The Digestive System

The Digestive System Why is it that 1 in 3 people perhaps even more regularly battles some kind of digestion problems? Understanding how the digestive system works will help to understand why digestive problems are so common. The digestive system is more than stomach and intestines. It is a system of organs that turns food into energy and is one of the most important functions the body performs. There are many reasons that cause so many people to suffer with digestive problems. Three of the most common reasons are the lack of knowledge of how the digestive system works, poor nutrition and undiagnosed medical conditions. Lack of knowledge of how the digestive system works is one of the many reasons that cause digestive problems. The digestive system is uniquely constructed to perform its specialized function of turning food into the energy and extracting nutrients necessary to sustain life. It does this by breaking down food into its basic nutrients, which include vitamins and minerals, fats, carbohydrates, proteins and water, before transporting them to the small intestine, where most of the nutrients are absorbed into the body. The digestive system takes place in the alimentary canal, a tube that runs from the mouth to the anus and includes the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine, colon and rectum. The liver and pancreas also contribute to digestion, but are not part of the alimentary canal. Digestion begins in the mouth, where chemical and mechanical digestion occurs. Food inters the mouth and is chewed by the teeth, turned over and mixed with saliva by the tongue. The sensations of smell and taste from the food sets up reflexes which stimulate the salivary glands, saliva is produced by the salivary glands and is released into the mouth. Saliva begins to break down the food, moistening it and making it easier to swallow and contains a digestive enzyme called amylase which breaks down the carbohydrates (starches and