Taj Worldwide | Taj Group | Media | Career | FAQs | Feedback | contact us
 
Taj Logo
diseases_banner
 
Quality Medicines Api Generic Manufacturing For Doctors Brands Newsroom
  Your Digestive System and How It Works  
HOME >> Diseases >> Diseases Index >> Index Y >> Your Digestive System and How It Works
 Your Digestive System and How It Works  

 

 


The digestive system is made up of the digestive tract—a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus—and other organs that help the body break down and absorb food (see figure).

Organs that make up the digestive tract are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine—also called the colon—rectum, and anus. Inside these hollow organs is a lining called the mucosa. In the mouth, stomach, and small intestine, the mucosa contains tiny glands that produce juices to help digest food. The digestive tract also contains a layer of smooth muscle that helps break down food and move it along the tract.

Two “solid” digestive organs, the liver and the pancreas, produce digestive juices that reach the intestine through small tubes called ducts. The gallbladder stores the liver’s digestive juices until they are needed in the intestine. Parts of the nervous and circulatory systems also play major roles in the digestive system.

Why is digestion important?

When you eat foods—such as bread, meat, and vegetables—they are not in a form that the body can use as nourishment. Food and drink must be changed into smaller molecules of nutrients before they can be absorbed into the blood and carried to cells throughout the body. Digestion is the process by which food and drink are broken down into their smallest parts so the body can use them to build and nourish cells and to provide energy.

How is food digested?
Digestion involves mixing food with digestive juices, moving it through the digestive tract, and breaking down large molecules of food into smaller molecules. Digestion begins in the mouth, when you chew and swallow, and is completed in the small intestine.

How is the digestive process controlled?
Hormone Regulators
The major hormones that control the functions of the digestive system are produced and released by cells in the mucosa of the stomach and small intestine. These hormones are released into the blood of the digestive tract, travel back to the heart and through the arteries, and return to the digestive system where they stimulate digestive juices and cause organ movement.

The main hormones that control digestion are gastrin, secretin, and cholecystokinin (CCK):

Gastrin causes the stomach to produce an acid for dissolving and digesting some foods. Gastrin is also necessary for normal cell growth in the lining of the stomach, small intestine, and colon.

Secretin causes the pancreas to send out a digestive juice that is rich in bicarbonate. The bicarbonate helps neutralize the acidic stomach contents as they enter the small intestine. Secretin also stimulates the stomach to produce pepsin, an enzyme that digests protein, and stimulates the liver to produce bile.

CCK causes the pancreas to produce the enzymes of pancreatic juice, and causes the gallbladder to empty. It also promotes normal cell growth of the pancreas.

Additional hormones in the digestive system regulate appetite:

Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and upper intestine in the absence of food in the digestive system and stimulates appetite.

Peptide YY is produced in the digestive tract in response to a meal in the system and inhibits appetite.

Both of these hormones work on the brain to help regulate the intake of food for energy. Researchers are studying other hormones that may play a part in inhibiting appetite, including glucagon-like peptide-1 (GPL-1), oxyntomodulin (+ ), and pancreatic polypeptide.


  Growing Stronger, Growing
  Better
medicine
 
  Global Health
 
world
 
  Healthcare Provider
 
Healthcare Provider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Your Digestive System - treatment of Your Digestive System, Your Digestive System types, Disease medicines, Your Digestive System symptoms, Your Digestive System and Disease symptoms, Your Digestive System symptoms Disease and diagnosis, Symptoms and Solutions, Signs and Symptoms, type of Your Digestive System, cause common, common Your Digestive System, Your Digestive System List, causes list, Infectious Your Digestive System, Causes, Diseases , Types, Prevention, Treatment and Facts, Your Digestive System information, Your Digestive System: Definition, Your Digestive System names, medical Your Digestive System, medical Your Digestive System and disorders, cell Your Digestive System, Your Digestive System Worldwide, Your Digestive System Research, Your Digestive System Control, Your Digestive System Center, Digestive Your Digestive System Week, Information about Your Digestive System, causes of different Your Digestive System, Your Digestive System Articles, Your Digestive System and conditions, Health and Your Digestive System, Your Digestive System Patients, Your Digestive System and Sciences, causes of alzheimer's Your Digestive System, Your Digestive System causes, alternative medicine heart Your Digestive System, body ailments, Your Digestive System medicines, medical antiques, type of blood Your Digestive System  
 
   
diseases
diseases index
 
   
  india flag
  The Taj Pharmaceuticals Limited (Taj Group) has operations in every major international market
   
  RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
  CONSUMER CARE
  MEDICAL CARE
  ANIMAL HEALTH
  TECHNOLOGY
  SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
  DRUGS INFORMATION
  FIRST AID & EMERGENCY GUIDE
  DIET & NUTRITION
  AMAZING BODY FACTS
 
YOGA FOR HEALTH
 
 www.tajpharma.com

 

   
 

              
 Print page   Send by mail

About Taj

Company

Products Diseases Health Divisions Media R & D Sustainability
Figure & Reports Investors

Countries

Brochure E-mail us Export & Import
Vacancies | C & F Agency | Distributor | Group Companies | History | Enquire Form | Countries | Pharma Technology
 Contact | Sitemap | User Terms and Conditions | Privacy and Cookie Statement