14
votes
Accepted
Are the bacteria in the stomachs of unborn babies beneficial?
It's a fascinating topic! While most of the bacteria known to colonize babies comes from the vaginal tract during birth and then later, through breastfeeding, although there is evidence to suggest ...
- 1,879
13
votes
Why we do not get hurt from HCl secreted in the stomach?
Goblet cells.
These are specialized epithelial cells whose job it is to produce mucins. Mucous role is not only important in protecting the epithelium of the digestive tract from HCl, it is also a ...
- 4,975
12
votes
Accepted
Why aren't the antibodies in the mother's milk digested by the infant's digestive system?
Demers-Mathieu et al. 1 used ELISA to quantify immunoglobulin concentrations from milk after 2 hours of digestion in the stomachs of preterm-delivered and term-delivered infants. From the abstract:
...
- 8,206
7
votes
Accepted
Why does influenza sometimes cause GI symptoms?
Article: How influenza virus infection might lead to gastrointestinal symptoms Source study: Respiratory influenza virus infection induces intestinal immune injury via microbiota-mediated Th17 cell-...
- 8,081
6
votes
Accepted
Does eating beans of a mother cause flatulence on babies?
When the mother eat beans, the fiber (oligosaccharides) from them is not digested in the small intestine, so it travels to the large intestine, where normal intestinal bacteria break it down to some ...
- 8,039
5
votes
What controls gut motility?
When discussing the control of gut motility there is more to mention than the use of serotonergics and opioids - a number of peptide and nonpeptide neurotransmitters are important. Somatostatin and ...
- 407
4
votes
Carbohydrates in acidic stomach
As for the digestion of fats there are two digestive enzymes active in the stomach:
Lingual lipase (produced with saliva)
Gastric lipase (produced in the stomach chief cells)
Both have activity ...
- 2,076
4
votes
Accepted
How does the stomach handle continuous eating?
First of all, the stomach releases the digested food continuously. Simply put, during digestion the pylorus regularly opens a bit so that small food particles (< 1-2mm) are able to leave the ...
- 156
4
votes
Why we do not get hurt from HCl secreted in the stomach?
Our stomachs are lined with a special mucal layer which protects the organ from its own secretions. People with stomach ulcers have a hole in this layer, allowing the acid to get to the skin ...
- 369
3
votes
How does lactulose cause the removal of ammonia from the colon?
Excess nitrogen must be excreted by the body and can come from nitrogen in the diet (e.g. amino groups from excess amino acids) or nitrogen-containing compounds produced by bacteria in the ...
- 2,348
3
votes
Accepted
What neuro-motor diseases cause the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to malfunction?
This is called achalasia. According to UpToDate, the mechanism for this diseases are generally unknown. What is known, however, is that the esophagus has a neural system called the myenteric plexus ...
- 149
2
votes
Accepted
Is there nutrient absorption in the large intestine of hindgut fermenters?
I have divided this answer into a section on horse and rabbit. While there are many other hindgut fermenters, these species are good illustrations of different ways hindgut fermenters can digest and ...
- 2,472
2
votes
Why we do not get hurt from HCl secreted in the stomach?
Simply, it's because of the mucous layer around the stomach, that prevents the strong acid, HCl to hurt our stomach. Not only this, if there were no mucous, the HCl would digest the protein present ...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
What are the differences among food poisoning, gastroenetritis and diarrhoea?
First of all, diarrhea is a symptom, generally defined as passing large amount of loose stool. Diarrhea has countless causes, which include gastroenteritis and food poisoning (although not all types ...
- 427
2
votes
How does the stomach handle continuous eating?
Does the stomach need to start over after every bite? No. When the stomach digests food and some new food comes in, it just continues to digest the old and new food. The stomach releases small ...
- 8,039
2
votes
Carbohydrates in acidic stomach
People who have no stomach acid because of medicine or surgery still digest their foods. Otherwise you would predict incomplete digestion / weight loss / diarrhea would be a consequent of stomach ...
- 2,964
2
votes
Accepted
What happens to intrinsic factor exactly at the terminal ileum, where B12 is absorbed?
After reversible attachment of intrinsic factor-cobalamin complex to its ileal surface receptor, an energy-dependent
process prevents removal of the complex from the cell surface by EDTA or acid; ...
- 846
1
vote
Accepted
Is it advised to calculate QED parameters for salts?
I found the answer when I was reading about InChi in more detail.
For example, to a bioscientist “glutamic acid” and “glutamate” are the
same thing, but to a computational chemist the loss of a ...
- 299
1
vote
Accepted
Why is urobilinogen reabsorbed from the gut just to be excreted via the kidneys?
I think that it is missing some details. Note that the vast majority of urobilinogen (~80%) is actually eliminated via fecal elimination. I would recommend looking at the article on enterohepatic ...
- 8,528
1
vote
Gastric and intestinal gas exchange
Intestinal gas consists of ingested air and gas formed during digestion. Stomach gas consists of 15% oxygen and 7% carbon dioxide approximately; the remaining is nitrogen.
The air that we breathe ...
- 1,297
1
vote
What happens when a human ingests a large meal, and after a short time follows it up with a large amount of indigestible carbs?
Indigestible carbs are known as dietary fiber. They slow down gastric emptying, which results in slower absorption of the absorbable nutrients in the small intestine.
Early research regarding ...
- 8,039
1
vote
What can pass through the intestinal membranes?
Virtually all nutrients from food can be absorbed into blood through the lining of small intestine and colon.
What can be absorbed in the small intestine:
Water
Simple sugars (monosaccharides): ...
- 8,039
1
vote
Can polystyrene sulfonate bind calcium or sodium in the gut? How?
Are you talking about Sodium Polystyrene Sulphonate (a.k.a SPS)?
If yes, then ...
Quoting from Chaitman, Dixit and Bridgeman (2016)
Synthetic cation-exchange resins are insoluble polymers ...
- 11
1
vote
Where in the digestive tract are melatonin pills dissolved? Same question for gelatin capsules
Unless specially coated or formulated, most pills break apart in the stomach. Note: "break apart", not necessarily absorbed.
Take a gelatin capsule with rice or melatonin and immerse it in warm water....
- 24.5k
1
vote
Is there any mechanical digestion that occurs once food/chyme enters the small intestine?
I believe in small intestine peristalsis is sometimes counted as mechanical digestion as the food is moved along the digestive tract. Chemical digestion occurs with enzymes secreted from the pancreas. ...
- 71
1
vote
Accepted
How is circadian rhythm of gastric acid secretion regulated?
I'd suggest reading wiki first.
Autonomic nervous system, the one that regulates breathing rate, heart rate and other physiological processes as a function of circadian time, regulates secretion of ...
1
vote
Can Helicobacter pylori be eradicated naturally?
If I understand you correctly you would want to eat lots of wasabi and the likes to decrease/eliminate the bacterial load of H. pylori in your body.
Concerning your questions -
to be perfectly ...
- 111
1
vote
Can Helicobacter pylori be eradicated naturally?
H.pylori is a bacteria that is a cause for Peptic ulcer disease of human being. It helps to create more acidic product and causes ulcer. But human body is naturally protected to H.pylore, but excess ...
1
vote
Whence fecal E. coli (et al.) if swallowing it is dangerous?
There are many varieties of E. coli, with differences in their chromosomal DNA, different plasmids (independent loops of DNA that replicate autonomously inside the host cell and can be transferred ...
- 737
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible