p. 234 | GOOD HEALTH

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 7, 1878

GOOD HEALTH.

Dyspepsia.

PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION.

BEING now fully prepared to intelligently examine the causes of dyspepsia, we will proceed at once to do so, for convenience dividing them into two great classes—general and special.

GENERAL CAUSES.—As might be readily presumed from the foregoing considerations, anything which should affect the general healthy tone of the organs engaged in digestion would materially derange their function, just as the strong arm of the pugilist may become weakened by constitutional disease. Under this head, then, we include all those influences which interfere with digestion by affecting the general health, by lowering the vitality of the individual. Constitutional causes, they might very appropriately be termed.

Prominent among causes of this nature, we may mention improper dress. Especially among females is this a frequent source of dyspeptic disorders. Corsets are among the most devitalizing of disease-producing agents. They compress the lower part of the chest, and thus diminish the breathing capacity, besides rendering almost useless the powerful abdominal muscles, so that the respiratory movements are confined almost wholly to the upper part of the chest. Improper modes of clothing the feet and limbs, leaving them exposed to the cold of winter and the dampness of fall and spring, are also prolific sources of constitutional debility, which is felt in the stomach more readily than in any other organ.

Men are not entirely free from errors in the same direction. The habit so common among working men of sustaining the pantaloons by drawing them tightly about the waist, instead of properly suspending them from the shoulders, is productive of the same injury to their abdominal viscera as results from a similar habit among females with reference to their heavy skirts.

Impure air is another unhygienic agent, which, by undermining the constitution, and so enfeebling the digestive powers, gives rise to indigestion. The healthy functional activity of the stomach is largely dependent upon the purity and abundance of its blood supply. When the blood is imperfectly aerated, it cannot impart the usual and requisite force, and dyspepsia is the consequence.

Sedentary habits are specially promotive of the various forms of dyspepsia, especially when accompanied, as is usually the case, with excessive or continuous mental labor. Physical exercise is necessary to maintain the healthy tone and elasticity of the muscular tissues of the body; and, consequently, when it is neglected, the stomach must of necessity suffer, as it is almost wholly composed of this kind of tissue. The energetic contraction of the walls of the stomach upon the food is one of the essential processes of digestion. It is readily seen, then, that when they are in a measure deprived of the ability to perform their usual function, digestion is interfered with.

Overwork is quite as injurious to the digestive organs as insufficient exercise. Moderation is the happy mean. Too little exercise injures because the system is deprived of that activity which is essential to healthy nutri-

tion. On the other hand, too much exercise, or severe physical labor, tears down the tissues more rapidly than nature can repair them, and so debilitates.

The same is true of brain labor as well as physical. Mental activity, even if it be somewhat severe, is healthful. Only the excess is damaging. When too much of the nervous energy is expended by cerebral activity, the stomach suffers from the general nervous prostration. Too great activity of the brain also exhausts the nutrient properties of the blood, and so deprives the other vital organs, especially the stomach, of its due proportion of nourishment.

Insufficient sleep, which is so commonly the accompaniment of late hours that the two expressions usually mean the same thing, is sure to show its effects upon the digestion sooner or later. Its effects are essentially the same as those of overwork. The strongest constitution ultimately succumbs to its influence, sooner or later. Nature must have sufficient time in which to repair the worn tissues and renew the wasted energies.

In addition, we may mention, as general causes of indigestion, the depressing influence of the violent passions, as grief, fear, great joy, and sexual abuses.

SPECIAL CAUSES.—The special causes of disease in the digestive apparatus are almost as numerous as the symptoms of such disease, or as the peculiar habits of different individuals. We shall not attempt to enumerate more than a few of the more common. Some of these seem to belong more properly to the class of general causes. But it will be observed that while such do really induce constitutional disease independently of their effect upon digestion, they also seem to exert a powerful influence for evil directly upon the digestive functions.

Errors in diet, we mention first, as being the most deserving of notice. Having so fully described the several digestive processes, it will be hardly necessary to dwell long upon the particular manner in which each morbific agent of this character works its particular mischief, as a reference to the remarks alluded to will suggest a fuller explanation than can be given in the limits of this short treatise.

Improper quality of food is perhaps the most common of dietetic evils. Civilization and ingenuity have, unfortunately, overstepped the bounds of their proper sphere in introducing the so-called refinements of modern cookery. It really appears as though the constant effort was to disregard as much as possible the dictates of nature, and to compel the natural instincts of man to conform to the requirements of perverted and capricious tastes. The excessive use of condiments of all kinds, as cloves, cinnamon, mustard, pepper, spice, salt, and all other irritating substances of like nature, cannot be too strongly condemned. Indeed, to the wholly natural taste, they present nothing at all desirable, since they are neither palatable nor nutritious. When taken into the stomach they irritate its delicate lining membrane, and so pervert its function and produce inflammation, acute at first, finally becoming chronic, perhaps assuming the form of corroding ulcers. Pickles, highly seasoned articles of food, pastry and all kinds of fried food, and all articles which contain large quantities of lard, butter, or fat of any kind, are exceedingly difficult of digestion for a healthy stomach, and utterly impossible for a weak one. The abundant use of sugar in the form of preserves, sweetmeats, etc., is wholly incompatible with healthy digestion. The use of salt pork and salt fish, and of the same articles salted and smoked, is exceedingly unwise for a person who cares anything for the health of his stomach. Old cheese is another dietetic abomination which has very few equals as a cause of indigestion, notwithstanding the old notion expressed so often in the couplet,

“Cheese is a mighty elf, Digesting all things but itself.”

Lastly, but not the least important, we mention fine-flour bread as being a very prolific cause of dyspepsia. Its universal use makes its notice important. Its concentrated character makes it an article illy fitted for alimentary purposes, on account of its clogging nature. It is, perhaps, the most frequent cause of constipation. In addition to its other bad qualities, it is a very poor aliment, having been deprived of its most nutritious portions by the process of bolting.

Improper quantity of food is nearly as bad as improper quality. Indeed, we do not hesitate to say that the man who eats to great excess of the most healthful food does a greater injury to his organs of digestion than he who takes a moderate amount of much less healthful food. Gorging the stomach with a larger quantity of food than it can use not only imposes upon it the severe task of getting rid of the surplus aliment, but renders it quite impossible for it to make the best use of even the required amount of nutriment, thus doing a double injury. It is also a fact that prolonged abstinence, or deficient alimentation, will work as great injury to digestion as will overeating; but there is little doubt that the latter evil is incomparably greater than the former, from the fact that excessive abstinence is a very rare thing indeed, while gluttony and surfeiting are almost universal.

Hasty eating is another very prevalent evil which, as already explained, greatly impairs the digestive process, making it impossible for the succeeding processes to be properly performed.

Drinking at meals is a serious evil for two reasons: 1. It encourages hasty eating by washing down the food half masticated. 2. It dilutes the gastric juice and thus renders it inefficient, making it necessary for the absorbents to perform an arduous task before the work of digestion can begin, and so wasting both time and vitality.

Tea and coffee, besides being open to the objection common to all drinks, are open to several other objections as dyspepsia-producing agents: 1. They are taken hot, and so injure the teeth and the sense of taste. 2. They first excite, and ultimately relax, the stomach. 3. They contain poisonous principles which exert upon the stomach and upon the system a medicinal or poisonous effect.

But without further remarks, we may enumerate as other fruitful causes of dyspepsia, the following:—

Irregularity of diet, late suppers, eating between meals, violent exercise immediately preceding or succeeding meals, habitually eating cold food, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and hard water. To these, several others might be added, the most important of which is drugs of all kinds. Anodynes, as paregoric and “Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Sirup,” make sad havoc with the stomachs of delicate infants, while bitters, tonics, blood foods, and cathartics, ruin the digestive organs of adults.

It may be thought by some that we have falsely accused many harmless articles as being the causes of dyspepsia. To such we would say, Ordinary individual experience is quite deceptive in the determination of the truth in this as well as many other cases. The chief cause which leads to error in deciding what is injurious and what is not, is the fact that many of the most fruitful causes of indigestion are such as apparently produce no immediate effect. For instance, a person may acquire the habit of drinking tea and coffee, and for a long time experience nothing but pleasurable sensations; such a person will be quite certain to maintain that he receives no injury from his indulgence in the fragrant cup. The same will be the case with the moderate drinker, the tobacco-user, the opium eater. Nevertheless, in the case of each one of them the digestive powers are being gradually undermined, and permanent injury is being wrought.

It will be readily understood how this deception with regard to the real condition of the stomach may exist, when the fact is considered that this organ is so constituted that, while its sensibility to a certain kind of sensations is exceedingly delicate, it is remarkably devoid of those nerves which recognize pain, and which exist in such great numbers in more exposed portions of the body. In accordance with this fact, it is well known that very extensive lesions may exist in the stomach without the manifestation of pain. Dr. Beaumont, to whom the credit of this discovery is due, had the opportunity of observing for some months the interior of a soldier's stomach which had been laid open by a gunshot wound. He repeatedly noticed that the stomach might be in a condition of the most extensive inflammation, as the result of hard drinking, and yet there be no feeling of pain or uneasiness upon the part of the individual. It is apparent, then, that the present or apparent effects of any agent are not always to be considered reliable.