📍Activity 5: The Digestive System 🔬

🫧Appendix
According to the so-called “safe house” theory, the appendix protects a collection of beneficial gut bacteria when certain diseases wipe them out from elsewhere in the GI tract. Once the immune system has rid the body of the infection, the bacteria emerge from the appendix biofilm and recolonize the gut.

🫧Liver
The liver is the second largest organ in your body, and it serves a wide range of bodily functions. It synthesizes proteins, cleans blood, facilitates food digestion, fights infection, and helps your body store sugar for energy.

🫧Esophagus
At the top, the esophagus has a gate, or more anatomically expressed – a sphincter – a set of muscles known as the inferior pharyngeal sphincter. Working in synchronization with the tongue and muscles in the back of the pharynx, this sphincter opens to allow food, air, and liquid into the esophagus and then closes to prevent unwanted aspiration.

🫧Tongue
A digestive organ, your tongue moves food around your mouth to help you chew and swallow. It also helps you make different sounds so you can speak and form words. Your tongue helps keep your airway open so you can breathe properly, too.

🫧Duodenum
The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals, reptiles, and birds. In mammals, it may be the principal site for iron absorption. The duodenum precedes the jejunum and ileum and is the shortest part of the small intestine.
In humans, the duodenum is a hollow jointed tube about 25–38 centimeters (10–15 inches) long connecting the stomach to the middle part of the small intestine. It begins with the duodenal bulb and ends at the suspensory muscle of the duodenum. The duodenum can be divided into four parts: the first (superior), the second (descending), the third (transverse), and the fourth (ascending) parts.

🫧Gall bladder
It receives bile, produced by the liver, via the common hepatic duct, and stores it. The bile is then released via the common bile duct into the duodenum, where the bile helps in the digestion of fats.

🫧Caecum
The main functions of the cecum are to absorb fluids and salts that remain after completion of intestinal digestion and absorption and to mix its contents with a lubricating substance, mucus.

🫧Ileum
The ileum is the distal part of the small intestine and is about two to four meters long. The ileum plays a crucial part in the digestive system by aiding in the absorption of vitamin B12 and bile salts. The small intestine is divided into three divisions namely the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The ileum connects the small intestine to the large intestine.

🫧Stomach
Your stomach’s purpose is to digest food and send it to your small intestine. It has three functions: Temporarily store food. Contract and relax to mix and break down food. Produce enzymes and other specialized cells to digest food.