What remedy would you suggest for the condition known as achylia?

Remedy for Achylia

Q. What remedy would you suggest for the condition known as achylia?

A. This is an exceedingly important question. The munber of persons suffering from achylia, a condition in which the stomach makes no gastric acid and often no pepsin, is becoming increasingly common. This condition often precedes cancer of the stomach, the occurrence of which is rapidly growing in frequency. A person suffering from achylia is much more likely to suffer from typhoid fever, cholera, and other infectious disorders of the alimentary canal than a person whose stom­ach provides the normal supply of acid gastric juice, for the reason that the acid of the gastric juice owes its acidity to hydrochloric acid, a substance possessed of very active disinfectant or germicidal properties.

There are three important things which persons suffering from achylia may do to obviate the several dangers that are mentioned above. These are, first, to adopt a strict anti-toxic diet, which means to exclude flesh foods of all kinds, in­cluding fish, fowl and shell-fish. In many cases it is necessary to exclude eggs from the bill-of­ fare, while in not a few instances milk, if taken at all, must be used sparingly. The  more ex­clusively the bill-of-fare is made up of foods de­rived from the vegetable kingdom the better. Foods capable of undergoing putrefaction should he discarded. Milk, if used at all must be taken as buttermilk. Fats must be eaten sparingly, and only in sufficient quantity to meet the actual needs of the body.

The amount of hydrochloric acid required is considerable, much more than the amount ordi­narily taken. The amount of acid formed by the stomach daily is the equivalent of about one teaspoonful of ordinary hydrochloric acid, or muriatic acid. To take this amount of acid in its ordinary form, or to dilute it with water, is practically impossible, on account of its intense acid and corrosive character. It has been dis­ covered that the acid may be made to enter into a loose combination with protein so that it may be swallowed into the stomach in any quantity de­sired without injuring the teeth or throat. In the stomach the loose combination is broken up, and the acid becomes active and promotes the functions for which it is required.

Such a preparation, known as acidone, has been employed for a number of years and with great profit to those who have used it. Acidone is a powder, a compound of hydrochioric acid with the gluten of wheat. A dessert-spoonful is taken mixed with the food, or with porridge at the beginning of each meal.

Persons whose gastric glands are degenerated so that achylia has become a fixed condition should make use of acidone, or some similar preparation, at every meal, and should continue to do so indefinitely.