Disorders of the digestive system
The alimentary tract of the digestive system maintains the following four main activities: ingestion, digestion, absorption and elimination.
The alimentary canal begins in the mouth, leads through the thorax, abdomen and pelvic region and ends in the anus. When you eat a meal, a series of digestive processes begin to take place. These can be divided into the mechanical breakdown of food through mastication and the chemical breakdown of food through enzymes.
Enzymes are minute chemical substances composed of proteins that cause or speed up chemical changes in other substances, without themselves being changed. Digestive enzymes are contained in the saliva of the salivary glands of the mouth, the gastric juice in the stomach, the intestinal juice in the pancreas and the bile in the liver.
Absorption is the process by which tiny nutrient particle of digested food pass through the intestinal walls into the blood and lymph vessels, which help distribute them to the cell of the body.
The bowels eliminate as feces whatever food substances they cannot digest or absorb, such as the plant fib4er cellulose. Fecal matter also contains bile, which carries the waste products resulting from the breakdown of red blood cells. Nearly one third of the excreted fecal matter is made up of dead intestinal bacteria. The body can function smoothly and efficiently only if the bowel removes these dily generated waste products every day.
Good health results when each of these major activities in the digestive system is balanced and well coordinated with the rest of the body. By contrast, abnormalities begin to arise in the digestive system as well as in other parts of the body when one or more of the functions becomes impaired. The presence of gallstones in the liver and gallbladder has a disruptive influence of the digestion and absorption of food, as well as on the body’s waste disposal system.
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