Indigestion is a vague term used to describe pains or discomfort in the abdomen after eating or drinking. Dyspepsia is a discomfort in the uppermost part of the abdomen after food. Some people's indigestion is caused by a peptic ulcer.
What causes it?
• Peptic ulcer.
• Smoking.
• Alcohol, tea and coffee.
• Specific foods (often spicy ones or sugar).
• Fatty foods.
• Stress.
• Too little gastric acid.
• Hypoglycemia.
• Thrush.
• Reflux oesophagitis or hiatus hernia.
• Irritable bowel syndrome.
• Angina.
Prevention
• Smoking stimulates the production of gastric acid and can cause quite severe indigestion in some people. Smoking also reduces the efficiency of the valve of the top of the stomach, so allowing acid stomach contents to flow into the lower end of the gullet (oesophagus) and cause pain there. Other substances that do this are chocolate, alcohol, spearmint, and peppermint. Stopping smoking brings relief in days to many people with indigestion. Any treatment being given for indigestion is made less effective in someone who continues to smoke.
• Alcohol, tea and coffee stimulate gastric-acid production. Experiment with leaving out all of these for a few days and see the results. If the indigestion goes completely reintroduce one drink at a time (weak if it is tea or coffee, and infrequently in the case of alcohol) and stop as soon as you get indigestion again. It may be that there is one (or more) of them that you will never be able to drink without feeling ill.
• Research has found that certain individuals improve when they go on to a low-carbohydrate diet. Sucrose increases pepsin secretion by the stomach by 200 per cent. The same study found that eight out of nine people with hiatus hernia did better when they went on a similar diet, low in refined carbohydrates. Five out of eight people with duodenal ulcer also improved.
• Fatty foods often produce pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen (if the individual's gall-bladder is not working well) partly because of gall-stones. If fatty foods regularly bring on your indigestion, see your doctor.
• Stress is a potent stimulant to gastric acid, and many people complain of odd discomforts and uneasiness in the stomach when they are stressed. Stress also affects the rate at which the stomach digests food and passes it on to the intestine, and this can cause indigestion as well.
• Although many people with indigestion have too much gastric acid and improve when taking antacids, some do not. These people have too little acid in their stomachs and the antacids òàê them worse. Prevention here involves taking pepsin and hydrochloric acid supplements regularly. A good way to take hydrochloric acid is in the form of 1-3 tablets of betaine hydrochloride before each meal
• The yeast Candida albicans, which causes thrush, can infect the stomach and produce a sense î burning after the ingestion of food. This type of indigestion can only be cleared up by treating the infection.
• In the irritable bowel syndrome the colon (large bowel) goes into spasm after food. The middle part of the colon lies in the upper abdomen very near the stomach and this pain can be mistaken for indigestion.
• Angina pectoris can often mimic indigestion. If you have any history of heart disease in your family or have any of the risk factors known to be important in heart disease always take 'indigestion' seriously. The prevention of indigestion in your case might be to treat your angina.
• If you have indigestion don't take a sloppy diet or drink lots of milk as neither have been proven to reduce indigestion, except temporarily. Unfortunately, they often worsen it because milk produces a rebound overproduction of acid once its initial buffering effect has passed.
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Tags: General health
Tags: General health