INDIGESTION 181 



To some people certain foods are indigestible at all 

 times, while other foods are indigestible only at special 

 times. We should learn to understand our bodies in this 

 particular. Some of the causes of indigestion are: lack of 

 sufficient regular exercise, too much rich food, and the 

 failure to drink enough water. 



Students and professional men use their brains more 

 than their muscles, but they require protein to repair 

 nerve waste just as laborers require proteins to feed 

 their tired muscles. Unless students and professional men 

 exercise their muscles, they do not feel vigorous and eager 

 for their work. On the other hand, unless the laboring 

 men exercise their brains, they do not do their work as 

 well as they might. The amount of exercise required 

 varies with the individual. The best way to prevent in- 

 digestion is to have regular habits of eating and exercising. 



There are in the market many tablets and remedies for 

 indigestion, which may, for example, contain pepsin and 

 pancreatin. Now we know that these substances when 

 found in the pancreatic fluid act in an alkaline medium. 

 As these tablets must first pass into the stomach, which is 

 an acid medium, the action of the pancreatin is probably 

 destroyed long before the remedy reaches the intestine 

 where it would naturally act. This means that such 

 tablets are largely useless and is one of the reasons 

 why many doctors believe that digestive tablets are doing 

 more to cause indigestion than they do to help it. There 

 are only a few commercial tablets made which act on the 

 undigested foods of the intestine. No medicine, in fact, 

 can give permanent relief to indigestion. Predigested 

 foods, a recent attempt to relieve indigestion, serve a 

 useful purpose in cases of sickness, but in our regular 

 life, should be used sparingly because they do not give the 

 digestive organs the proper amount of work to do. 



