Special Systems Of Treatment

The following systems of treating dyspepsia are condensed from the writings of several of the best-known dietists:

Dujardin-Beaumetz divides dyspepsia into three classes, and regulates their diet accordingly, as follows:

I. Dyspepsia with abundant gastric juice. Diet, fresh vegetables and fruits, farinaceous food, milk, no meat or wine.

II. Dyspepsia with deficient gastric juice. Diet, meat, broths, milk, peptonised food, weak brandy and water. No vegetables or saccharine food.

III. Dyspepsia with sympathetic affections, especially vertigo. Diet, purely vegetable food.

His diet of vegetable food is very liberal, and includes cereals as well as fruits. It contains such articles as dry bread crust, toast; farinaceous purees made of one of the following materials: Maize, flour, chestnut meal, oatmeal, pearl barley, potatoes, lentils, reva-lenta, macaroni (plain or buttered), vermicelli; purees of fresh vegetables, such as green peas, carrots, turnips; the vegetables of julienne soup; salads, spinach, sorrel, French beans, fruits, except grapes cooked as compote, lightly cooked eggs.

Germain See's treatment of dyspepsia is exactly the reverse of that of Dujardin-Beaumetz. He divides dyspeptics into two classes:

I. Those who have hyperacidity of the gastric juice, for whom he prescribes a nitrogenous diet with sodium bicarbonate after meals.

II. Those having diminished acidity, for whom he prescribes a purely vegetable regimen, with dilute hydrochloric acid after meals.

He directs in all cases to wash out the stomach and stimulate the gastric mucous membrane, for which he orders the alkaline sodium bicarbonate in a tumblerful of Vichy an hour and a half before eating.

Leube graduates dyspeptics into four groups according to the severity of their symptoms. The diet which he recommends is as follows, commencing with the severest cases:

I. Broth or clear soup, Leube's meat extract, milk, eggs (raw or lightly cooked), carbonic-acid water, Apollinaris, or Seltzer.

II. Boiled calves' brains, sweetbread, breast of chicken or squab, bread and milk, custard, unsweetened tapioca pudding.

III. The same as the two preceding, with the addition of raw ham [sic] and rump steak. The latter is strongly beaten, scraped, and roasted quickly before a hot fire with a little fresh butter.

IV. This diet, intended for the mildest cases or for convalescence, includes milk, rice, spinach, roast chicken, partridge, venison, rare beef, veal, macaroni, fresh green vegetables, salads, fruit compotes, stewed apples, and light wines. He sometimes allows fish, such as bass.

General Rules For Dyspeptics

The following general rules are applicable to all cases of dyspepsia and indigestion:

1. Eat slowly, masticate thoroughly.

2. Drink fluid an hour before or two or three hours after meals, rather than with food.

3. Eat at regular hours.

4. If greatly fatigued, lie down and rest quietly before and after luncheon and dinner or supper.

5. Avoid as far as possible taking business worries or professional cares to the table.

6. Take systematic exercise in the open air. Bicycle and horseback riding are the best forms.

7. On rising, cold sponging and vigorous friction of the body is advisable.

8. The bowels should be kept open by laxative foods and fluids rather than by medicines.

9. Avoid too much variety at any one meal. Take meats and vegetables at separate meals.