DEFINITION. – Indigestion is a deviation from the healthy function just described, and is one of the most common affections which the physician has to treat.
SYMPTOMS. – These vary greatly, both in character and in intensity, but there is commonly one or more of the following- Impaired appetite, flatulence, nausea, and eructations, which often bring up bitter or acid fluids; furred tongue, often flabby, large or indented at the sides; foul taste or breath, heartburn, pain, sensation of weight, and inconvenience or fulness after a meal; irregular action of the bowels, headache, diminished mental energy and alertness, dejection of spirits, palpitation of the heart, or great vessels; and various affection in other organs. Disturbances in remote parts may be due to reflex action, or to the effects of distension of the stomach, which, encroaching on the space occupied by the lungs, heart, and other organs, impede their healthy action.
Occasionally, one or two symptoms are so prominent as exclusively to concentrate the patient’s attention on them till he regards them as disease per se. Loss of appetite, flatulence, etc., are examples of the most commonly prominent symptoms.
LOSS OF APPETITE (Anorexia). – The natural requirements of the body might be neglected but for certain sensations – hunger and thirst – which, no doubt, depend upon some peculiar condition of the nerves. The receipt of alarming or startling intelligence often arrests, in an instant, the keenest appetite. Hunger is much influenced by habit, and returns with great regularity when meals are taken at a uniform hour. Many substances which are non-nutritious destroy or lower the susceptibility of the nervous filaments of the stomach, and thus blunt the natural sensations of hunger; such, especially, are tobacco, opium, and ardent spirits. Too little out-of-doors exercise, irregularity of meals, eating between meals, and late hours, are some of the most frequent causes of dyspepsia.
Loss of appetite during acute disease, or a weakened state of system should be respected, for thrusting food into the stomach in spite of its dictates will generally give rise to more serious symptoms.
Sometimes instead of loss of appetite there is voracious or depraved appetite; these symptoms are usually associated with Chlorosis, nervous irritation from worms, etc.; they can only be removed by correcting the condition on which they depend.
FLATULENCE. – This is frequently a prominent and persistent symptom, and is caused by defective nerve force, or general debility; food may be detained in the stomach and undergo fermentation, owing to imperfection or arrest of the chemical processes characteristic of health. At other times flatulence is apparently generated by the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal; for the symptoms are very apt to arise in dyspeptic persons when a meal is delayed beyond the accustomed hour, or when the stomach is empty. Flatulence is often associated with faintness, nausea, palpitation, and other disagreeable sensations.
HEARTBURN (Cardialgia). – An acrid or scalding sensation, commencing in the stomach and rising up the throat to the mouth, generally from excess of animal food; it is especially liable to occur in gouty constitutions. Hiccough (singultus) is a common accompaniment of Heartburn, and consists of brief Spasms of the diaphragm. In infants it is easily removed by administering a small quantity of milk or water.
NIGHTMARE (Incubus). – In this condition the patient experiences confused and frightful dreams, wit a sense of weight or pressure impeding breathing and producing great anguish; or he fancies himself in danger or difficulty, from which he vainly tires to extricate himself, until at length he succeeds in uttering a cry, or moving, when the distressing condition terminates. It is caused by disorder of the digestive organs, and most frequently follows a late, especially a heavy supper. It may also be induced by fatigue, or an uneasy posture in bed, or in children by enlarged tonsils (see Section on Quinsy); sometimes the cause is very obscure, and requires professional examination and treatment.
CAUSES OF INDIGESTION. – Irregularities in diet, such as indulgences in the luxuries of the table, partaking of rich, highly-seasoned, heavy, fat, sour, or bad food; eating too quickly; imperfect mastication of food; eating too frequently, or, on the other hand, too long abstinence from food; the use of warm and relaxing drinks, tea (especially green tea), coffee, tobacco, wine and alcoholic beverages; too little out-of-door exercise; excessive bodily or mental exertion; late hours; exposure to cold and damp, etc. Bad teeth and suppuration of the gums. Business and family anxieties are frequent causes of Dyspepsia, and their operation is very general and extended, implicating not only the mucous coats of the stomach, but the liver, the bowels, and often the whole nervous system. The battle of life is too often fought, not only with much wear and tear, but with almost overwhelming anxieties and disappointments; and the digestive organs are often the first to suffer from depression of the mind. In this respect, the cause is often put for the effect, the common remark being that depression of spirits accompanied Indigestion; but it is more true to say that Indigestion accompanies depressed spirits. When the mind is depressed by disappointment or anxiety, there is a corresponding depression of the nervous energies, and so the stomach, in common with other organs, loses vital energy.
Hence, in the treatment of Dyspepsia, the use of medicines and the observance of hygienic rules and habits must ever go hand in hand; for the former, however correctly prescribed, will alone be unavailing.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT. –
1. Acute Dyspepsia. – Nux V, Bism. (severe pain towards night; Spasm); Pulsatilla (from rich or fatty food); Iris (vomiting and Diarrhoea with Headache); Arsenicum, Coloc. (from sour fruits or vegetables); Bryonia
2. Chronic.- Nux V., Pulsatilla, Hepar sulph., Bryonia, Carbo V., Calcarea carb., Sulphur, Lycopodium, Ant.-C., K.-Bich., Mercurius, Arnica, Thuja.
3. From mental causes. – Nux v. (business anxiety); Ignatia (grief); Aconite, China, or Nux v. (night-watching), etc.
4. Debilitating losses. – Diarrhoea, Haemorrhage, Suppuration, etc. – China, Ac.-Phosphorus, Phosphorus, Ferrum.
5. From cold. – Aconite, Art.-Mercurius
6. Special Symptoms. – Loss of Appetite. – Calcarea carb., Ferrum, or China; Depraved appetite – China or Cin; Flatulence – Lycopodium (with Constipation); Carbo V. (with Diarrhoea); Heartburn – Pulsatilla, Caps., or Nux V.; Hiccough – Nux V., Caulophyllum, Gelsemium, Arsenicum, Ac.- Sulphs. (with Acidity)l; Water-brash-Bryonia, Lycopodium, Nux vomica; Chronic Acidity – Calcarea-c., Rob., Ac.-Sulphs., Phosphorus; Nightmare – Nux V. (from Indigestion or abuse of spirits), China (with oppression), Sulphur (with Palpitation).
LEADING INDICATIONS. –
Nux Vomica. – Pain, tenderness, and fulness of the stomach after meals; Heartburn; sour acid risings; flatulence; frequent vomiting of food and bile; sour or bitter taste; the head is confused, aches early in the morning, the patient feels indolent and sleepy after a meal, and unfitted for any exertion; there are a sallow, yellowish complexion, and an irregular action of the bowels, with ineffectual urging. Nux Vom. is particularly indicated in persons of dark bilious complexions, who employ their brains too much, but take too little open-air exercise, eat largely, and drink alcoholic liquors. A tendency to Piles is a further indication for Nux V. and also for Sulph., which may advantageously precede it.
Pulsatilla. – Indigestion from fatty food or pastry, with much secretion of mucus; Heartburn; acid, bitter, or putrid taste; frequent loose evacuations. It is especially suited to females with irregular menses, and to persons of a mild disposition.
Bryonia. – Pressure or weight, as of a stone, after food; frequent bitter or acid eructations; nausea or bilious vomiting; stitch-like pain, from the stomach to the blade bones; painful soreness at the pit of the stomach on coughing or taking a deep breath; Constipation; severe headache, worse after movement; obstinate, irregular disposition.
Lycopodium. – Atonic Dyspepsia of weakly patients, delayed digestion from deficient glandular secretion and muscular energy; too little nervous force to spare for digestion, so that during its progress an irresistible drowsiness comes on, and the sleeper awakes exhausted; also when, from like causes, flatulence collects in abundance, and the bowels are utterly torpid (Hughes).
Antimonium Crudum. – Aversion to food, or loss of appetite; thickly coated tongue; sensation as if the stomach were overloaded; eructations, tasting of the food; nausea, or vomiting of mucus and bile; escape of flatulence, with an early reproduction of the symptoms; alternates Diarrhoea and constipation; pimply eruptions on the face, or sores on the lips or nostrils.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."