The Digestive Tract Anatomy Flashcards
A brief overview
What is the Mouth?
The orifice through which food and air enter the body.
It is divided into two sections: the vestibule, the area between the cheeks and the teeth, and the oral cavity proper containing the teeth.
It is used for tearing, cutting, grinding and chewing food to allow for swallowing.
What is the Esophagus?
The esophagus is the hollow, muscular tube that passes food and liquid from your throat to your stomach.
What is the Stomach?
The stomach is a muscular hollow organ. It takes in food from the esophagus, mixes it, breaks it down, and then passes it on to the small intestine in small portions.
What is the Small Intestine?
A coiled tube approximately one and a half to two inches in diameter.
The part of the intestine that runs between the stomach and the large intestine; the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum collectively.
The small intestine absorbs nutrients and water from food. The muscle movements of the small intestine help break food down and process it through the body.
What is the Duodenum?
The first part of the small intestine where chyme mixes with bile from the gallbladder and digestive juices from the pancreas.
What is the Pancreas?
Large gland behind the stomach which secretes digestive enzymes to break down sugars, fats, and starches as well as secreting hormones (insulin and glucagon, in particular) to help regulate your blood sugar levels and appetite, stimulate stomach acids, and signals the stomach when to empty.
What is the Jejunum?
The middle part of the small intestine. It further digests food by absorbing nutrients (including vitamins, minerals, electrolytes) and water from food that are then used by the body.
What is the Ileum?
The last part of the small intestine. It connects to the first part of the large intestine (the cecum) and assists in further digesting food coming from the stomach and other parts of the small intestine.
Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water from food are absorbed in the ileum.
What is the Large Intestine?
Connected to the small intestine at one end and the anus at the other, the large intestine has four parts: cecum, colon, rectum, and anal canal.
In the large intestine, water and some nutrients and electrolytes are removed. The remaining material, stool, moves through the colon, is stored in the rectum, and leaves the body through the anal canal and anus.
What is the Liver?
A large organ located in the upper abdomen.
All the blood leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver.
The liver processes this blood and breaks down, balances, and creates nutrients.
