MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY
English For Health Sciences
REVIEW OF DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
REFERENCE 1
OVERVIEW OF THE
DIGESTIVE PROCESS
REFERENCE 1
To accomplish the functions of making
nutrients available to each cell of the
body, the digestive system uses various
processes.
OVERVIEW OF THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS
First, complex foods must be taken into
the GI tract in a process called ingestion.
Then, the ingested food material must be
broken down into simpler nutrients in
the process that gives this process its
name: digestion.
The breakdown, or digestion, of food
material is both mechanical and chemical
in nature.
The teeth are used to physically break
down large chunks of food before it is
swallowed.
The churning of food in the stomach
then continues the mechanical digestive
process.
To physically break down large chunks of
food into smaller bits and to move it
along the tract, movement or motility of
the GI wall is required.
In chemical digestion, large food
molecules are reduced to smaller
molecules. This process requires
secretion of digestive enzymes and
other products into the lumen of the GI
tract.
After the digestive processes have altered
the physical and chemical composition of
ingested food, the resulting nutrients are
ready for the process of absorption, or
movement through the GI mucosa into
the internal environment.
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Part of the digestive system, the
rectum, serves also as an organ of
elimination, ridding the body of waste
material, or feces, resulting from the
digestive process.
REFERENCE 1
OVERVIEW OF THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS
Regulation of activities such as motility
and secretion is required to coordinate
the various processes of digestion.
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