"The human digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract plus the accessory organs of digestion (the tongue, salivary glands, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder)."
The study of the organs involved in digestion, including the mouth, stomach, intestines, and associated glands.
Overview of the Digestive System: This topic provides an introduction to the digestive system, its functions, location, and components.
Digestive System Organs: It includes the different organs that make up the digestive system like the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anal canal.
Histology of Digestive System Organs: It describes the microscopic structures of the different organs of the digestive system.
Anatomy of Mouth and Teeth: This topic covers the structure and function of the mouth, teeth, tongue, and salivary glands.
Anatomy of the Esophagus: It describes the anatomy and function of the esophagus, which is a muscular tube that connects the mouth to the stomach.
Anatomy of the Stomach: This topic covers the anatomy of the stomach, including its structure, functions, and histology.
Anatomy of Small Intestine: This topic provides an overview of the anatomy of the small intestine, including its histology, structure, and function.
Anatomy of Large Intestine: It covers the anatomy and function of the large intestine, including the cecum, colon, rectum, and anus.
Accessory Digestive Organs: This topic includes the accessory digestive organs such as liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
Digestive Processes: This topic explains the processes involved in food digestion, including mechanical and chemical digestion.
Disorders of the Digestive System: It includes a list of common digestive system disorders such as ulcer, gastritis, celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome, among others.
Digestive System Development: It describes the development of the digestive system from embryonic to adult stages.
Digestive System Disorders and their Treatments: This topic provides an overview of the various treatments available for digestive system disorders.
Importance of Nutrition: This topic covers the role of nutrients in the body and the importance of proper nutrition for digestive health.
Digestive System and Human Health: It explains the relationship between the digestive system and overall human health.
Mouth: Digestion begins in the mouth through the process of mastication, where food is broken down into smaller pieces.
Salivary Glands: These glands produce saliva that contains enzymes that start breaking down carbohydrates in the mouth.
Pharynx: The pharynx is a muscular tube that connects the mouth to the esophagus.
Esophagus: The esophagus is a long muscular tube that moves food from the pharynx to the stomach through peristalsis.
Stomach: The stomach is a muscular sac that mixes and grinds food, while also secreting hydrochloric acid that kills bacteria and denatures proteins.
Small Intestine: The small intestine is a long, narrow tube that digests and absorbs most of the nutrients from the food.
Liver: The liver produces bile that helps in the digestion of fats.
Gallbladder: The gallbladder stores and releases bile into the small intestine.
Pancreas: The pancreas produces digestive enzymes that help break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
Large Intestine: The large intestine absorbs water and electrolytes and forms feces.
Rectum: The rectum stores feces before elimination.
Anus: The anus is the opening at the end of the digestive tract where feces are eliminated.
"Digestion involves the breakdown of food into smaller and smaller components, until they can be absorbed and assimilated into the body."
"The process of digestion has three stages: the cephalic phase, the gastric phase, and the intestinal phase."
"The first stage, the cephalic phase of digestion, begins with secretions from gastric glands in response to the sight and smell of food."
"This stage includes the mechanical breakdown of food by chewing, and the chemical breakdown by digestive enzymes, that takes place in the mouth."
"Saliva contains the digestive enzymes amylase and lingual lipase, secreted by the salivary and serous glands on the tongue."
"Chewing, in which the food is mixed with saliva, begins the mechanical process of digestion."
"This produces a bolus which is swallowed down the esophagus to enter the stomach."
"The second stage, the gastric phase, happens in the stomach. Here the food is further broken down by mixing with gastric acid until it passes into the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine."
"The third stage, the intestinal phase, begins in the duodenum. Here the partially digested food is mixed with a number of enzymes produced by the pancreas."
"Digestion is helped by the chewing of food carried out by the muscles of mastication, the tongue, and the teeth."
"Peristalsis is the rhythmic contraction of muscles that begins in the esophagus and continues along the wall of the stomach and the rest of the gastrointestinal tract. This initially results in the production of chyme which when fully broken down in the small intestine is absorbed as chyle into the lymphatic system."
"Most of the digestion of food takes place in the small intestine."
"Water and some minerals are reabsorbed back into the blood in the colon of the large intestine."
"The waste products of digestion (feces) are defecated from the rectum via the anus."