Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia Part 8

CHAPTER XII

INDIGESTION

"We know how dismal the world looks during a fit of indigestion, and what a host of evils disappear as the abused stomach regains its tone.

Indigestion has lead to the loss of battles; it has caused many crimes, and inspired much sulphurous theology, gloomy poetry and bitter satire."--Hollander.

The nervous dyspeptic suffers no marked pain, but often feels a "sinking", has no appet.i.te, and cannot enjoy life because his stomach, though sound, does not get enough nerve-force to run it properly.

A great deal of nerve-force is required for digestion, and if a man comes to the table exhausted, bolts his food, uses nerve-force scheming while he is bolting, and, immediately he has bolted a given amount, rushes off to work, digestion is imperfectly performed, nutriment is not a.s.similated, the nerve-force supply becomes deficient. He continues to overdraw his account in spite of the doctor's warning, and stomachic bankruptcy occurs, followed by a host of ills.

Nervous dyspepsia is a very obstinate complaint, but if tackled resolutely, it can to a great extent be mitigated; but let it be emphasized at once, that medicines, patent or otherwise, are useless. If dyspepsia be aggravated by other complaints, these should receive appropriate treatment, but the a.s.sertions so unblushingly made in patent-pill advertis.e.m.e.nts are unfounded. The very variety of the advertised remedies is proof of the uselessness of all.

Set aside certain periods three times a day for meals. Fifteen minutes before meal times, sit in a comfortable chair, relax all your muscles, close the eyes, and try to make the mind a blank. _Rest_!

Then eat the meal slowly and thoroughly. Conversation may lighten and lengthen a meal, but avoid politics, "shop" and topics of that type. What is wanted at table is wit, not wisdom.

Water may be drunk with meals, provided it is drunk between eating, and not while masticating, for it has decidedly beneficial effects upon the digestive functions. Water is usually forbidden with meals because if patients drink while eating, the water usurps the functions of saliva, and moistens the bolus, which is then swallowed with little or no mastication.

If you cannot drink between mouthfuls, then drink only between meals.

_Never drink while food is in the mouth!_

After the meal, lie down on the right side for half an hour, _resting_, and so directing all available nerve-energy to getting digestion well under way.

Indifferent appet.i.tes must be tempted by wholesome dishes made up in a variety of enticing ways. Fats are good, but must be taken in a tasty form.

Eat fruit deluged with cream.

The crux of digestion is to

"_Chew_! CHEW!! and KEEP ON CHEWING!!!" for until food is thoroughly masticated there will be no relief. The only part of the whole digestive process placed under the control of consciousness is mastication, and, paradoxically, it is the only part that consciousness usually ignores.

A healthy man never knows he has a stomach; a dyspeptic never knows he has anything else, because he will not _eat_ his food, but throws it into his stomach as the average bachelor throws his belongings into a trunk.

A varied, tasty diet, thoroughly chewed and salivated, with rest before and after meals, is the only means of curing dyspepsia, for no medicine can supply and properly distribute nerve-energy.

Digestive pills are all purgatives, with a bitter to increase appet.i.te, and occasionally a stomachic, bound together with syrup or soap. Practically all contain aloes, and very rarely a minute quant.i.ty of a digestive ferment like pepsin. Taken occasionally as purges, most digestive pills would be useful, but none are suited to continuous use, and the price is, as a rule, out of all proportion to the primary cost, while one or two are, frankly, barefaced swindles.

The a.n.a.lyses of the British Medical a.s.sociation give the following as the probable formulae for some well-known preparations:

Beecham's Pills.............................Aloes; ginger.

Holloway's Pills............................Aloes; ginger.

Page Woodc.o.c.k's ............................Aloes; ginger; capsic.u.m; cinnamon and oil of peppermint.

Carter's Little Liver.......................Aloes; podophyllin; Pills liquorice.

Burgess' Lion Pills.........................Aloes; ipecacuanha; rhubarb; jalap; peppermint.

c.o.c.kle's Pills..............................Aloes; colocynth; jalap.

Barclay's Pills.............................Aloes; colocynth; jalap.

Whelpton's Pills............................Ginger; colocynth; gentian.

Bile Beans..................................Cascara; rhubarb; liquorice; peppermint.

Cicfa.......................................Cascara; capsic.u.m; pepsin; diastase; maltose.

CHAPTER XIII

DIETING

"Simple diet is best; many dishes bring many diseases,"

--Pliny.

"Alas! what things I dearly love-- puddings and preserves-- Are sure to rouse the vengeance of All pneumogastric nerves!"

--Field.

The man who pores over a book to discover the exact number of calories (heat units) of carbohydrates, proteins and fats his body needs, means well, but is wasting time.

In theory it is excellent, for it should ensure maximum work-energy with minimum use of digestive-energy, but in practice it breaks down badly, a weakness to which theories are p.r.o.ne. One man divided four raw eggs, an ounce of olive oil, and a pound of rice into three meals a day.

Theoretically, such a diet is ideal, and for a short time the experimenter gained weight, but malnutrition and dyspepsia set in, and he had to give up. The best diet-calculator is a normal appet.i.te, and fancy aids digestion more than a pair of scales.

In spite of rabid veget- and other "arians", most foods are good (making allowances for personal idiosyncrasy) if thoroughly masticated. The oft-quoted a.n.a.logy of the cow is incorrect, for herbivora are able to digest cellulose; but even cows masticate most laboriously.

Meat juices are the most digestion-compelling substances in existence, and a little meat soup, "Oxo" or "Bovril" is an excellent first course.

No one needs more than three meals per day, while millions thrive on one or two only, which should be ready at fixed hours; for the stomach when habituated becomes congested and secretes gastric juice at those hours without the impulse of the will, is ready to digest food, and gets that rest between-times which is essential to sound digestion. The man who has snacks between meals, and chocolates and biscuits between snacks can never hope to get well.

To eat the largest meal at midday, as is the custom of working-men, is best, provided one can take half an hour's rest afterwards.

Drink a pint of tepid water half an hour before every meal. If the stomach be very foul, add a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda to the water.

The question of alcohol is a vexed one, but Paul's "Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake," is undoubtedly sound advice, though had Paul been trained at a London hospital, he would have added "after meals".

Unfortunately, moderation is usually beyond the ability of the neuropath, and consequently he should be forbidden to take alcohol at all. Spirits must be avoided.

Moderately strong, freshly made tea or coffee may be consumed in reasonable quant.i.ty.

Vegetable salads are excellent if compounded with liquids other than vinegar or salad oil, and of ingredients other than cuc.u.mbers, radishes, and the like.

Take little starchy food and sweetmeats. It may surprise those with "a sweet tooth" to learn that, to the end of the Middle Ages, sugar was used only as a medicine. Meat must be eaten--if at all--in the very strictest moderation, and never more than once a day. Eggs, fish and poultry--in moderation too--take its place.

Healthy children need very little meat, while it is a moot point if children of unstable, nervous build need any at all. The diet at homes for epileptics is usually vegetarian, and gives excellent results.

Never swallow skin, core, seeds or kernels of fruits, many of which, excellent otherwise, are forbidden because of the irritation caused to stomach and bowels by their seeds or skins.

Bromides are said to give better results if salt is not taken. A little may be used in cooking, if, as is usually the case, the patient has to eat at the common table, but condiments are unnecessary and often irritating to delicate stomachs.

The diet of nervous dyspeptics must be very simple, and though it is trying and monotonous to forgo harmful dainties in favour of wholesome dishes, it is but one of the many limitations Nature inflicts on neuropaths. Many an epileptic, after believing himself cured, has brought on a severe attack by an imprudent meal. La Rochefoucauld says: "Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a wearisome malady", but it is open to all men to choose whether they will endure the remedy or the disease.

Most men eat six times the minimum and twice the optimum quant.i.ty of food per day. For every one who starves, hundreds gorge themselves to death.

"Food kills more than famine", and the poor, who eat spa.r.s.ely from necessity, suffer far less from gout, cancer, rheumatism and other food-aggravated diseases than the rich.

Most books give detailed lists of foods to be eaten and to be avoided, but this we believe is productive of little good.

Let the patient eat a mixed diet, well and suitably cooked, taking what he fancies in reason, masticating everything thoroughly, and gradually eliminating foods which experience teaches him are difficult for him to digest.