Guest guest Posted July 12, 2005 Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 Gastric UlcerHM SheltonOrthopathy VIIDefinition:A circumscribed loss of tissue in the stomach, usually involving both the mucous membrane and the deeper structures. An ulcer differs from a wound in the following ways: A wound arises from some external source; an ulcer has its cause within the body. A wound is always idiopathic; an ulcer is always symptomatic. The tendency of the wound is to heal because its cause is removed: the cause acted but momentarily. An ulcer persists and often enlarges, because its cause persists and often increases. The healing of an ulcer therefore depends primarily upon the removal and correction of the internal condition of which it is but a symptom. This done, the ulcer quickly heals.Symptoms:Pain, usually paroxysmal, severe and localized, though it may radiate to the back or sides, is usually present. In many cases taking food induces or aggravates the pain and this lasts until the stomach is emptied, either by vomiting or by emptying into the intestine. Localized tenderness is often felt. Vomiting, usually of undigested food and acid fluid, which is quite frequent, usually comes on from one-half hour to two hours after eating. Hemorrhage into the stomach with vomiting of blood occurs in more than half the cases and is said to cause death in about twenty per cent of all fatal cases of ulcer. There is an excessive secretion of hydrochloric acid (hyperacidity). Symptoms of indigestion (dyspepsia) precede most cases, though in some cases there are few symptoms until sudden perforation into the peritoneum, pleura, pericardium, or intestine, with hemorrhage, occurs.Complications:Perforation occurs in from 8 to 10 per cent of cases. General or circumscribed peritonitis results from perforation. The peritonitis is a conservative process resulting in adhesions and walling up of the perforation. Sub-phrenic abscess sometimes follows the formation of adhesions. Stenosis, either of the cardiac or pyloric orifices, or hour-glass constriction of the stomach may result from contraction of the cicatrices — scars. About 20 per cent of ulcers become malignant — cancerous.Etiology:As gastric catarrh evolves, the catarrh passes to inflammation, from inflammation to induration (hardening), and from induration to ulceration. Stomach ulcer is the end of a chain of stomach disorders beginning with irritation — indigestion from imprudent eating or drinking — which, when very severe, or oft repeated causes' inflammation (catarrh); and when the abuse of the stomach is continued, ulceration follows, or induration (hardening), then cancer.Decidedly nervous individuals who consume much starch — bread, cake and pastry — are more inclined to develop ulcer. Where there is a decided acidity of the secretion, inflammation and ulceration are almost sure to develop. Discomfort and often great pain accompany this condition.It is not uncommon to see a patient whose stomach is so sour that, on drinking water and vomiting, the returned water and diluted acid are strong enough to sear the throat and paralyze the epiglottis so it can not close, and an attempt to drink water will cause the water to run into the nose. Even gases eructated from such a stomach burn the membranes of the nose and throat.Prognosis:This is very favorable in all early; cases. Many persist for years, then recover. Relapses, so common under regular care, are due to failure to remove causes. Advanced cases, in the profoundly enervated may end fatally in spite of the best of care.Care of the Patient: The palliative treatments in vogue are so unsatisfactory that a noted American surgeon recommends that ulcers be removed after they have been cured nine times. As in all other troubles, the first necessity is the removal of the causes — immediate and remote — of the trouble. All enervating habits must be discontinued and sufficient rest in bed secured to permit of restoration of full nerve energy. A fast, both to hasten elimination of toxemia and to give the stomach an opportunity to heal, is essential. Chronic provocation by food, indigestion and drugs prevent healing. Food also keeps up the excessive gastric secretion. Fasting soon stops gastric secretion so that, while it often increases the pain during the first two or three days, it speedily establishes a state of comfort so that satisfactory healing may proceed. The fast should last until the body is free of toxemia.Feeding after the fast should be, in most particulars, exactly opposite to the feeding commonly employed in cases of ulcer. Instead of the highly acid-forming diet in vogue, an alkaline diet should be employed. Fruits and vegetables, and these raw, should make up the bulk of the diet. If, at first, there is sensitiveness to the roughage in these foods, raw juices of the fruits and vegetables and purees and strained vegetable soups may be used. Cooked fruits are never to be used.Every health building agent — sunshine, exercise, etc. — should be employed as early as possible.Operations are notoriously unsatisfactory in ulcers. First, the operation does not remove the cause of the ulcer. Second, the ulcer is in a field of inflammation in the mucous membrane, which inflammatory field may be quite limited or may involve much of the gastric mucosa, and an operation will remove the ulcer, but there is always quite an area of inflamed mucous membrane left after the ulcer is removed and this inflamed membrane tends to ulcerate. Two, three, four, five and even more operations are performed for the removal of ulcers, as these persist in developing. There is nothing to restore an inflamed mucous membrane to health when the causes of the inflammation are left operative.-- Peace be with you,Don "Quai" Eitner"Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man."Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses. ~Baptiste Molière, Le Malade ImaginaireThe obstacle is the path. ~Zen Proverb-- In compliance with the highest standards of Universal Law, this email has been thoroughly disinfected and purified in the solar flares of the sun. Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.8.11/45 - Release Date: 7/9/05 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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