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Digestion: 8 interesting things you should know
16th July, 2014 By Hello Doctor
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Your digestive
systemthings
is oneyou
of the
most
interesting
systems
Here
are 8 important
need
to know
about and
yourcomplex
digestive
system.in your body.
Defying gravity
When you swallow food, the food is passed through the oesophagus and enters the
stomach. The food is passed down to the stomach by an involuntary muscle action called
peristalsis. It’s a well-coordinated series of muscle contractions that moves food along the
digestive tract. Due to peristalsis, food will always be pushed to the stomach, even if you
were to eat upside down.
The Expanding Stomach
The stomach resembles a sack and can actually expand to four times its usual volume. The
total capacity of an adult stomach is about 1 litre of food.
Starting With Saliva
Saliva forms a very important part in digestion. The enzymes in saliva help assist in the
breakdown of certain proteins in food, making it easier for you to chew and swallow. When
you chew food properly, it becomes mushy and paste like and often forms a ball, called a
bolus.
Detoxing
People do not need to go on detox diets, because the liver does that for you. Every tiny bit
of food and drink that is put into the body is filtered by the liver. The liver is one of the most
crucial organs in the body, and is also the only organ that can regenerate if some part of it
is removed. Following extreme detox diets may hurt the liver and its ability to cleanse the
body properly – don’t be fooled by detox diets.
Colon And Large Intestine
Many people refer to the large intestine and the colon as one in the same, however, the
colon is just one part of the large intestine. It has many separate parts, starting with the
caecum, appendix, colon, rectum and ends with the anus.
Flatulence Is More Than Air
Flatulence is a combination of air that has been swallowed; gases formed during digestion,
such as methane and nitrogen; gases created by bacteria in the intestines and gas
reactions for the acid in the stomach. The noise made when passing gas is determined by
the force with which it is released and the tightness of the anal sphincter.
Original Purpose Of The Appendix
The appendix is often seen as a useless organ, but it did have a purpose many, many years
ago. Scientists believe that when our ancestors still relied on plants as their sole source of
nutrition, the appendix helped breakdown a type of protein called cellulose. Over time,
humans adapted to eat meat and slowly the appendix shrank and became non-essential in
human digestion.
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Heavy Liver
According to Medicine.net, the human liver is the heaviest organ in the body, weighing in
on average 1.6Kg.The liver is also said to have over 500 different functions.
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