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| The Digestive System |
As we bite into something we want to eat and begin to chew, we initiate the activity of our digestive system. As our teeth crush the food, a watery substance called ‘Saliva’, from our salivary glands, gets mixed into the food to help us in swallowing it. Once we swallow the food it travels down into our stomach through a tube called the oesophagus. The oesophagus is located behind the wind pipe and is made of muscle and it pushes the food down into the stomach.
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Where the windpipe and the oesophagus meet there is a flap, called the epiglottis, which closes every time we eat thus preventing food from entering the air pipe. The stomach is like a small bag which crushes the food further and mixes it with various digestive juices from a gland called the ‘Pancreas’. The food is then passed into the small intestine which is coiled into the lower part of the body and measures about 20 feet in length. In the small intestine, the process of Peristalsis is initiated. Bile from the liver and digestive juices from the pancreas, containing proteins called enzymes, are mixed with the food which is further broken down. This process allows the passing of tiny particles of food into the blood stream through finger like projections called vile, on the inner walls of the small intestine.
These nutrients are then used by the body. From here the digested nutrients are also sent to the Liver which chemically converts them into more useable forms like Glucose etc. The remains of the food then pass into the large intestine where the water in the food is absorded. Whatever is left in the end is converted into small lumps of faeces which are then passed into the rectum and later out of the anus. The entire passage, from the mouth to the anus, through which the food passes is called the alimentary canal and each part of this canal performs a separate function of its own.
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Medical