0
Digestive System
Digestive System is the category for questions regarding the breakdown and absorption of food-stuffs in our alimentary canal. Questions about the stomach and intestines can be included in this category.
7,599 Questions
Give an example of how homeostasis is maintained?
An example of homeostasis is regulating blood glucose concentration. The body does this as follows:
If there is enough glucose in the blood, the hormone insulin (from the pancreas) stimulates the liver to store the extra (not needed at the time) glucose as glycogen.
If the blood sugar gets low, another hormone stimulates the liver to release the glucose back into the blood.
If the storage in the liver is full, glucose is converted into fat in special cells around the body.
Where does digestion and absorption chiefly take place?
The Digestive System The main purpose of the Digestive system is to break down food and absorb nutrients. There are two basic divisions to the digestive system, these are the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, also known as the alimentary canal, and the accessory digestive organs. Your mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine compose the GI tract, and your teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gall bladder and pancreas are accessory organs. The digestive system carries out six basic processes; ingestion, secretion, propulsion, digestion, absorption and defecation. Ingestion is taking food into the mouth. Secretion is the act of expelling a liquid. The cells lining the GI tract secrete about 9 liters (9.5 quarts) of water, acid, buffers, and enzymes each day to lubricate the canal and aid in the process of digestion. Propulsion consists of alternating contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle in the walls of the GI tract to squeeze food downwards. Digestionhas two parts, mechanical and chemical. Mechanical digestionis chewing up the food and your stomach and smooth intestine churning the food, while chemical digestion is the work the enzymes do when breaking large carbohydrate, lipid, protein and nucleic acid molecules down into their subcomponents -these and others are the nutrients-. Absorption occurs in the digestive system when the nutrients move from the gastrointestinal tract to the blood or lymph. Defecation is the process of expelling what the body couldn't use.
How does the appendix help in the digestive system?
The appendix is an offshoot of the first part of the large intestine and therefore in good position to destroy bacteria (which are present in large numbers in the intestine) it therefore prevents this bacteria from getting outside the intestine wall.
Basically, the appendix along with other groups of tissue (lymphoid tissue) helps protect the digestive tract from the huge amount of pathogens which enter it.
What are short term effects of not eating enough?
Short term effects - Dizziness, nausea, headache, dehydration, muscle weakness, confusion, dry skin, hair, and nails, low blood pressure, imbalance in electrolytes.
Long Term effects - all of the above, plus: growing soft downy hair all over the body, bloating, loss of muscle mass, paralysis, insomnia, kidney failure, osteoporosis (softening of bones), absence of menstrual cycle (if female), liver failure, easily bruised skin, bleeding gums, heart attack, infertility, digestive difficulties, seizures, death.
Where is digested food nutrients are absorbed into the body?
Carbohydrate
Digestion begins in the mouth by salivary amylase and completed in the small intestine by pancreatic amylase. Monosaccharides, such as glucose, galactose and fructose, are produced by the breakdown of polysaccharides and are transported to the intestinal epithelium by facilitated diffusion or active transport. Facilitated diffusion moves the sugars to the bloodstream.
Protein
Proteins are broken down to peptide fragments by pepsin in the stomach, and by pancreatic trypsin and chemotrypsin in the small intestine. The fragments are then digested to free amino acids by carboxypeptidase from the pancreas and aminopeptidase from the intestinal epithelium. Free amino acids enter the epithelium by secondary active transport and leave it by facilitated diffusion. Small amounts of intact proteins can enter interstitial fluid by endo- and exocytosis.
Fat
Fat digestion occurs by pancreatic lipase in small intestine. A monoglyceride and two fatty acids are produced in the digestive process. Large lipid droplets are first broken down into smaller droplets, by a process called emulsification. Emulsification is driven by mechanical disruption (by contractile activity of GI tract) and emulsifying agents (amphipathic bile salts). Pancreatic colipase binds the water-soluble lipase to the lipid substrate.
Digested products and bile salts form amphipathic micelles. These micelles keep the insoluble products in soluble aggregates from which small amounts are released and absorbed by epithelial cells via diffusion. Free fatty acids and monoglycerides then recombine into triacylglycerols at the smooth ER, are processed further in the Golgi and enter the interstitial fluid as droplets called chylomicrons, which are then taken up by the lacteals in the intestine.
Vitamins
Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed and stored along with fats. Most water-soluble vitamins are absorbed by diffusion or mediated transport. Vitamin B12, because of its large size and charged nature, first binds to a protein, called intrinsic factor, which is secreted by the stomach epithelium, and is then absorbed by endocytosis.
Water
The stomach absorbs some water but most is absorbed at small intestine by diffusion.
How do you treat bad gas and cramps?
i am myself looking for a way to get rid of this but i found that when you start to feel gassy a hot cup of watter and real lemon slice in it can keep it to a min if not gets rid of it but it is temporary how ever any relife is helpful also think about how long ago you ate sometimes a small snack can give your tummy somthing to do other then burp but those are things that i have found to help me how you react i can not say good luck
What does the enzyme protein digest?
The general term is "proteases"
Pepsin cleaves at the "n" terminus produced by the stomach and works in an acidic pH environment.
Chymotrypsin and Trypsin are produced by the pancreas which is below the stomach and work in a more basic pH environment.
How much money an appendix removal?
Anywhere from $15,000 to $18,000 (maybe even more) in the U.S. My 20-year old daughter had this procedure while in Nicaragua for a school program and the total cost--surgeon and hospital, including post-operation visits--came to under $1,400, yes, that's $1,400, in a private hospital. The insurance company was the beneficiary of this low cost, not us.
Which type of digestion occurs in the mouth when an individual chews a piece of bread?
The type of digestion that chewing is referred to as is mechanical digestion.
What is the purpose of bicarbonate in the digestive process?
Bicarbonate's main role is to help neutralize the very acidic contents coming out of the stomach and into the small intestine. This serves a protective role -- to help protect the lining of the small intestine from being eaten away -- as well as a functional one -- the digestive enzymes at work in the small intestine operate better at a higher pH (less acidic).
Does the esophagus secrete digestive enzymes?
No it shouldn't. The salivary glands and pancreas and liver produce saliva, acid, and bile respectively. The reason you get "heartburn" is because acid from the stomach is being pushed into the esophagus so no, it does not produce digestive enzymes.
The nutrients are transported by the blood to all the cells of the body. The undigested food reaches into the ileo-cecal valve and enters the large intestine or colon. The colon absorbs water, manufactures vitamins, produces mucous, and form and expels feces. This can and does contain bacteria that can cause contamination
Functions of the digestion system?
The function of the human (or any animal's) digestive system is to digest food.
It does this by absorbing the nutrients present in the food and water so as to supply energy to various body cells. This is accomplished by the collective activity of muscles and enzymes, juices and salts.
What is the job of the throat in the digestive system?
The throat is the passage that leads from the back of the mouth in mammals.
What is the layer of the alimentary tube that produces digestive secretions?
Diegestive secretions are secreated by wich layer of the almentary tube?
When we eat we swallow air, and belching is the body's way of getting rid of it.
Edit, the answer above is not fully correct, as that is why people burp, and belching is a SPECIFIC type of burping. A belch is purposely load burp
How does lactobacillus help the digestive system?
bacteria begin to colonise the gut soon after birth, they play a key role in training the immune system to recognise pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. Just having the bacteria there prevents other pathogenic species from taking up the same space and so prevents some diseases. They also produce some vitamins notably biotin and vitamin K and some ferment carbohydrate foods which we could not other wise digest turning them in to short chain fatty acids.
Read more: Role_of_bacteria_in_the_digestive_system
How many times dose a cat fart?
Are you sure it is your cat farting, or is someone blaming your cat? Humans very frequently blame their pets for farting when really it was the human that stunk up the room!
Cats do fart! If it was indeed your cat that farted, he probably farted for the same reasons that human beings fart. Your cat most likely is not digesting food properly. This could be influenced by diet as well as the health of the digestive system. Some foods take longer to digest than others and may ferment in the stomach or intestines, causing a build up of gas.
How can I stop my cat from farting?
You probably cannot stop your cat from farting, just like you cannot stop yourself from farting. However, you can probably reduce the frequency that your cat farts, or perhaps reduce the level of stink! You can reduce the amount of gas that your cat needs to pass by feeding a high quality food. You can also restrict milk intake because the lactose in milk can contribute to any digestive problem. If you let your cat outside, your cat may be eating other sources of food such as birds, mice, and bugs. This could be another reason why your cat is farting!
Farting is indeed normal, but why does my cats farts stink so bad?
Cats are carnivores and are generally on a diet rich in protein. Protein-rich diets produce small amounts of intensely stinky gas because proteins contain lots of sulfur. Because there is only a small amount of gas, your cat's farts are probably silent most of the time. Silent but deadly, of course!
Pepsin does not digest. It breaks down proteins into amino acids. Pepsin cannot break down starch. This is probably because the pH of starch is higher than the optimum pH of Pepsin.
The pharynx is the section of the throat between the skull and the esophagus that propels food when swallowed into the esophagus. The epiglottis at the bottom of the pharynx pivots to send food to the esophagus or air into the lungs by way of the voice box (larynx).
it takes around 45 minutes for water to pass through but if its a slightly thinker liquid it takes around 46 minutes it takes around 45 minutes for water to pass through but if its a slightly thinker liquid it takes around 46 minutes
