EXPERIMENTAL GASTRIC ULCER

Abstract

Clinical experience and experimental observations indicate that the consistency of the diet may have a bearing on the healing of gastric ulcers. That the physician believes the consistency of the diet is an important therapeutic item in the management of patients with ulcers is shown by the fact that a liquid or soft diet, with or without a preceding period of starvation, is used in all the generally accepted therapeutic procedures. Bolton,¹ in his book on "Ulcer of the Stomach," stated that in his opinion "there is no doubt that diet influences the production and propagation of ulcer of the stomach." He stated that "excessive amounts of imperfectly masticated, and hurriedly swallowed food of `indigestible' quality, although alone being unable to produce the initial lesion, yet are able to assist in so doing, and in promoting the extension and delaying the healing of an ulcer of the stomach." The fact