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Food taken in through the mouth is digested to extract nutrients and absorb energy, and the waste expelled at the anus as feces. Gastrointestinal is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the stomach and intestines. Most animals have a "through-gut" or complete digestive tract.
Ascites (/ ə ˈ s aɪ t i z /; [5] Greek: ἀσκός, romanized: askos, meaning "bag" or "sac" [6]) is the abnormal build-up of fluid in the abdomen. [1] Technically, it is more than 25 ml of fluid in the peritoneal cavity, although volumes greater than one liter may occur. [4]
The stomach is involved in the gastric phase of digestion, following the cephalic phase in which the sight and smell of food and the act of chewing are stimuli. In the stomach a chemical breakdown of food takes place by means of secreted digestive enzymes and gastric acid. The stomach is located between the esophagus and the small intestine.
The stomach is a distensible organ and can normally expand to hold about one litre of food. [22] This expansion is enabled by a series of gastric folds in the inner walls of the stomach. The stomach of a newborn baby will only be able to expand to retain about 30 ml.
The enzymes that are secreted in the stomach are gastric enzymes. The stomach plays a major role in digestion, both in a mechanical sense by mixing and crushing the food, and also in an enzymatic sense, by digesting it. The following are enzymes produced by the stomach and their respective function: Pepsin is the main gastric enzyme.
The stomach can become bloated when too much air is swallowed during eating and drinking too quickly. As the stomach swells, belching removes the gas and alleviates the pain associated with it. Burping can also be used as a form of relief from abdominal discomfort other than too much gas in the stomach.
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It extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body and is the site in which the fermentation of unabsorbed material by the gut microbiota occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a major role in absorption of foods and nutrients. About 1.5 litres or 45 ounces of water arrives in the colon ...