Questions tagged [digestive-system]
Organs that play a role in digestion and/or absorption of nutrients: breaking down of food into smaller components that can be absorbed and used as for sources of energy, cellular/tissue building blocks, or cofactors for vital biochemical reactions.
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Is lemon water an alkalizing agent in the body?
I was recently having a discussion with someone about whether lemon water actually increases the pH of your body (by which I assume they mean the blood); their claim was that once Citric acid was ...
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Does digestion require hydrochloric acid?
Would our digestion function any differently if we secreted something else, like sulfuric or nitric acid, instead? I'd assume an acidic environment may be required, but not sure if chloride is also ...
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Can the human gut work with other type of gut bacteria?
I was wondering if the human body would be capable of functioning with, say, cellulolytic bacteria in their gut (instead of or in addition of their current bacteria), like that of ruminants and if ...
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How can we usually "trust a fart" not to be liquid or solid?
Jack Nicholson's character Edward Cole in the movie The Bucket List said ...and never trust a fart, and a search for Al Roker leakage White House will clear up any doubts what that's all about.
How ...
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How does the symbiotic bacteria reaches a human caecum
My thought on this matter is that we have got a very high pH of about 1.8 in our stomach.So,most of bacteria who came in through food or just open mouth should be killed by it.So,how does a bacterial ...
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Is there a link between digestion and nightmares?
A common belief is that eating too much before going to sleep can cause to have nightmares. In fact, I often experience it: I systematically have nightmares after eating too much in the evening.
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Do cows chew in a preferential chirality?
One of the enduring myths in molecular physics, when talking about chirality as pertains the existence of enantiomers and the differences between them, is that the way cows chew is also chiral, i.e. ...
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Why does mouldy food make you sick?
Bread gets mouldy pretty quickly. My parents (both of whom are nurses) throw out a loaf of bread after a spot of mould is seen (because "if you can see one spot, it means the whole thing is covered in ...
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Does pepsin enzyme digest other enzymes like other pepsin molecules
Pepsin digests proteins, as we know, but can it digest other enzymes that are actually made up of proteins, like digesting other pepsin molecules?
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Could a mammal convert ingested dissolved CO2 to usable energy?
I'm trying to find out if it's possible that a mammal could orally ingest dissolved CO2 and convert it to energy for body heat, organ function, etc.
Unfortunately, most of the scientific sources I've ...
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Muscle layers of pharynx and gi tract
Why does pharynx have an internal longitudinal muscle layer and external circular muscle layer, while oesophagus and the rest of gastrointestinal tract have inner circular and outer longitudinal ...
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Betaine HCl stomach pH
It seems betaine HCL is often recommended for those suffering from "low stomach acid" -- which, as I understand, is having too high stomach pH for proper digestion (especially for proteolysis via ...
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Does freezing microorganisms such as probiotics kill them?
Does freezing microorganisms such as probiotics kill them? If not, what is the process that allows them to "come back to life" after the temperatures are increased?
As an example, lets say you ...
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When you have your gallbladder removed, how does it affect bile flow into your small intestine?
Cholecystectomy, or surgical removal of the gallbladder, is an extremely common operation around the world. The gallbladder is typically viewed as a storage organ for bile produced by the liver, but ...
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Epidermal layer and muscle wall of colon?
First of all,I wanted to ask that whether epidermis is present in colon ? And if yes than how is muscle wall present with respect to epidermis. Can anyone give me a pic that has both the epidermis and ...
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Are humans the only animal that requires "clean water"?
I've seen a number of animals - dogs, cats, squirrels, ducks and geese, etc drink from puddles, some of them were muddy, others had green flora growing under water. Same goes for lakes and rivers. A ...
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Nonpancreatic digestion of tryglicerides
In an answer about coconut oil I can read
the digestion of coconut oil does not involve in the Pancreatic digestive enzyme system
In both primary and secondary school I have learned that fat needs ...
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Do humans produce rennin?
At school, we've been taught that human infants produce rennin/chymosin (which aids in the digestion of milk). More specifically, it is the peptic cells in the stomach which secrete prorennin, the ...
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Can gut flora affect what we can eat and what we cannot?
Back many years ago, I've read a mushroom guidebook, which I don't have anymore. I was unable to find the name of a particular mushroom. The book comprises listing of edible and poisonous mushroom ...
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What are the consequences of drinking water with food?
Does drinking water with a meal release lesser energy/glucose into the blood stream due to a diluted digestive mixture ?
For simplification : If a person eats 100 grams of cooked jasmine rice with no ...
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Why do antacids have a special importance when taking lactulose?
“Before taking lactulose, tell your doctor and pharmacist what prescription and nonprescription medications you are taking, especially antacids, antibiotics including neomycin (Mycifradin), and other ...
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Influence of eating at late night on sleep
I have often heard the saying that one shouldn't eat a mountain of food because blood will go to the stomach and it'll be difficult to sleep well because the stomach can't rest at night.
I see that ...
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What are the pros and cons of eating earth (soil)?
I wonder if there are any benefits to eat earth. What I mean by earth is the topsoil that is sometimes on vegetable (I eat organic vegetables and some of them like spinach are full of topsoil).
I ...
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Sensitivity Along Digestive Tract [closed]
Suppose you swallowed a little capsule with a blunt poker which had
some impulse of force applied every few seconds. What would be the
sensitivity ordering (of lips, mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach,...
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Why would a venus fly traps mouth that's still "chewing" die?
A venus fly trap produces leaves that act like traps for insects. A trapped insect is digested over several days. The trap then opens again to catch another insect.
These traps regularly die off. ...
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Does the pyloric sphincter contract after ingesting only liquid?
At university, I was told by one of my fellow students that the reason why eating before going on an alcohol laden night out was a good idea, was because the pyloric sphincter contracted once food was ...
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Why do humans cook animal meat
Why do humans "need" to cook animal meat?
It seems there's an aspect of safety to it: are other animals (eg, house cats, dogs) not vulnerable to the same diseases we get from modern food processing ...
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Why Do Ruminants Require A Multi-Compartment Stomach To Digest Food?
Cows, camels, sheep, goats, etc being ruminants must chew their food repeatedly by regurgitating their food from their first stomach compartment and chewing their 'cud'. This then finer chewed ...
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What happens to the enzymes produced by the digestive system?
Our digestive system produces a lot of enzymes and they help to catabolize the food, and after completing their work are they excreted out or as they are also made up of proteins are they catabolized ...
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Which cells produce HCl produced in stomach? Don't these cells get destroyed by HCl?
Which cells produce HCl produced in the stomach? Or is HCl produced due to the translation of proteins. Don't these cells get destroyed by HCl?
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Bicarbonate concentration in saliva
From the picture it can be seen that Bicarbonate is secreted into lumen of duct of salivary glands by exchanging Cl- ions.
So if flow rate of saliva is increased then its obvious that less Cl- is ...
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How does the human stomach handle a mix of digested and undigested food?
As I understand it, the stomach digests the bolus into chyme and then passes the latter on to the small intestine. This process takes between 40 minutes and a few hours.
However, what happens when ...
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Can animals use the nitrogen in chitin to build proteins?
Fungi and insects contain chitin, which is about 6% nitrogen.
Can an animal - like me - make use of this as a nitrogen source to build proteins?
Are there any animals that can do this?
Are there ...
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In which organs is water that we drink absorbed into the blood?
From biology classes I remember that water from food we eat is mostly 'sucked in' (absorbed into blood) in the colon. I guess the same is true for water we drink. But if I eat something, it will reach ...
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Will a 0.2g/mL sugar concentration cause vomiting in humans? [closed]
This infographic claims that the sugar content in a can of Coca Cola would cause vomiting if not for the phosphoric acid.
In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (...
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Why are my faeces black in color after eating Oreos
Why are my faeces black in colour the morning after I eat some Oreos?
Day 1 : Eat a handful of Oreos & the next morning your stool is black.
Day 3 : Eat a handful of cocoa flavored biscuits &...
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How are micelles formed from the byproducts of emulsification in fat digestion?
It is known that fat droplets are made into emulsion droplets via the addition of bile salts. It is then said that the emulsion droplets are made into micelles through some sort of lipase, which can ...
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How are nutrients absorbed by a pitcher plant?
I've read that pitcher plants thrive in nitrogen-poor soil, which is solved by dissolving insects and absorbing nitrogen that way.
I have a few plants, and when a pitcher start to rot, I cut it off ...
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Eating possibly spoiled food in the fasted state - is it considered protective against the potential harm?
It is a known fact that the acidic environment in the stomach serves several purposes, such as providing suitable conditions for primary chemical digestion of food molecules and protection from ...
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Do animals get sick from eating dirty food or eating off the floor?
Humans have very strict tradition of hygiene, such as washing hands before eating, using utensils, and in general keeping as much distance between food and dirt as possible.
At the same time, most ...
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Food allergen-related skin reactions and intestinal inflammation?
Are there any connections between food allergen-related skin reactions causing intestinal (or more broadly, gastrointestinal) generalized inflammation?
If such a link exists, is it related to any of ...
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Is there a difference in how Gas is produced which determines if it becomes a burp or flatulence?
I know that some gases are heavier than air and in the case of a gas leak it's best to escape to higher ground, while some gases are lighter than air such as Helium. However unlike Helium I haven't ...
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Why does anxiety cause diarrhea or constipation?
Anxiety sometimes cause diarrhea, sometimes constipation, and sometimes both. It's interesting because it seems their underlying neurophysiology is somehow different. What are underlying physiological ...
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Why are there not effective pharmaceutical treatments to prevent weight gain?
Hunger is caused by signals from the brain, so is there a way to suppress the signal of hunger in the same way we suppress the signal of pain with painkillers?
If people felt less hungry, they would ...
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How is chewing gum processed?
There is the common belief that
Chewing gum takes 7 years to digest
But is this actually true? Does it really stick to your intestines for 7 years, or is it processed like all foods, except it isn'...
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Special bacteria in infants
This question is similar to a previous question, but is not the same.
I was told, you are born with a bacteria in your digestive track that are made by the body. Can a body in development create it'...
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Why does a stomach come before the gizzard in birds?
Since the gizzard is for mechanical digestion, shouldn't that happen before the stomach digests the food with acids? (to make the morsels smaller)
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How does horse extract the energy to needs from a relatively small digestive system?
Recently I saw Inside nature's gaints episode on horse, and was fascinated about its internal organisation. And my question is that they have a very large lungs to accommodate, but a relatively ...
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Absorption of pentoses in intestine
Why pentoses are absorbed by facilitated diffusion in intestine? Wouldn't it be futile because , when the pentose concentration is lower in intestine, the pentoses would diffuse back to the intestinal ...
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Movement in microvilli
My textbook( COMPREHENSIVE TEXTBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY VOL-1 by GK PAL) says:
Microfilaments project into microvilli present on the epithelial surface such as on the intestinal mucosa, and extend up to ...
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