Is the use of the stomach warmer beneficial in indigestion?
Stomach
Warmer
Q. Is the use of the stomach warmer beneficial in
indigestion?
A. The application of heat to the stomach is one of
the oldest and, aside from diet, one of the best remedies for various gastric
discomforts. A hundred years ago tin cans made concave to fit the body were
to be found in almost every tin shop, and their use was continued until the
manufacture of rubber hot-water bags was begun some fifty or sixty years ago.
The writer well remembers an old-fashioned schoolmaster from Canada who came under his care many years ago, bringing with him a huge stomach heater
of the sort described.
Two hundred years before the invention of the tin
stomach warmer, the warming stone was in common use, and was described in a
medical work published in 1640 as "An Excellent
Help really found out for cold, aged and sick People-and
for the Poor, who may borrow the
heating of this stone at a neighbor's fire, if his Charity be not altogether
cold; for it will damnifie him no more than lighting one candle by an
other."
Persons who suffer from discomfort after eating are
usually greatly relieved by application of a hot water bag over the stomach
while lying down for half an hour or an hour after a meal. Hot sand bags
answer the same purpose. When nausea or vomiting are present, the patient
should take care to lie on the left side as this position subjects the stomach
to less strain and often prevents vomiting.