Diabetes, Part 2. Diarrhea. Diet

Papers on Health
by John Kirk

(Page 6 of 22)

A wineglassful of hot water taken every ten minutes for an hour, or two hours, or three, or ten hours, as is felt to be comfortable, will do wonders in the early stages of this disease. This water, when taken at the right heat, at once mixes with the strongly concentrated juices of the stomach, and causes them to be easily managed by that and other organs. It is truly wonderful what this very simple remedy will effect by itself alone. The next thing to be noticed is the excessive hunger. The food, whatever it may be, fails to quell this hunger. Here, again, it is clearly the stomach with which we have to do. When the hunger is developed we should think the case further advanced than when thirst alone is experienced. The hot water meets this symptom as it meets the other. It is also of the very greatest moment to give right food.

Oatmeal and buttermilk steeped together for a time and then moderately boiled, a very little salt or sugar being added, produces a food which we do not expect to see excelled by the most costly that can be got anywhere. Wheaten meal, or barley meal, will do as well as, and perhaps in some cases better than, oatmeal, but these may be chosen according to taste. The chief thing is the ease with which this food is converted into a large supply of the best of blood for all purposes of nourishment. Food containing much starchy matter, as white bread, rice, and all sugar, must be forbidden. To make up for this, an abundance of fat should be consumed. The bowels should be kept open by a suitable diet and exercise.

Now we come to the excessive urinary discharge which is so strong a feature of this disease. The body seems as if it were melting away in this.

We can benefit the kidneys vastly through acting on the liver, as well as on themselves. By a large hot bran poultice over the liver we can add new life to that, and whatever does so tends to benefit the kidneys. After using this large poultice, with plenty of oil rubbed on before and after, say three or four times, place it over the kidneys and use it as often there. If the heat is well kept up for an hour at a time, one poultice a day would do, but, if the patient desires it, twice a day will be all the better. It is good to do the best that can be done with the skin. By means of soap and oil rubbing, and the cleansing effects of diluted acetic acid, very considerable help may be gained. Good can be done by a hot fomentation of the feet and legs to the knees, with oiling after, so as to have these extremities in a comfortable state. Tea, coffee, and sugar must be avoided.

Diarrhea - Sudden attacks of this, though in a mild form, are very troublesome. An enema of cold water is in such cases often an immediate cure. The first injection may be followed by even an excessive motion, but if a second cold injection be given this will cease. But in more troublesome cases, where the patient is an infant, or very weak, this is not applicable. For such cases, mix equal quantities of honey and lemon juice (one or two teaspoonfuls of each), and add enough boiling water to dilute it for taking. Give this three or even four times a day. It will usually and speedily cure, and is relished by infants.

Often the cause of diarrhea in infants is the infection of milk by flies (see British Cholera), or from dirty feeding bottles. Bottles with tubes should never be used. The India-rubber teat should be smelt to see that it is perfectly sweet and clean before the bottle is filled. Unsuitable or too rich food will bring this trouble on.

A tablespoonful of blackberry (or brambleberry as it is also called) jelly may be given - it is a powerful and simple remedy. In adults, a dose of castor oil, with a few drops of laudanum in it, will probably remove all trouble, if it be due to nothing more than indigestible food. Where the cold enema is dreaded, one of hot thin starch, with fifteen drops of laudanum in it, may be used for adults.

Stale vegetable or animal food, also impure water, are fruitful sources of diarrhea.

The mind has a great effect on this trouble, anxiety and worry are frequent causes. See Worry. A comfortable seat by the fire, and an interesting book, will often relieve.

When the diarrhea is very serious, use the four-ply flannel bandage. See Bandage; British Cholera; Dysentery.

Diet - The composition of different articles of food varies. A turnip is not the same as a piece of cheese. It is more watery, and has more fiber in it, and we speak of it as less nutritious. There are, however, in almost all foods certain chemical substances present which have different duties to perform in the body, and which are present in widely different proportions in the various articles we use for food. Water is the most common of these substances. Soups, vegetables, fruits, puddings, are largely water. Some foods contain less of it than others, but on the whole a very large, if not the largest, part of all food consists of water. This large amount is needed. Water makes up two-thirds of the body, and nearly two quarts are given off daily in the various excretions and secretions. If enough be not taken the tissues get dry, and Nature indicates her want in thirst.

Another of these substances is starch, or its equivalent, sugar. Rice, bread, and vegetables in general, are largely made up of this starchy or sugary substance, which, as it contains a considerable quantity of carbon, we speak of as the carbonaceous element in food. This is the substance which goes to feed the muscles, replacing the waste from work done, just as fuel is required for the fires of an engine.

Yet another substance in food is fat. It may be animal, such as beef or mutton fat, and butter, or vegetable, as the oils in nuts, in the olive, etc. Fat, like carbonaceous food, also goes to feed the muscles, but both are required in a healthy diet.

Of the first importance, however, is the protein element in food. Meat, milk, cheese, eggs, peas, etc., contain protein in considerable quantities. Its use is to repair the exhausted tissues themselves. The muscles and nerves get worn out in their daily work, and require rebuilding. This is what protein goes to do, and from this, its high import in animal economy, is called Protein. Finally, in all natural foods there are certain salts, which also build up, e.g., lime, which goes to make up bone. These salts may be seen in the ash of any common vegetable after being burnt.

These four kinds of food substance make up our daily food, and a certain amount of each substance is required to replace the daily expenditure, a proportion which varies, however, under different circumstances. See Food in Health.

Printed by Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport. 1904.