity, the work of the stomach is interfered with and delayed, so that fermentation, with its many disagreeable consequences, is quite likely to ensue. And not only the stomach suffers, not being able to properly perform its functions, but all of the remaining digestive organs also suffer from the same cause, and not a single process is efficiently performed.