Family Health Guide http://familyhealthguide.posterous.com Find Out Health Guides Here...!!! posterous.com Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:49:00 -0800 Stomach, Intestines, and Rectum http://familyhealthguide.posterous.com/stomach-intestines-and-rectum http://familyhealthguide.posterous.com/stomach-intestines-and-rectum

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The fuel of the body is food. Digestion, that amazing chemical process by which food is broken down into simpler elements that can be absorbed into the bloodstream for use by the body, is carried out by the digestive, or gastrointestinal, tract. The first action takes place in the mouth, where the process of food breakdown is begun by chewing and the secretion of enzymes by the salivary glands. Food then passes down a long muscular tube called the esophagus into the stomach.

The stomach rests in the upper part of the abdominal cavity. Discomforts that occur much lower in the abdomen are not really "stomachaches," but disturbances felt in the intestines or other organs. The stomach is rather like a wineskin in shape and, when fully distended after a large meal, has a capacity of about 21, quarts.

The strong, muscular action of the stomach churns up the food and mixes it with digestive enzymes and acids that help break down food into forms that the body can absorb. Additional juices from the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder are mixed in when the food enters the duodenum, at the entry to the small intestine.

The small intestine is longer but narrower than the large intestine. It is in the small intestine that the useful proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, now converted to simpler substances, are absorbed through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream and lymphatic system. At the end of the small intestine about all that is left of the food is waste solids, which then pass through the large intestine and are eliminated.

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