HEALTH NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1931, Page 2

HEALTH NOTES

> HUMAN MECHANISM. I i YOUII DIGESTION. i ' (Contributed, by the- Department of l ' Health), > l “Let good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both” is an excellent s toast, for it sums up in an admirable ? way the relationship between these i throe essentials for a happy life states - an article in “Bettor Health.” * Your digestion is probably more abused in word and indeed than any , other faculty of the body. When it t lails—there is a reason. Of course . the cause may be cancer of the stomi aeh, but a million times more likely i it is from something well within your . own family doctor can ascertain and ; put right for you. A voracious appetite or inordinate desire for food is not a ; healthy sign. A good appetite is one i which appreciates the fact that, a , meial-time has arrivied which enjoys r what is placed on the table and which . is satisfied with something less than repletion. In short, the surest way to , ruin digestion is to gorge, i.e. to eat what you do not require, when you , don’t require it, and to wash down reluctant mmithfulLs with excess of liquids. Now, what is this process of digestion that we talk so glibly about? It is ( really a process of dissolving and prei Paring the food which you have consumed so that it may he taken up by the blood-stream and distributed I throughout the body for its growth and nutrition. For this the stomach is not a store house (like the camel’s lump) but one of the rooms or laboratories in the factory where the process la carried out. Strictly speaking dig- ’ estion begins in th?i mouth where the grinding mills are situated. Hero the . front teeth (incisors) cut the pieces to size, the eye teeth (canines) pierce 'hem, the back teeth (molars) grind them down. Just as in a factory, it Is essential that this preliminary work "hall be properly done, olierwise there is trouble m the other departments. 1 lie tongue and the cheeks are not idle, for, working together, they “feed” the cuttilng piercing and grinding machines and turn the food over and over, round and round, so that it shall be properly mixed with saliva which pours out in copious streams from the salivary glands situated under the lower jaw. This saliva has an important part to play for, as well ns moistening, softening and dissolving some of the food, it converts the insoluble starch granules into soluble sugar, not all at once, hut gradually. Now you can understand why a putty-like mass of new bread, or greasy pastry, instantly washed down with ten is ‘indigestible.” When, the food reaches the stomach chemical process begun in the mouth continues for a time provided that it has been finely disintegrated and properly insalivated, but by and by, the pale grey lining of the empty stomach becomes suffused with a healthy pink colour. The soft velvety coating swells somewhat and the digestive glands con. tnined in it, get busy. They begin to pour out a weak solution of hydrochloric acid—yes, plain spirits of salt, but a highly refined variety, a lot of mucus nnd with the latter a ferment called pepsin. In ‘the presence of this hydrochloric acid—the “sour water” sometimes blocked up from the stomach, when tilings go wrong—pepsin has the power of breaking up the complex substance which we call “protein,” into similar but simpler substances named proteoses and peptones. Protein by the way, is just a general 'term for the various nitrogen-contain-ing substances which go to make up living tissue, for example, the albumen (white) of an egg, the casein (curd, of milk, the gluten (gummy part) of wheat am on. Protein, as such, will not pass through the menhranees of the .collecting vessels—we say the molecules (or ultimate particles) are “too big”—so it must be “broken down” into substances that will penetrate and then become built no again by the living cells of the body. Be that as it may, only part of the process of digestion, or preparing of food for absorption, is carried out in the stomach, the remainder is passed on to the intestine for completion. Normally it takes the stomach two to- four hours to do its part of the work. If it is disturbed, hindered or liamperecTin any way it does not usually “suffer in sil- ; ence,”

The common hindrances—apart from disease—are, a fresh charge before the previous one lias dealt with, badly prepared material, or wrong kind, or too much at one time, and excess of foreign fluids, which dilute the digestive juices below the point at which they can act properly. Nervous strain and worry also inhibit the necessary secretions. When the normal pro-ess of digestion is weakened, or delayed, quite a different process, namely that of formeritnton, sets In, with the production of volumes of gas, discomfort, pain, etc, the food taken ip, not being prepared by “the genuine process” is unavailable for nutrition of the body, hence— but there is no need to depict the horrors of chronic indigestion, Try to understand the working of vour stomach, treat it properly, and if that fails, consult vour o'.\ tin.