The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

^126 THE HEALTH BULLETIN.about the tonic effect of mountain orforest air! Doubtless the air helpedin the matter of general condition.But as people don't feed on the atmosphereto any great extent it hasn'tmuch immediate effect upon the stomach.What reconstitutes the camper'sinterior is the fact that he eats plainfood, simply prepared, and gets exerciseenough to make him digest properly.It may sound like heresy, butit Is a fact that it doesn't really mattergreatly what we eat—in conditionsof sound health, that is. S -mefood is better than others, but mostof it is pretty good. The healthystomach is willing and able to takecare of any reasonable article whichis sent down to it. Only when itis impaired does the owner need togive much thought to diet. In fact,to be continually worrying over thestomach, to exclude this article offood lest it be indigestible, and toeschew that because it might "disagree,"to be continually narrowingdown the appetite—all this worriesthe stomach and makes it unhappy.A specialist of wide experience anda somewhat unconventional habit ofthought suggests the following rulesto be framed and hung in every diningroom:Eat what you want, and all youwant of it, but not more.Don't eat when you're not hungry,just because it's meal-time.Take your time over it.Remember that enjoyment of foodis the best of known digestives.WHAT IS INDIGESTION?Most familiar to the physician ofall forms of complaining is this:"Doctor, my digestion is bad." Inperhaps half the instances the reverseis true. The patient's digestionis not bad; it is good. In fact, it istoo good. OverefBciency is whatcauses the difficulty. The stomach,stimulated into overwork, producestoo great a flow of gastric juice, anda condition of hyperacidity results,causing the familiar "sour stomach,"with uneasiness, fullness* and sometimespain. It may arise from causesnot connected with food, such asoverindulgence in smoking or alcohol,or continued nervousness. Inthe early stages it is readily correctedby adjustment of habit and diet, andby rest, particularly after eating.Once fixed it is ugly and obstinate.But the stomach always gives warningof its onset, and the man whoallows himself to fall into this conditionhas only himself to blame for it.One absolutely and universally indigestiblething there is. All authoritiesagree upon this. It is worry.No stomach can do anything withit. The stomach is simply incapacitatedfrom doing its work properlywhen the mind is harassed. Farmore digestions are ruined by mentalthan by physical causes."Hurry and worry are the twincurses of the twentieth centurystomach," one physician put the matter,"and worry is the worse of thetwo. Give me a man who has systematicallylived on the poorest andmost indigestible food, but has eatenit with a mind free of taint, and I'lltake his case with far more confidencethan that of the most carefullynurtured person who regularlybrings a harassfccl spirit to the dinnertable.There is a good deal of truthin Stevenson's picturesque referenceto the dining-room as the battlefieldupon whi3h most of our ancestorshave left their bones; but it wasn'tthe flesh that they ate, but the spiritin which they ate it that killed thembefore their time. The most difficultlesson I have to teach my patients isthat the stomach is a highly imaginativepiece of mechanism; largely gov-