What is achylia?

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Achylia

Q. What is achylia?

A. Achylia denotes a condition in which the stomach glands have ceased to produce gastric juice.
The gastric acid is necessary for the digestion of connective tissue and gluten. Gastric acid also regulates the closing and opening of the pylorus.

When absent, the pylorus remains open and the food passes out of the stomach quickly. This is the explanation of those cases of diarrhoea in which food is passed undigested soon after it is eaten, often within an hour or two.

Achylia is usually the result of long continued over-stimulation of the stomach. It is most common in persons who have made free use of tea or coffee, condiments, or alcoholic beverages, or who have been large meat eaters. Achylia fol­lows chronic gastritis.

There are two forms of achylia :

(a) Achylia of nervous origin in which the ad­ministration of hydrochloric acid in large quant­ities is followed by a secretion of pepsin.

(b) Achylia accompanying organic disease of the stomach, cancer and atrophic gastritis in which the giving of hydrochloric acid is not followed by the secretion of pepsin for the reason that the secreting glands have been de­stroyed. This fact may often be of use in diag­nosts.

In cases in which the motor functions of the stomach are preserved, and bacterial action in the stomach is suppressed, life may be main­tained through intestinal digestion if the diet is carefully regulated.

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