DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

Digestive system

The digestive system allows the body to obtain nutrients and the energy necessary that it needs from what you eat; and transform food and liquids into the fuel for the body.

The Mouth

The process begins when you take the food into the mouth and forms saliva.

The saliva initiates the process of descomposition of chemical substances that contain the food and help to soften them so that it could be easier to swallow them.

The tongue helps you by pushing food through your mouth while you chew with your teeth.

When you are ready to swallow, the tongue pushes the food towards the back of the throat, so that it enters through the oesophagus. This mixture is called bolus.

Oesophagus

The oesophagus is an elastic tube that measures about 25 cm long. Conducts food from the back of the throat to the stomach. The bolus passes down the pharynx.

In the back of the throat is also the trachea, which allows the air to enter and leave your body.

When you swallow the crushed food, the epiglottis closes the trachea so that the food enters the oesophagus and not into the trachea.

The muscles of the oesophagus make a wavering movement to crush the food when it descends.

Stomach

The stomach is attached to the esophagus. It is an elastic "sack" and has the following functions:

- Store the food.

- Secretes substances called gastric juices. Gastric juices descompose food and form a paste called chyme, they destroy germs and bacteria in food.

- Empty that liquid to the small intestine

                                                                           

Small intestine

The small intestine is a long tube folded under the stomach.

The small intestine descomposes more the food, so that the body absorbs the nutrients.

The pancreas, liver and gallbladder send juices to the small intestine to digest food.

The food products that your body can not use will go to the large intestine.

Liver

The blood with the nutrients goes to the liver. The liver filters the blood and transforms noxious substances in bile. The liver distributes the nutrients for the body and the reserve nutrients.

Large intestine

The large intestine is thicker than the small intestine and is folded. It has a small tube called appendix. The appendix does not have any function, but it can become infected and it has to be extirpate.

The water and the last minerals are absorbed in the colon. When waste products do not have water they become solid: they are faeces.

The large intestine pushes the feces to the rectum, the last part of the digestive tube to go to the bathroom and are expelled through the anus.

           

Systems related with the digestive system

-       With the circulatory system. The digestive system carries nutrients to the circulatory system and the circulatory system carries the molecules to every part of the body.

-       With the nervous system. The nervous system controls the contraction of the muscles of the digestive system.

-       With the excretory system, it expels waste substances.

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