The Truth about the Digestive System
The digestive system is one of the systems that our body has and it is probably one that we study the most. But all what have we learned is true? Let´s start with some interesting facts about it:
So if you think that you know enough of your body and yourself, please think again about it.
- The Stomach doesn´t absorb all the nutrients from food.- Although that many people think that in the stomach we absorb most of the nutrients of our food, is FALSE because the stomach is so thick that cannot absorb all the nutrients of the food, just some of them.
- The Gallbladder really functions.- Yes, although the creation of many people this organ functions. The liver produces a substance that makes easier the absorption of the fat (called bile); the liver produces a small quantity of it at every specific time, so it is stored the bile in the gallbladder because the body doesn´t need it all the time.
- And for frying our brain a little bit.- The corrects names for the small intestine are "Duodenum, Jejunum and Ileum" (depending in which part of the intestine we are talking), and for the large intestine its correct name is "colon"
So if you think that you know enough of your body and yourself, please think again about it.
Symptoms or Diseases???
The main difference is that the symptoms are signals of a bad functioning of our body, this signals are created by a disease and the diseases are generated by agents of many types (Physical, biological, etc...) Many times in our life we confuse a symptom with a disease, such is the case of the following symptoms:
- The Diarrhea is one of the most common symptoms that we think that is disease. By definition diarrhea is the frequent evacuation of stools (without taking in consideration the consistency of the stools), generated mostly by an infection. The number of times that a person should go to the bathroom (making stools) for having diarrhea is more than 3 times.
- The Constipation is another symptom, this means that a person hasn´t evacuated his/her stools in more than three days. This symptom is related to diseases as the hypothyroidism, drugs, etc.
- Even though many people think that is a disease the Gastritis/Colitis this symptoms mean the inflammation of an organ in the digestive system (inflammation of the stomach in the case of the gastritis and in the case of the colitis is the inflammation of the rectum and colon)
- Gastric ulcer.- Is the erosion of the mucosa of the stomach that even can be perforated. This can have symptoms such as heartburn, nausea, gas and pain at the place of the stomach.
- Hepatic Cirrhosis.- This disease is the degeneration of the liver tissue, this generates the diminish of the liver´s functions. It is related to the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and also related to the Hepatitis B.