The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-02-02

low who has been fascinated in
medical school by the actions of the
digestive tract, and has therefore
decided TO specialize in digestive
diseases. He expects all his pa
tients will have some real disease
of the stomach or intestine or gull
let, or some chemical arrangement
of secretion that he can adjust aft
er careful study. And then it grad
ually dawns on him after he has
been in practice some time that
most Of the people he is spending
his valuable time on are just belly
Achers.
"After all that is what dyspep-
STA is, isn't it-bellyaching?
Stomach Diseases
at is true that a certain proper
ton Of dyspeptics do suffer from a
real organic disease. Ulcer is the
only common one of the stomach.
The less said about cancer of the
stomach the better. Dropped stom-
ach occasionally gives trouble, but
so many of them produce no symp-
toms at all that the subject is as
dead as Hitler's plans for Russia.
The intestines also have a select
few organic diseases, but the sur
geon grabs them before the stom-
ache specialist has a chance.
"Then there is reflex dyspepsia.
Our remote ancestors in the ami
NAL kingdom were nothing but
stomachs once, and most Of US have
never got over that - whenever
anything is wrong anywhere in the
BODY it goes right to the stomach
a bad posture, a tilted womb, a
curved back, a touch of the flu.
Here is where your old friend
the gallbladder comes in. | have
heard it said that gallbladder dis
ease is the commonest cause Of
dyspepsia. 1t does not show itself
as frank gallbladder attack, collie
or pain. More usually it is gas and
bloating. You ask a person what
is the matter and he says-'Gas,
gas, gas!' You can answer-'Gall-
stones, gallstones, gallstonesn Or
just mild inflammation of the gall
gladder.
"Then they have sour stomach,
and heartburn. spells of nausea,
and similar spells that they rightly
call bilious irregular appetite,
headache. and such. They seldom
get relief from food as does your
ulcer patient. Abstaining from
food gives the most relief.
Nervous Dyspeptic
"But think the nervous dyspep-
tic leads the list, both in numbers
and troublesomeness. You often
wonder how they get that way. Not
a few times it's bred in them. re-
member a patient-a woman who
claimed to have fierce indigestion.
i couldn't find anything wrong
with her. but she wanted pills.
Finally the story came out. She
adored her father. FROM her de-
scription he must have looked like
Dore's pictures Of God. Anything
such creature said or did must be
divine. AS a little girl it was her
regular duty at meal time to go to
the sideboard and get a red pill for
him TO take before meals and blue
one afterwards. Otherwise he
claimed his meal wouldn't digest.
That became a fxation with her."
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
E. E. S.:-The first symptom Of
diabetes is. ! believe, excessive
thirst. Will you please trace the
development Of the disease step
by step through later stages?
Answer:-There is no rule
about the first symptoms of dia-
betes. 1t may be thirst, increased
urine, or loss Of weight, or one of
the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES vi
sion, boils, ulcers Of the toes or
coma. The exact course Of the dis
ease without treatment is unpre-
dictable- it depends on age of pa
tent and severity of the disease.