Monday, July 30, 2007

Happy birthday to me and welcome to my new friend, 'Gastric'.

Well, i turned 30 yesterday, and late evening i went to the hospital to my stomach/chest pain then i found out i got a new friend, named Gastric. well here's some of its background taken from Wikipedia, I think it is my habit of eating without appropriate time serves me well now. My advice to you all, eat properly with appropriate timing.

In anatomy, the stomach is a bean-shaped hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication. The word stomach is derived from the Latin stomachus, which derives from the Greek word stomachos (στόμαχος). The words gastro- and gastric (meaning related to the stomach) are both derived from the Greek word gaster (γαστήρ).
Functions
The stomach is usually a highly acidic environment due to gastric acid production and secretion which produces a luminal pH range usually between 1 and 4 depending on the species, food intake, time of the day, drug use, and other factors. Such an environment is able to break down large molecules (such as from food) to smaller ones so that they can eventually be absorbed from the small intestine. The stomach can produce and secrete about 2 to 3 liters of gastric acid per day with basal secretion levels being typically highest in the evening for humans.


Pepsinogen is secreted by chief cells and turns into pepsin under low pH conditions and is a necessity in protein digestion.

Absorption of vitamin B12 from the small intestine is dependent on conjugation to a glycoprotein called intrinsic factor which is produced by parietal cells of the stomach.

Other functions include absorbing some ions, water, and some lipid soluble compounds such as alcohol, aspirin, and caffeine.

Another function of the stomach is simply a food storage cavity.

Anatomy of the human stomach
The stomach lies between the esophagus and the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). It is on the left side of the abdominal cavity. The top of the stomach lies against the diaphragm. Lying beneath the stomach is the pancreas, and the greater omentum which hangs from the greater curvature.

Two smooth muscle valves, or sphincters, keep the contents of the stomach contained. They are the esophageal sphincter (found in the cardiac region) dividing the tract above, and the Pyloric sphincter dividing the stomach from the small intestine.

The stomach is surrounded by parasympathetic (stimulant) and orthosympathetic (inhibitor) plexuses (anterior gastric, posterior, superior and inferior, celiac and myenteric), which regulate both the secretory activity and the motor activity of the muscles.

In humans, the stomach has a volume of about 50 mL when empty. After a meal, it generally expands to hold about 1 litre of food, [3] but it can actually expand to hold as much as 4 litres. When drinking milk it can expand to just under 6 pints, or 3.4 litres. [4]



0 comments: