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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
What is the function for the appendix?
The appendix currently serves no useful function in the human body. It is believed that the appendix used to have a useful function, but over the years, the human body has evolved in such a way that the appendix is now extraneous tissue.
What happens to food materials that cannot be digested?
It is expelled as 'stool'. Stool is also known as feces.
Is it possible to digest all your food at the same time?
It depend on the amount of food. If you simply swallow, lets say, a small strawberry, without chewing, and call that all your food, then yes, the entire strawberry would be digested at the same rate. However, if you were eating, lets say, a peice of chicken, and you were taking the time to chew and swallow each bite, then each of these swallows would be slightly off. For example, when you are chewing one peice, another might be in your esophagous, or in your stomach.
enzymes
How is a roundworm's digestive tract like a tube-within-a-tube?
well it has a tube, and that tube is within a tube. therefore, the tube is somehow within the tube. that explains it
What is a bolus and what are the causes of it?
A bolus is a mass of food that has been chewed but not digested. A bolus may be a medical issue if it is composed of non-digestable materials, or is the accumulative result of a blocked or malfunctioning digestive tract.Bolus also refers to a single large dose of medication intended to raise the blood level of a substance in a person. "(in radiotherapy) material used to fill in irregular body surfaces to improve dose distribution for hyperthermia or to increase the dose to the skin when high-energy photon beams are used"
See the related link for further information.
Does the stomach have thicker walls than the small intestine in a frog?
The stomach has a slightly thicker wall than the small intestine as the stomach secretes acids that are used to break down food, while the small intestine's job is just to transport the food through the digestive system
How deep is the appendix located?
The appendix is hooked on the the very end of the small intestine, just before the large intestine starts. If you are thinking appendicitis, you feel pain in the low right side of your abdomen. If you can press on your tummy there and it does not hurt too bad, but hurts when you release your 'press hold' you may have appendicitis. If you are worried, see your DR.
What is broken down by stomach churning and enzyme amylase?
The stomach breaks down mainly proteins into smaller polypeptides. However, amylase will not break anything down in the stomach because it is denatured by the acid. Salivary amylase will break down amylose, a type of starch, but only in the few seconds of mastication. Once the bolus reaches the stomach, the salivary amylase is no longer active. Carbohydrates will be broken down again in the small intestine, where pancreatic amylase will make a return after the chyme is neutralized into a basic solution.
Is fast digestion good or bad?
Fast digestion is neither good or bad, but some people who suffer from fast digestion do have issues.
What gives vomit it's 'distinct' disgusting smell and taste?
Butyric acid is one of the compounds found in the digestive process, and it has a foul vomit smell.
This substance has a minor use in measuring the acid resistance of concretes used in slaughterhouses.
It also has been used by the anti whaling groups as stink bombs, against the factory ships.
The name comes from the Latin for butter - one of the sources of this compound.
What is the optimum pH for carbohydrate digestion?
carbohydrate digesting enzymes have an optimum pH near neutrality so is for carbohydrate digestion.
A mutation in the genes for salivary amylase will greatly affect the chemical digestion of what?
Amylase is responsible for the digestion of starches in the body. If a mutation occurred in the genes coding for the production of amylase, this would interfere with the body's ability to digest starches and other complex carbohydrates (which begins in the mouth with enzymes from the salivary glands).
