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Enzyme Heip. About 50% of all gas victims suffer from either excessive or inadequate motility in the bowel. Lessened muscular activity is more likely to occur in elderly patients, whose food passes normally as far as the end of the small bowel, but then slows down in the flabby large bowel. The remedy in most of these cases, said Dr. Danhof, is bethanechol chloride, sold as Myocholine and Urecholine, to improve the bowel's muscle tone. In the overactive bowel, commonly associated with nervous conditions, frothing or foaming may occur. A useful remedy: dimethylpolysiloxane with pepsin (trade name: Phazyme), which both improves digestion and combats gas formation. Some patients need enzyme medication to ensure more thorough digestion, while others should have anticholinergic drugs (like those commonly prescribed for ulcer) to slow down muscular activity in the intestines.
In a separate category, Dr. Danhof put patients who suffer from flatulent diarrhea because of a deficiency in enzymes that digest ordinary table sugar. The remedy is twofold: enzyme supplements and restriction of sugar in food and drink. Finally, some people have a so-called intestinal allergy to some specific foods, such as chocolate or strawberries, or even milk. In such cases, the remedy is the simplest of all—don't eat or drink them.