Digestive-+System+Overview





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Vocab words: Jeopardy Game: How the digestive system relates to three other body systems:

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The digestive system is a crucial system of the body that is responsible for taking in, breaking down, and utilizing food that is put into the body. It consists of several main organs including the mouth, esophagus, small intestine, pancreas, liver, gall bladder, colon, rectum, and anus. Each part of this system is responsible for a specific role, each important in the breaking down of food. It takes about fifteen hours or more for food to pass through the entire system, leaving the body as waste in the end. The digestive system begins at the mouth, where food is inserted. In its regular form, most foods are not in the correct form to extract nutrients from. To start breaking it down, food is chewed into the mouth, breaking it apart into pieces that can be digested easier. Also, saliva helps break down the food so it can be digested easier. When chewing is finished and the food is swallowed, a series of muscle contractions in the esophagus bring the food to the stomach. From that point on, your body does all the work for you. The stomach secretes acids and enzymes that break down the food that has been chewed. It contracts and churns to turn it into a paste form, so nutrients can be extracted. Though the time food spends in the stomach varies depending on the food, it averages about an hour. That is why you should wait an hour after eating to swim or go on a roller coaster or something. Next, your food goes to the small intestine, which is 22 feet long. It has three parts, the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. Food enters the small intestine from the stomach in a semi-solid form and leaves in a liquid form. Enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver help transform the food into a liquid. Here, nutrients are absorbed into the body. The gallbladder helps break down and absorb fats. Next, the food goes into the colon, or large intestine. The purpose of the large intestine is mainly to prepare the waste to leave the body. It is six feet in length and contains different parts that go across, to the left, and down. The end of the colon is attached to the rectum where waste, or stool, is removed. The colon removes water from the stool until it is in a solid form. Waste is kept in the colon until a large movement shifts it into the rectum, an eight inch chamber. When waste enters the rectum, your brain receives signals telling your body it needs to empty the rectum. The waste then moves to the anus which is two inches. It has two anal sphincters which help control the release of stool. The digestive system is a long track that food goes through in order to extract nutrients. Without the digestive system, there would be no way for your body to break down food into a form that it can be used by the body. Food in its regular form cannot be used by the body, which is why the digestive system plays such an important role to a body's health. Without it, we'd all die.

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