INDIGESTION (from Lat. indiqcstio, indi gestion, from in-. not + digcstio, digestion. from diyercre, to digest, from dis-, apart + yerere, to carry), or DYSPEPSIA. A term somewhat vaguely applied to various forms of disease of the stomach or of the small intestines in which the natural process of di”esting and assimilating the food is deranged. common cause of indigestion, where organic disease is absent, is the eating Of too much food, too rapidly, or without sufficient mastication.
The symptoms of indigestion are by no means constant, in all cases. There is often anorexia (or want of appetite), but occasionally the ap petite is excessive, and even ravenous. Nausea not infrequently comes on soon after a meal; while in other eases there is no nausea, but after the lapse of a couple of hours the food is vomited, the vomited matters being very acid, and often bitter from admixture of bile. In se vere eases the vomiting has been known to occur after every meal for several months. Flatulence, relieving itself in eructations. is one of the standard symptoms of this affection, the gas that gives rise to this symptom being sometimes evolved from undigested matters in the stomach. It is very apt to occur in dyspeptic patients if they have fasted rather longer than usual. Cardialgia (popularly known as heartburn), pyrosis (q.v.), or water-brash, and gastrodynia
(commonly designated spasm or cramp of the stomach, and coming on at uncertain intervals in most severe paroxysms) are somewhat less common symptoms of indigestion.
The treatment of indigestion is more dietetic than medicinal. All bad habits suggested above must be corrected. The quantity of food which can he digested by the gastric juice and intes tinal fluids being limited ( see DIGESTION. OR GANS OF) care should be taken to avoid ex moreover, the meals should not succeed each other too rapidly. With regard to the nature of food best suited to dyspeptic persons. it may he safely asserted that a mixture of well-cooked animal and vegetable food is in gen eral more easily digested than either kind taken exclusively. Each patient should be advised by his physician as to his dietary. The unques tionable benefit which dyspeptie patients often derive from a visit to a hydropathic establish ment is due perhaps not so much to any specific action of the water as to the well-regulated diet, the withdrawal of the mind from personal cares, and the change of scene. The use of purgatives and remedies for indigestion is much overdone by the laity, and lays the foundations of chronic gastric disorder that cannot be cured.