Ulcers

Dear Friends!

Any ailment and its cause is attributed to stress these days. Stress levels have gone up but when was stress absent from anyone’s life right from the ancient past till date? No pain, no gain.

Stress is part of our growing up, of competing in this fast-paced times. So it becomes all the more reason to take care of ourselves in small ways than suffer from big ailments later.

A few days back my sons and I were discussing about ulcers of the stomach. We were reasoning the how and why of it. Being students they have their problems having timely meals. As usual I was talking like a friend than a strict mother but praying the adivce and wisdom will be taken well.

I have myself suffered from severe ulcer, at times even vomiting blood. So I think I am qualified at least a little bit to say something on this subject.

I think it is due to not having a time table for having meals.
If not full meals at least something to eat at particular times of the day could relieve the stomach from not only hunger pangs but also the gnawing pain due to secretion of the digestive juices – acids - which when it finds no food to digest, begins to digest the next available thing which is the stomach lining itself!
Thank God, the acids take a long time to eat up the entire stomach unless we starve ourselves for a very long, long time.
Sipping water does dilute the acids to an extent but only as an immediate relief when it is difficult to find something to eat. Soon we have to find something to appease our hunger even if be an apple or some biscuits and tea.

Not having spicy food done in a lot of oil also helps in not aggravating the situation any further. Oily, spicy food is like adding fuel to a raging fire inside our digestive system. The result is a tendency to throw up ending in burning up our food pipe resulting in heart burns. At times the torn tissues from the stomach comes out and you are alarmed to see the blood while vomitting.

We are used to eating some spice in our various dishes. Even pepper is a spice. Chilly – red or green - needs no special mention as it’s the father of all spices!

My husband would reason that just as wounds need some balm or ointment to heal so also ulcers inside the body need a coat of oil to heal the stomach lining.
I felt this is a good reasoning.
I got into the habit of using a teaspoon or two of oil whenever I had to indulge in the spicy Andhra pickles along with steaming rice.
Clarified butter or ghee tastes really good but again its bad fat and so are all the oils which are processed through some kind of heating before oil is packed and sold.
That leaves us with a few oils which are not heated or processed and comes to us in its pure form like the Gingely oil, coconut oil, olive oil and more of which I may not be aware of yet like oil from some edible seeds or nuts.

How could I ever forget our good old butter? Butter should be better than clarified butter/ghee any day.

Why use butter or oil at all? Because good raw oil will coat the surface of the food pipe as well as the stomach lining cutting the rawness or heat of any spice.
I remember how I used to spoon in some butter, half hour before any meal to avoid too much heart burn during that time when I suffered from ulcers.
Weight watchers may be shocked when I say this.
Come to think of it, our bones, muscles and tissues need a bit of fat to keep fit and in shape. Otherwise there is a danger of it going dry and ultimately quite brittle.
There is an old saying in Tamil which says what you pay to get treated by a doctor can as well be spent on buying oil from the grocer! "Vaidiyarrukku kudukkaratha, vaaniyarrukku kodu". My mother says this could also refer to our using oil externally before having a head and body bath which is also known as an oil bath. To be had every week without fail!

Anything in excess is always bad so minding the quantity of intake matters to keep our bodies functioning properly.

Then having a teaspoon of sugar has also always helped me whenever I felt a burning sensation in the food pipe. Perhaps I should ask my chemist sister who will be able to explain this beautifully, as she does everything else. It could neutralize the acid in our system to an extent just as much as ice cold water helps reduce the pain is what I feel.

Oil or butter offers a shield or defends the stomach lining by being there to get digested first.

I found the worst type of oil was the one which was heated, all spices added, later the vegetables tossed in, while preparing a dish. That oil is really terrible. It could choke the life out of a person if it should by chance enter the wind pipe.

The oil in the deep fried dishes too is bad for health in more ways than one and it gets compounded when the oil has been a recycled one. Usually we have no heart to throw out used oil but never think of the long term ill-effects of using such oil.

Drinking too much water also tends to dilute the digestive acids and as a result could weaken the system, leading to indigestion of the food we eat.

Have food regularly at particular times of the day.
Use oil or butter of the good kind.
Do not rest after a meal or go to sleep immediately after having food.
If possible walk a short distance to aid the digestion process.

These tips come from a person who has suffered with a lot of medication.
How I hated the sight of Gelusil, an antacid for a long, long time. Even now I avoid it like the plague.

By observing, thinking, understanding and following simple changes in our lifestyles, we can heal our bodies quicker than the modern day powerful medicines. However, a word of caution here, these tips are for simple ailments and never for serious health problems for which a doctor should be consulted.

By having healthy food on time and in moderate quantities will certainly help the body function in a normal way.

To our health which is really our wealth.

Mahalakshmi