Vickipedia

INDIGE’STION, or DYSPE’PSIA, is term somewhat vaguely applied to various forms of disease of the stomach or of the small intestines in which the natural process of digesting and assimilating the food is deranged.

The symptoms of indigestion are by no means constant in all cases. There is often anorexia (or want of appetite), but occasionally the appetite is excessive, and even ravenous. Nausea not unfrequently comes on soon after a meal; while in other cases, there is no nausea, but after the lapse of a couple of hours, the food is vomited, the vomited matters being very acid, and often bitter, from the admixture of bile. In severe cases, the vomiting has been known to occur after every meal for several months. Flatulence, relieving itself in eructations, is one of the standard symptoms of this affection, the gas that gives rise to this symptom being sometimes evolved from undigested matters in the stomach, and sometimes being apparently secreted by the walls of that viscus. It is very apt to occur in dyspeptic patients if they have fasted rather longer than usual. Cardialgia (popularly known as heartburn), Pyrosis (q. v.), or water-brash, and Gastrodynia (commonly designated spasm or cramp of the stomach, and coming on at uncertain intervals in most severe paroxysms), are other somewhat less common symptoms of indigestion.

The treatment of indigestion is more dietetic than medicinal. The quantity of food which can be dissolved by the gastric juice and intestinal fluids being limited (see DIGESTION), 1′are should be taken that this quantity is not exceeded; moreover, the meals should not succeed each other too rapidly. Mr. Abernethy, who was a great authority on this subject, laid great stress on the principle, that the stomach should have time to perform one task before another was imposed upon it, and he always recommended his patients to allow six hours to intervene between any two meals. With regard to the nature of the food best suited to dyspeptic persons, it may be safely asserted that a mixture of well-cooked animal and vegetable food is in general more easily digested than either kind taken exclusively. Mutton, fowls, and game are the most digestible kinds of animal food; and pork and all cured meats, such as salted beef, ham, tongue. &c., should lie avoided. Raw vegetables, such as salads, cucumbers, &c., must also be prohibited. In most cases, dyspeptic persons would probably do well to avoid all stimulating drinks; but in some cases, a little cold, weak brandy and water, or a glass of old sherry, or a little bitter ale, may be taken with advantage. But upon all points of eating and drinking a sensible patient must be mainly influenced by his own experience. The unquestionable benefit which dyspeptic patients often derive from a visit to a hydropathic establishment is due perhaps not so much to any specific action of the water, as to the well-regulated diet, the withdrawal of the mind from personal cares, and the change of scene. A six weeks’ or two months’ tour among the mountains of Scotland or Switzerland will in the same way often do a dyspeptic patient more good than he could have experienced from any amount of physicking at home.

A few words must be said regarding the mode of treating the most urgent of the individual symptoms. Loss of appetite may be remedied by the employment of bitters, such as quinine, gentian, chiretta, &c., or of mineral acids, or of both combined. Nausea and vomiting may be treated with hydrocyanic acid, chloroform, and creosote in very small doses. Two or three drops of dilute hydrocyanic acid in an effervescent draught are often an effectual remedy. In intense vomiting, the amount of food taken at a time must be reduced to the lowest possible limit. A tablespoonful of milk, mixed with lime-water, will sometimes remain on the stomach after all other kinds of food have been rejected. There is no better remedy for flatulence than peppermint-water; if it fails, a drop of cajeput oil on a lump of sugar may be tried. When the eructations are attended with an odor of rotton eggs—that is to say, when sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved from the decomposition of matters in the stomach—an emetic is the best cure. The remedies for the pain in the stomach vary with the character of the pain; bismuth, nitrate of silver, and opium are often serviceable, but should not be taken without advice. A teaspoonful of the aromatic spirit of ammonia in a wineglass of camphor-mixture, often gives instantaneous relief, audit not too often resorted to, can be taken with impunity.