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From RONALB Mc KEE
C| YDNEY, Tuesday.-Dyspepsia, not influenza or colds, is Australia's No.. 1 illness t>
industry. A recently published Federal Government survey shows that between June^
1949, and February, 1950, 9,196 people received sickness benefits because of digestiv^
complaints.
IBut only 4,232 people received sick-
ness benefits because they suffered
from colds, 'ñu, and other throat and
lung troubles.
Obviously, your stomach is a trouble-
some part of your internal machinery,
but why is it more troublesome than a
lot of other parts?
To find some of the answers, we
talked to doctors at a place with a
long name-Royal Prince Alfred Hos-
pital's Gastro-Enterological' Clinic, or
the GE Clinic, as the doctors call it.
Gastro-enterology, if you haven't
heard it before, means the study of
stomach and intestinal disorders.
A Sydney man, wno must remain
nameless, left a lot of money a year
ago to start this clinic - the only
one of its kind in Australia-for the
study of troublesome and erratic
stomachs.
The doctors at this clinic, from evi-
dence they have collected, suggest that
your stomach-not your heart, as poets
have proclaimed-is the centre of your
emotions.
And they suggest that your stomach
reacts to emotional, bacteriological
and physiological disturbances as a
Geiger counter reacts to radio-activity.
The doctors have also reached .much
ttie same alarming conclusion as over-
seas doctors-that about one in 10 of
our population at some time in his (or
her) life suffers from peptic ulcer.
Still know little
A peptic ulcer is either an ulcer in
the stomach, or in the duodenum--'the
first part of the intestine immediately
below the stomach.
The curious thing is that doctors,
after many years of study and prob-
ing, still know little about your tem-
peramental stomach, how it works, and
what happens when it refuses to work
efficiently.
An English doctor once wrote, "If
worry does not give way to tears, it
causes other organs to weep."
And the doctors at the ' Gastro
Enterological Clinic follow this by say-
ing:-"Dyspepsia is the stomach which
weeps."
But why does it "weep"? It weeps
because it reacts violently to any one
of dozens of stresses.
That's why doctors call dyspepsia
one of the forms of "stress diseases."
You can't find a house or flat. Your
wages won't keep pace with the cost
of living. You ..have to support age-
ing relatives. You're afraid of another
war. You don't like your job. Your
marriage has gone on the rocks. Your
boy friend has jilted you.
Because' of any of these problems, or
others, you worry, and your stomach
reacts.
And because of nervous reflexes in
your stomach, you get excessive acid
secretions, excessive movement. Your
stomach lining, which is normally
pink, may become red or later, after
the stress has been on for years, may
become pale.
The heavy drinker's stomach, after
years, of drinking, is often very pale.
The prospects ...
If you don't stop worrying and get
your stomach back to normal, you have
a good chance of developing ulcers or
other stomach troubles.
Of course, some people worry, but
never have any stomach trouble. Why?
The doctors don't know, but they
suspect that heredity may have a lot
to do with it. For instance, a man
with a family history of ulcers is more
likely to develop an ulcer than a man
whose family history is free of ulcers.
The doctors at the clinic agree that
none Help
"psychological problems are a big fac-
tor, and perhaps the biggest factor"
in the development of dyspepsia.
"Because of medical publicity and
propaganda," one doctor told us,
"people are more aware of their bodies
than ever before, and this is not al-
ways to their advantage.
"Thc advertising of countless reme-
dies for stomach complaints, for in-
stance, draws people's attention to
their stomachs, and their stomachs
become the outlet for their emotions
at times of stress.
"But there is thc other side of the
picture. Because people are more
aware of thc workings of their body,
they seek earlier medical attention
than ever before when they think
something' is wrong.
"Formerly many people suffered from
dyspepsia for years before seeing a
doctor. Now they sensibly seek treat-
ment in the early stages when we can
cure or relieve dyspeptic conditions.
"But there is always a small minor-
ity of sufferers we can do nothing with.
These, generally, are people who are
seriously disturbed psychologically."
But thc doctors warn of other causes
which produce ' "disturbances of thc
stomach."
These include rapid eating, exces-
sive smoking- or drinking (too much
beer seems to cause a lot of trouble),
and the swallowing of pus from in-
fected teeth, tonsils, or sinuses like
the antrum.
In addition, obscure things, which
doctors don't know much about, go
wrong with big organs like the liver,
and little glands like the pancreas, and
these disturbances affect the stomach.
[The liver secretes bile and acts as
a food factory for the body. It helps
change the food we eat into proteins,
amino-acids (acids' containing nitro-
gen) and other things necessary for
the body.
The pancreas or sweetbread secretes
the pancreatic juice, the most impor
none Help
tant of the digestive juices, and in-
sulin direct into the bloodstream. I
Some of Hie case histories from the
GE Clinic make interesting reading.
. There's a Sydney business man who
developed an ulcer because he had to
work with a woman partner he came
to dislike.
When the woman became ill and dis-
solved the partnership, the business
man's ulcer immediately improved, and
then disappeared.
Was due to tear
. A widow developed acute dyspepsia
soon after her husband died of
cancer of the stomach. She thought
she, too, had cancer.
When the doctors explained to her
that she hadn't cancer, but had only
dyspepsia due to fear of getting can-
cer, she improved under treatment
and was cured.
. A young married woman rapidly
developed an ulcer and doctors
saved her life by surgery.
She developed this ulcer because of
a personal problem. She wanted
a home and children, but she
couldn't have children, and her hus-
band couldn't afford to buy her a
home.
When she was recovering from sur-
gery, the doctors explained to her
why she developed the ulcer, and
why she would have to stop worry-
ing to avoid another ulcer.
They found she could have children,
after a physical adjustment, and
that her husband could buy a house
if he saved hard for a few years.
The woman stopped worrying and
recovered. t
. A spinster of 45 ücveiopcci dyspep-
sia because, as the unmarried
daughter in a large family, she had
to look after her selfish old mother.
The spinster did not respond to treat-
ment and got worse. Then her
mother died, and her dyspepsia dis-
appeared.
Doctors problem
9 A professional athlete broke his
ankle. While in hospital he developed
an ulcer because he was afraid he
would never be able to run again.
When an orthopedic surgeon told him
his ankle was. mending perfectly,
and he would eventually be able to
run as well as before, his ulcer
healed.
One of thc problems doctors at thc
Gastro-Enterological Clinic have to
overcome is the patient's reluctance
to talk about the personal problems
which cause Iiis dyspepsia.
Some overseas clinics employ psy-
chiatrists to interview patients, but at
the GE Clinic the doctors who treat
the dyspeptic try personally to under- *
stand their patients* backgrounds and
worries.
The doctors at this clinic are work-
ing along several lines..
They say that the general standard
in Australia of routine investigations
of stomach disorders is not up to
the best modern overseas standards,
and they hope to improve this.
They are, for the first time in New
South Wales, exploring the liver with,
the liver biopsy needle.
Using this needle (with a local an-
aesthetic) they penetrate the liver and
take out a piece of living tissue for
microscopic study.
By this method they can leam
whether, the liver is healthy or un-
healthy. Formerly they could study
liver tissue only after direct surgery.
They are delving into the duodenum
to take specimens of bile and pan-
creatic secretions for further study and
diagnosis of liver and pancreatic dis-
orders.
They delve with a tube which has a
small mercury-weighted bag on the
end. The doctor passes the tube and
its bag into the stomach through the
mouth. The bag, because of its
weight, passes through a valve between,
the stomach and duodenum, and takes
the tube into the duodenum.
Doctors have not made much use of
this method in New South Wales be-
fore. ^
They are using the gastroscope-an
instrument with a light on the end
which the patient swallows.
A doctor, by studying the lining of
. the stomach with the gastroscope, can
see whether his patient has an ulcer
or cancer or inflammation. \
Only by studying the stomach, liver,
gall gladder, duodenum, and pancréas
and finding how they work, what they
secrete, and how those secretions act,
will the doctors be able to .understand
more about wliat happens when your
stomach misbehaves.
Testing remedies
Yet that's not all.
Other things like heart disease,
diseases of the gullet, and perhaps
diseases of the kidneys, may be the
primary causes of dyspepsia.
Scientists still don't know the an-
swers to thi§ big problem, but they're
determined to find out.
The doctors are also studying how
new remedies work under Australian
conditions.
This is necessary hecause some
remedies, when tried herc, do not stand
up to claims made for them in other
parts of the world.
Some remedies, which come on the
market with much ballyhoo, aïérï't
what they're .cracked up to be.
And there's another point. A disease
in Australia may show differences from
the same disease in other countries,
and the remedy may have to be diffe-
rent. \ I
Original research
For example, tuberculosis appears ta
be in a less virulent fprm in Australia
than in some other countries. It still
kills, but it does not kill as many in
Australia as elsewhere, and it does
not seem to spread as rapidly.
Finally, the GE Clinic doctors' are
making'original researches into ab-
normalities of thc pancreas, which
science knows less .about -than the .
other organs which can cause dys
pepsia^
They hope that with hard work and
research in the next few years they
will be able to find a lot of reasons,
still unknown, why your stomach gives
trouble. , ,
I hope so. And that reminds mo-
il's time I took my bicarbonate of soda.
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