Dyspepsia is much more frequent in this country than in any other.
Fully one-fourth of the adult population suffer to a greater or less
extent from it. It is occasioned by improper eating in several ways.
Eating too much, too fast or too often. In the digestive organs in
which the processes by which the food is digested is carried on, the
functions are imperfectly performed. It affects not only the stomach
but various other organs, the liver, the spleen, the bowels and also the
mental organism.
DYSPEPSIA AND ITS CURES. 267
Another cause of dyspepsia is the drinking- of ice-water and iced tea.
Iced tea is the cause of more diseases than one would think, gastric
fever being not the least of them. Indigestion is another cause, and
those who are troubled in this way should be in the sun as much as
possible, and try to lie in the sun at least an hour ; expose the body to
sunshine, especially the back. Those who take plenty of exercise, eat
good, healthy food, and live in the sunshine, will seldom have indiges-
tion or dyspepsia. Tea is a most fruitful source of dyspepsia, because
it is usually drank to excess.
On account of the various organs liable to be implicated, the range of
symptoms is very great. Some of the most common are loss of appe-
tite, nausea, acid eructations or heartburn, sense of weight and fullness
in the stomach after eating, giddiness when walking, as if the pavement
was rising up immediately in front of one, constipation and sallow skin ;
in advanced stages cough which is often mistaken for a symptom of
disease of the lungs, loss of ambition and energy, despondency, etc.
These are but a few of the symptoms which present themselves.
To those unacquainted with the pathology of the disease some of the
symptoms, when present, may lead them to think the cause of the
trouble is different from what it really is. A very common symptom
is palpitation of the heart. Those who have this almost invariably
imagine that they have heart disease, and often suffer not only physi-
cally from the distress caused thereby, but mentally from fear of sud-
den death. The cause of a fit of the blues may be a portion of undi-
gested food. The treatment of this affliction must have a two-fold
object : To relieve the distress and to remove the cause. Bearing in
mind the cause of the trouble, the diet should be so regulated as to give
the digestive organs as little work to perform as possible. Only the
most digestible food should be used, and in such quantities as not to
overtax the stomach. The common symptom of acid eructations or
belching of wind may be relieved by taking from one to two teaspoon-
fuls of willow charcoal and two teaspoonfuls of glycerine in a little
water after each meal. The prepared charcoal may be found at any
druggist's.
Heartburn, so-called, indicates a too acid condition of the stomach,
which should be counteracted by means of alkalies. A half-teaspoon-
ful of magnesia or bicarbonate of soda taken in a little water, will often
relieve at once this disagreeable symptom.
Page 237
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Dyspepsia is much more frequent in this country than in any other. Fully one-fourth of the adult population suffer to a greater or less extent from it. It is occasioned by improper eating in several ways. Eating too much, too fast or too often. In the digestive organs in which the processes by which the food is digested is carried on, the functions are imperfectly performed. It affects not only the stomach but various other organs, the liver, the spleen, the bowels and also the mental organism.
DYSPEPSIA AND ITS CURES. 267
Another cause of dyspepsia is the drinking of ice-water and iced tea. Iced tea is the cause of more diseases than one would think, gastric fever being not the least of them. Indigestion is another cause, and those who are troubled in this way should be in the sun as much as possible, and try to lie in the sun at least an hour ; expose the body to sunshine, especially the back. Those who take plenty of exercise, eat good, healthy food, and live in the sunshine, will seldom have indigestion or dyspepsia. Tea is a most fruitful source of dyspepsia, because it is usually drank to excess.
On account of the various organs liable to be implicated, the range of symptoms is very great. Some of the most common are loss of appetite, nausea, acid eructations or heartburn, sense of weight and fullness in the stomach after eating, giddiness when walking, as if the pavement was rising up immediately in front of one, constipation and sallow skin ; in advanced stages cough which is often mistaken for a symptom of disease of the lungs, loss of ambition and energy, despondency, etc. These are but a few of the symptoms which present themselves.
To those unacquainted with the pathology of the disease some of the symptoms, when present, may lead them to think the cause of the trouble is different from what it really is. A very common symptom is palpitation of the heart. Those who have this almost invariably imagine that they have heart disease, and often suffer not only physically from the distress caused thereby, but mentally from fear of sudden death. The cause of a fit of the blues may be a portion of undigested food. The treatment of this affliction must have a two-fold object : To relieve the distress and to remove the cause. Bearing in mind the cause of the trouble, the diet should be so regulated as to give the digestive organs as little work to perform as possible. Only the most digestible food should be used, and in such quantities as not to overtax the stomach. The common symptom of acid eructations or belching of wind may be relieved by taking from one to two teaspoonfuls of willow charcoal and two teaspoonfuls of glycerine in a little water after each meal. The prepared charcoal may be found at any druggist's.
Heartburn, so-called, indicates a too acid condition of the stomach, which should be counteracted by means of alkalies. A half-teaspoonful of magnesia or bicarbonate of soda taken in a little water, will often relieve at once this disagreeable symptom.