Digestive Diseases Affecting Our Health

Every plant, every animal, every human being needs food for life. Water can be sorbed into the body without being changed, but all the other substances must be changed in some way in the body before they can be used by the body. These changes in food take place in what we cal the digestive system. Digestion is a wonderful process. It is complicated and yet it goes on usually with no difficulty.

If we want to live healthfully and happily for many years, we will put only the best foods into our digestive system.

Stomach ulcers, or peptic ulcers as the doctors call them, are more common today in Africa than they were a few years ago. Life in Africa is becoming faster. People seem to be tenser and worry more. This tenseness and worry can lead to ulcers.

An ulcer is a sore on the inside of the stomach or intestine. People, who are well educated and have worked with a great deal of responsibility, are likely to get ulcers. In most cases ulcers, a burning pain is felt in the middle or upper part of the abdomen. This usually happens when the stomach is empty.

Eating good meals at regular times every day, and getting popper rest, will help prevent ulcers. And people who don’t smoke are less likely to get ulcers. Trusting in God will give us peace in our hearts and make us less reliable to have ulcers.

An experienced doctor may be able to tell from the history of your trouble if you have an ulcer. Sometimes diagnosis is not possible without an X-ray photo. Doctors can tell their ulcer patients to eat good regular meals, to get enough rest, and to stop smoking. Certain medicines will help but they should be chosen by the doctor. An operation is sometimes necessary.

Kwashiorkor is a very serious condition in the young child, usually recently weaned and under the age of four years. This disease is due to malnutrition (not enough of the right kind of food) and is called kwashiorkor. This word from the GA language means red one because of the reddish color of the hair in this disease. Kwashiorkor is probably the biggest nutritional problem in Africa.

In the typical case, the recently weaned child id fed on a thin porridge made of refined mealie meal which is like milk in color and in consistency, but does not have as much protein. The child starts to loose weight, and the hair becomes straight and silky to touch, loosing its natural curl.

The hair color changes to a reddish shade. The eyebrows are often lost and the skin looses its color and starts pealing. Where the skin peals, it takes on a whitish or reddish color, cracking in some places and oozing out moisture. The body begins to swell up. The child is dull and inactive, often crying with a miserable whimper. The child has no appetite and his growth slows down. His resistance to disease is lowered and he gets sick easily, often being brought to the doctor with diarrhea and vomiting.