The Washington times., 1917-03-30
POPULAR MEDICINE
BY DR.. HIRSHBERG
Intelligent Observation of Rules
of Hygiene VIII De-.
crease Illness.
BY DIR. LEONARD Il. HIRsHBERG.

Digestion is a vital act of the
mouth, aesophagus, stomach, intes-
tines, blood and other tissues, which
converts raw Or cooked foods into a
part of your living anatomy at the
same time it stores up its products
for useful energy and heat.
Indigestion is any interference OF
whatsoever nature that fails to allow
digestion to carry out its appointed
tasks and purposes perfectly. Plain
ly, there are scores of things, all
ments, symptoms; and diseases that
any one may honestly call "indiges-
tion." Dyspepsia is an equally be-
nighted term.
The empty stomach is really never
wholly empty, for IL contains about
five or six teaspoonfuls of fluid. The
empty stomach is never wholly at
rest either chemically or mechanic
ally. 1t Is always at work making
and pouring out its natural acids and
its pepsin-
Time was when psychologists
taught that sucking a pebble, chew
ing gum or other inert substances
whipped up the stomach Juice forma-
tion. This Is now known to be prac-
tically untrue. Even the fluids made
by the sight, the smell and the
thought of food are but slight and in
constant
II, however. you taste or chew pala-
table victuals and drink, the stomach
pepsin, acid and other substances are
really augmented. Indeed, there is ap-
parently a direct relation between the
palatabiIity OF food and the rate of
the formation Of stomach juices.
Appetite and Digestion.
When you say you "haye an appe-
tite" it means, according to recent re-
searches, that your stomach, IL
healthy, has begun to produce half Of
1 per cent of hydrochioric-muriati
acid. II less than this is the yield
before food enters. it means that
your stomach is below par. Only
chemical analysis can tell this.
"HyperacidIty" or excess OF stom-
aeh acids Is now supposed to be due.
not to oyerproduction Of acid, but to
an upset OF the machinery for making
neutral the acid as it accumulates.
A discovery of very recent date Is
the way this accommodating acid is neu-
tralized. Startling as it seems, II is
the alkalis of the intestines, which
are periodically thrust back-"reg-
urgitated"-into the stomach 1t Is the
absence or deficiency of this muscular
'motifr of the intestines which Is per-
haps the cause OF "hyperacidity" and
ulcers.
Some Theories Overturned.
There is almost Always more pepsin
formed than the stomach needs. In
vestigation OF the value Of so-called
gastric stimulants." "bitter tonics,"
-s'bitters" and other medical or popu-
lar. medicines "to create Rppetites"
seems to be wholly disproved by re-
searches of Drs. Louis. d. Moorhead
and A. J. Carlson, working indepen-
IDENTIFY of each other. Both investiga-
tors are convinced that many mucn
vaunted artificial aids neither increase
the acid nor the pepsin in human OF
animal stomach juices. Any value
possessed by them appears to rest
upon the hope that Springs eternal
in the human breast" and is possibly
in proportion to the bad taste of the
medicine"
Starches and sweets do not ferment
and form alcohol and "liquor" in the
stomach OF athletes and others whose
muscle tissue generally is in a state
of health and preparedness. Indeed,
even IL yeast is eaten there Is no
additional alcohol formed, nor is
bread better digested.
All Of which may g. to show that
the very prohibitionists and others
who lead quiet, indoor, sedentary,
non-muscular lives are the ones most
likely to have fermentations and al
cohol formed in their stomachs.
(Copy't 1871. by Newspaper Feature Serv1ce).