Appendicitis Treatment

The patient should be put to bed immediately at the first symptoms of severe pain, vomiting and fever. Rest is of utmost importance in the treatment of this disease. The patient should resort to fasting which is the only real cure for appendicitis. Absolutely no food should be given. Nothing except water should enter the system. Low enemas, containing about one pint (1/2 liter) of warm water should be administered everyday for the first three days to cleanse the lower bowel.

Hot compresses may be placed over the painful area several times daily. Abdominal packs, made of a strip of wet sheet covered with a dry flannel cloth bound tightly around the abdomen, should be applied continuously until all acute symptoms subside.

When the acute symptoms subside by about the third day, the patient should be given a full enema containing about 1 1/2 liters of warm water and this should be repeated daily until the inflammation and pain have subsided. The patient can be given fruit juices from the third day onwards. This simple treatment sensibly applied will overcome an appendicitis attack.

After spending three days on fruit juices, the patient may adopt an all fruit diet for a further four or five days. During this period, the patient should have three meals a day with each meal consiting of fresh juicy fruits.

Thereafter, the patient should adopt a well-balanced diet based on three food groups namely, (i) seed, nuts and grains, (i) vegetables and (i) fruits. In the case of chronic appendicitis, a short fast should be followed by a full milk diet for two or three weeks. In this regimen, a glass of milk should be taken every two hours on the first day, a glass every hour and a half the next day and a glass every hour the third day.

Thereafter the quantity of milk should be gradually increased so you are now consuming a glass of milk every half hour, if such a quantity can be tolerated comfortably. After the full milk diet, the patient should gradually embark upon a well balanced diet, with emphasis on fresh fruits and green leafy vegetables.

Certain vegetable juices, especially carrot juice, in combination with the juices of beets and cucumbers, have been found valuable in the treatment of appendicitis. Regular use of tea made from fenugreek seeds has also proven helpful in preventing the appendix from becoming a dumping ground for excess mucous and intestinal waste.