
Explore the digestive system and gastrointestinal tract from mouth through esophagus, stomach, small intestine, including liver, pancreas, gall bladder, and salivary glands, with secretions and enzymes driving digestion and absorption.
Identify the digestive system's functions, including ingestion, swallowing, peristalsis, mechanical digestion, mixing, chemical digestion by enzymes, nutrient absorption into the blood, and waste elimination.
Explore the gastrointestinal tract from esophagus to colon, detailing mucosa structure and serosa, mucus secretion, absorption, and intrinsic and extrinsic neural control of digestion.
Explore the anatomy of the mouth in the human digestive system, including lips, cheeks, vestibule, oral cavity, mucous membranes, and the hard and soft palate separating it from nasal cavity.
Salivary glands secrete saliva from the three major glands, lubricating the mouth, cleansing the oral cavity, beginning starch digestion with amylase, and flushing bacteria.
Explore tooth anatomy from enamel and crown to pulp cavity and root canals; compare deciduous and permanent dentition, including incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.
Explore pharynx anatomy, outlining the nasopharynx, oropharynx, and laryngopharynx, and explain how each portion supports respiration and propels swallowed food from the mouth to the esophagus and stomach.
Explore the esophagus, a 25 cm muscular tube lined with stratified squamous mucosa, moving food from the pharynx to the stomach via mucus secretion and muscular contractions, with no digestion.
Explore how the stomach mixes and stores food, secretes gastric juice with acid, enzymes, and intrinsic factor, and uses peristaltic waves to regulate gastric emptying into the small intestine.
Explore how the small intestine digests and absorbs carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids with a large surface area, about one meter long, and channels contents to the large intestine.
Explore the large intestine’s anatomy, including the appendix and the ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid colon, plus the opening from the ileum into the large intestine.
Explore the pancreas as an endocrine and exocrine organ, with islets of Langerhans secreting glucagon and insulin. Learn about pancreatic juice and its enzymes such as lipase and ribonuclease.
Explores the liver as the body's largest gland and the gallbladder's role in bile storage, emphasizing hepatocyte function, bile production and emulsification, and hepatic circulation in digestion.
Examine how gastric acid secretion is regulated by the proton pump and neural and hormonal signals, including acetylcholine, histamine, gastrin, and somatostatin, across the three gastric phases.
Explore how brain signals regulate gastric acid secretion, detailing hypothalamic signals, local reflexes, and how peptides and caffeine modulate stomach activity, with emotional state altering parasympathetic input.
Describe hydrochloric acid production in the stomach, where carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid. Dissociate carbonic acid into hydrogen and bicarbonate, exchange with chloride and potassium ions to form HCl.
Explore how carbohydrates are digested and absorbed in the small intestine, from salivary amylase to pancreatic amylase, and how monosaccharides travel via active and facilitated transport to the hepatic portal.
Examine how mastication and saliva begin digestion, how gastric juice and pancreatic juice process carbohydrates, proteins, and triglycerides in the stomach and small intestine, and how microbes support nutrient absorption.
The digestive system is a group of organs that work together to convert food into basic energy and nutrients to nourish the entire body.
Digestion is a complex process involving specialized anatomical and physiological adaptations for the absorption of nutrients.
Its purpose is to prepare food for use by cells and organs throughout the body.
Because large food particles cannot reach cells, the process of digestion breaks the food down into nutrients that can be absorbed into the blood stream and carried to any cell in the body.
The methods of digestion are mechanical and chemical.
Each segment of the digestive system has a special design to perform a unique function that is an essential part of the digestive process.
Digestion begins in the mouth and is completed at the anus.
As food moves through the digestive tract, it passes through several compartments.
Accessory organs that produce digestive enzymes drain their contents into the compartments at different points along the way.
Each compartment and accessory organ serves a specific function.
At each stage, the food is transformed into a slightly different form that allows it to be passed along to the next compartment.
As it moves through the digestive tract, nutrients and water are extracted, producing waste.
The waste products are eventually eliminated.
Food passes through a long tube inside the body known as the alimentary canal or gastrointestinal tract (GI tract).
The alimentary canal consists of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine.
In addition to the alimentary canal, there are several important accessory organs that help your body digest food but are not traversed by food.
Accessory organs of the digestive system include teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder and pancreas.