Dyspepsia

Probably the simplest trouble that may be cured by the milk is dyspepsia or indigestion.

Usually brought on by an incorrect way of living, when the condition is relieved and the patient instructed how to avoid a return of the disorder, there is no good reason why he should suffer from it again.

When you tell people that they are not eating right, they may say they eat the same as other members of the family who are apparently having no trouble. Now, it is a fact that there are no two people with stomachs alike. Among thousands of cases who have taken the milk diet under my observation, I do not remember any two who acted, or reacted, just the same. With a score of patients taking the milk diet at the same time, with all conditions as to the amount of milk, time and manner of taking just the same; all resting in bed, all bathing daily, everything just the same, as nearly as may be, yet no two will have the same symptoms. With some the bowels are constipated; others have diarrhoea, some have regular movements. Most people have a chalky white colour to the stools at first; some start off with a normal yellow colour. Some of these with white stools will suddenly change to a deeper tint, as the liver starts up; others make the change very gradually.

Some patients complain of a bad taste in the mouth; others never have it. More of them have a heavy coating on the tongue, at first brownish or yellow, later white; others manage to keep their tongues clean. Great variety is observed as to the way the milk tastes. Most patients seem to have a relish for it, in greater or less degree; a few declare it is like taking medicine and they only take it for the effect. Some will say it tastes very sweet like sugar; others that it has a bitter or sour taste. Precisely the same milk, mind you. The disagreeable taste may disappear at any time, and perhaps not return. Some who do not have free evacuations of the bowels will say the milk gets “flat” toward evening. If given an enema, the proper taste of the milk soon returns.

Many patients taking the cure have said they would never want any more milk after they had finished their course. Doubtless they felt that way while they were “stuffing” it, or taking more than the stomach called for, or wanted, but nevertheless I believe it to be a fact that no patient has permanently lost his liking for milk through taking it as I recommended. After commencing on solid foods, only a short time elapses before they miss the milk, crave some, if only a glass a day.

It frequently happens that people take the treatment who do not like milk, and in some cases they have not used it, in any way, for many years, forty and fifty years, respectively, in two cases that I recall. With one single exception, all these people have used milk freely afterward and would not like to be without it.

Milk that has been incorrectly handled may have an appreciable odour that is disagreeable to sensitive patients. This odour can be entirely removed by pouring the milk through a sieve, or strainer, containing freshly cooked popcorn. If the popcorn is ground up in a coffee mill it will work even better.

It is very seldom that patients become hungry on the milk diet, and where they do, it probably is because they are not taking their milk regularly. But there have been cases who felt like eating most of the time during the first two weeks. In these rare cases the craving has been generally for some special article of diet, as bread, or some kind of vegetable or fruit. I have never known anyone to desire meat, except perhaps bacon.

Thirst is a very rare symptom while on the milk diet, and I do not remember any patients in New York who took water in addition to their milk, but in California I have seen several such cases, perhaps due to the drier atmosphere. There is probably no reason why water should not be taken during the treatment, but I hardly see the need of it, as most patients get over five quarts of water in their milk daily.

It is not uncommon for those taking the milk to wish for something sour, and particularly sour fruit, apples, oranges, and even lemons. Lemons can be used beneficially by those who suffer from nausea while commencing the milk diet. Others prefer the sweet fruits, figs, peaches, grapes and melons. Nearly everyone relishes dried fruits, like raisins, figs, dates, prunes and apricots, and all these are frequently useful in overcoming the initial constipation. Sliced tomatoes with lemon juice and salt are a most useful addition to the milk diet of the constipated. Canned tomatoes have also been used.

In the matter of sleep, patients vary widely; some want to sleep all the time, while others only sleep a few hours at night. Cases of insomnia sometimes notice no improvement for several nights, and then, all at once, they begin to sleep like children.

I have taken considerable space to explain how the milk diet affects different people, while speaking of dyspepsia, because nearly every disease is accompanied by more or less stomach trouble, although the symptoms are quite varied.

Indigestion is almost a national disease with Americans, and in very many cases it is due to overeating and imperfect breathing, or lack of exercise.

There is not much use of my wasting the readers’ time in giving advice as to the amount of food they should eat, or what kinds they must avoid and what they may eat, and how long they should chew it, and how many meals they should take, because all dyspeptics have had plenty of such advice, without being cured, but I will, later on, give some directions to be followed after putting the stomach in good order by the milk diet.

I firmly believe that defective breathing is more of a cause of dyspepsia than over-eating. Few people realize how important breathing is to health. We breathe mainly to absorb oxygen. The function of oxygen is to combine with the food we eat, and if sufficient oxygen is not taken into the system to oxidize the food, indigestion results.

Food is taken into the body just as fuel is taken into a furnace, for the same purpose – to be burned up, and burning always means oxidation. A lamp or a stove cannot burn without a plentiful supply of oxygen, nor can the human body perform its functions more than a minute or two without air.

Oxygen should really be considered a food, for none of the regular foods would be of any use in the body unless they combined with oxygen.

Animal life is an incessant process of combustion; it may also be said that life is combustion. Oxygen is the great supporter of combustion, although not combustion itself, hence the fires of life burn with increased brightness when oxygen is plentifully supplied. Cold air, if pure, is one of the most powerful aids in eliminating those poisonous substances that are perpetually forming in the human body as the result of the digestive process. Oxygen possesses an affinity for nearly every other element with which it forms compounds, innocuous in themselves or susceptible of easy elimination. The off-quoted term, “oxygen is life,” is not so much a misnomer as some might imagine, in view of the important part it plays in nature. It is impossible to place too great a value on cold, fresh air. Experience has shown that nearly all patients suffering from various diseases of the lungs have recovered in the open air cure. The indifference, not to say aversion, that many people display to fresh air, especially in their sleeping apartments, would be ludicrous if it were not pitiable. Yet it is a fact that persons would be warmer in a bedroom through which a current of cold air was passing (provided they were well covered), than they would be in a heated room, badly ventilated, for no warmth can equal that produced by active combustion.

Some people never breathe right; many people work and sleep in places where the air is bad, and while it is possible for either class to enjoy fairly good health, if the defective breathers have to breathe the bad air, the result is always ill health.

A man may work every day in a place where the air is impure and lacking in oxygen, and yet, if his work calls for vigorous exercise, and therefore copious breathing, he may appear to be in the best of health.

But let the shallow breather work in the same place, at some sedentary occupation, and before long his health fails, he becomes pale-faced, anaemic, has less strength, less endurance. His desire for food decreases, and what he does take in is not thoroughly digested, hence he has less blood, and that of a poorer quality. Perhaps realizing that his stomach is not performing its functions properly, he assists it with some digestive medicine, or he takes foods that are recommended to him because they are pre-digested. In either case he may notice an apparent improvement, but in either case he has further weakened his stomach by disturbing its natural functions, and if the primary cause of the trouble is not remedied, his temporary expedients will soon fail to have seen an apparent or transient effect.

I want to make this point clear: We cannot habitually perform for the body any of its functions that should naturally be performed unaided, without weakening the part concerned.

We cannot use massage or kneading of the bowels for any length of time to produce defecation, without weakening the natural peristaltic movement of the intestines nor can we use cathartic medicines long without the same result.