Difficult Digestion

These very ordinary ailments are often connected with the hectic lives we lead, or with current difficulties, as witnessed by everyday expressions such as "I can't stomach it", or "I have a gut feeling".

Difficulty with digestion usually involves a feeling of heaviness in the stomach, but can also be accompanied by pain or nausea. The discomfort is often linked with an accumulation of air or gas in the stomach following too heavy a meal, or having eaten too quickly, In an anxious person, it can also be due to difficulty in emptying the gall bladder following a fatty meal. The pain can often be relieved by releasing the gas.

Dietary advice

It is essential to change some bad eating habits:

• Cut out badly tolerated foods: dairy products, cereals, or even fibre-rich foods can cause the symptoms to worsen
• If you suffer from gas, avoid the foods that cause it: aubergines, carrots, celery, cabbage, haricot beans, onions, and potatoes. Leave out apricots, citrus fruits, bananas, raisins, and apple, prune and grape juice; do not eat fresh bread, especially the soft part, or drink carbonated drinks, or use chewing gum
• Avoid stimulants such as tobacco and coffee

Your habits could change for the better:

- You eat too much, too quickly, in a noisy place, and you swallow too much air
- You eat sitting badly, as at the bar in a bistro or pub
- You chew incorrectly, swallowing your food before it is sufficiently soaked in saliva, the first essential stage in digestion
- You drink too much at meals, often carbonated drinks. This swells the stomach and dilutes the gastric juice so necessary to the second stage of digestion
- You start work too soon after your meal. This blocks digestion or slows it down. The best thing for proper digestion is to walk a little

Oligotherapy

Magnesium

Trace elements are normally supplied in the diet, which should be varied and of good quality. When there is a deficiency, as is often the case with magnesium, the element can be given as a supplement.

Dietary sources of magnesium

Present in almost all foods, but unfortunately particularly in those rich in calories. Magnesium is found mainly in citrus fruits, bananas, whole cereals (oat flakes, bran...). cocoa and chocolate, shellfish(winkles, shrimps, oysters, clams...) and oily fish, snails, figs, hard cheeses, dried fruit and nuts (almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts...), vegetables (spinach, dried haricot and green beans, split peas, soya...). and whole meal bread.

• Magnesium preparations: there are many different forms and brands, such as Organic Minerals (Colloidals) which contains 70+ trace minerals:
  - Available in 946ml bottles
  - Take 1-3 caps just before breakfast and/or evening meal
  - Children 1 teaspoon daily for each 20lbs of body weight

Or Maximol (Ionized colloidals):

- Available in 500ml bottles
- Take 1/2 capful once or twice daily on an empty stomach

Homeopathy

Antimonium crudum, Nux vomica

Four granules of each of these products at 5c, to be sucked like sweets, alternately, two or three times in succession, between meals.

Antimonium crudum

- Chemical origin: antimony sulphide
- Homeopathic remedy for digestive disorders in heavy eaters
- Specific sign: condition worsened by acidic dishes, vinegar

Nux vomica

- Vegetable origin: the fruit of the Strychnos nux-vomica tree
- Homeopathic remedy for digestive disorders due to overindulgence
- Special psychological profile: irritable, bad-tempered, cannot bear contradiction

• You can use use Gastricumeel@ (Heel) which contains Carbo vegetabilis D6, Nux vomica D4, Argentum nitricum D6, Acid arsenicosum D6, Pulsatilla D4 and Antimonium crudum D6:
  - Available in packs containing 50 and 250 tablets
  - In general, 1 tablet to be dissolved under the tongue 3 times daily. In acute disorders initially 1 tablet every 15 minutes

Herbal treatment

Artichoke, boldo, and fumitory, which activate the gall bladder.

Possible Prescription: Ask your herbalist to prepare a 30ml bottle of a mother tincture of artichoke. Twenty-five drops to be taken in a little water in cases of difficult digestion, repeated if improvement is slow.

Artichoke

The numerous medicinal properties of the artichoke have been exploited since antiquity

It is particularly active in ridding the liver of its toxins. It encourages digestion by activating the secretion of bile. Its purifying and diuretic properties also make it useful in patients who are slimming.

General advice on dealing with a hangover

- Do not go without eating. Try to eat something, even a little: a cup of coffee and some bread and honey will help to get you off to a good start
- Water is a must: drink it to eliminate alcohol
- Take a fruit juice cure: this will help you to burn off the alcohol still left circulating in the blood
- Take some bouillon: the salt and potassium are useful
- Avoid greasy fried food and alcohol
- Next time: avoid white wine, champagne, cognac, and mixtures. Vodka is relatively well tolerated
- There is a single homeopathic remedy, to be taken time and again - Nux vomica. Four granules to be taken at 5c, to be sucked three or four times during the day.

Boldo

The boldo is a small tree native to Chile. Its leaves have an aroma close to that of mint, and it is used in many digestive or laxative preparations.

Fumitory

Fumitory is also called widows' weed because its sharp aroma readily brings tears to the eyes, even in a dry-eyed widow. A more useful property is its ability to stimulate the secretion of bile. It is also depurative, diuretic, and laxative.

• You can finish off your meal with mint tea, provided it is not too sweet

Plant essential oils

Anise, cumin, peppermint

Possible Prescription: Obtain from your herbalist a bottle containing one of these three essential oils and add 1 ml of it to your digestive infusion.

Cumin

Cumin, from Egypt, has a fairly strong, sharp smell. It is mainly used in North African and Indian cookery and to give an aroma to some breads. Just like caraway and anise, it reduces flatulence, stimulates digestion and eliminates intestinal spasm.

Peppermint

The essential oil of peppermint has antibacterial activity because it contains a great deal of menthol.

Acupuncture

This form of therapy has a place here because of its sedative effect. If organizing sessions to deal with each hangover or minor digestive problem may seem difficult, acupuncture should nonetheless be part of the constitutional treatment.