Human Digestive System

October 18th, 2011 Human Organs

Digestion is the process  that helps humans to survive,because it produces energy for life,but also creates some waste that needs to be eliminated from the humans body.

Human digestive system starts at the mouth and ends at the anus. It is made up of a  of muscles that coordinate the movement of food and other cells that produce enzymes and hormones to aid  at dissolution of  food. There are also three other organs that are needed for digestion: the liver, gallbladder, and the pancreas.

human digestive system

Food’s journey through the human digestive system

1-The Mouth

Digestion starts at the mouth even  before you  take the first bite of a meal. That’s because the smell of food triggers the salivary glands in your mouth to secrete saliva, causing your mouth to water. When you actually taste the food, saliva increases.Once you start to chew  and break the food down into pieces small enough to be digested other mechanisms come into play. More saliva is produced to begin the process of breaking down food into a form your body can absorb and  use. In addition, “juices” are produced that will help to further break down food.

2- The Pharynx and Esophagus

The pharynx,or the throat, is the part of the digestive tract that receives the food from your mouth. Branching off the pharynx  is the esophagus, which carries food to the stomach, and the trachea or windpipe, which carries air to the lungs.

The act of swallowing takes place in the pharynx partly as a reflex and partly under voluntary control. The tongue and soft palate — the soft part of the roof of the mouth — push food into the pharynx, which closes off the trachea. The food  then enters the esophagus.

The esophagus is a muscular tube extending from the pharynx and  behind the trachea to the stomach. Food  is pushed through the esophagus and  into the stomach  by means of a series of contractions called peristalsis.

There is an important ring-shaped muscle called the lower esophageal sphincter  wich opens to letfood pass into the stomach and closes to keep it there. If your LES doesn’t work properly, you may suffer from a condition called GERD, or reflux (the feeling of food coming back up).

3- The Stomach and Small Intestine

The stomach is a organ that looks like a bag,but  with strong muscular walls. It serves as the mixer and grinder of food. The stomach secretes acid and powerful enzymes that continue the process of breaking the food down and changing it to a consistency of liquid orpaste. After that food goes  to the small intestine. Between meals the non-liquefiable remnants are released from the stomach and ushered through the rest of the intestines to be eliminated.

The small intestine is made of three segments — the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum.It also breaks down food using enzymes released by the pancreas and bile from the liver. Peristalsis is also at work in this organ, moving food through and mixing it up with the digestive secretions from the pancreas and liver, including bile. The duodenum is largely responsible for the continuing breakdown process, with the jejunum and ileum being mainly responsible for absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream.Problems with any of these components can cause a variety of conditions.While food is in the small intestine, nutrients are absorbed through the walls and into the bloodstream. The waste moves into the large intestine.Everything above the large intestine is called the upper GI tract. Everything below is the lower GI tract

4-The Colon, Rectum, and Anus

The colon (large intestine) is muscular tube that connects the small intestine to the rectum. It is made up of the ascending (right) colon, the transverse (across) colon, the descending (left) colon and the sigmoid colon, which connects to the rectum. The appendix is a small tube attached to the ascending colon. The large intestine is a highly specialized organ that is responsible for processing waste so that defecation  is easy and convenient.

Stool, or waste, passes through the colon by means of peristalsis, first in a liquid state and ultimately in solid form. As stool passes through the colon, any remaining water is absorbed. Stool is stored in the sigmoid (S-shaped) colon until a “mass movement” empties it into the rectum, usually once or twice a day.

It normally takes about 36 hours for stool to get through the colon. The stool itself is mostly food debris and bacteria. These bacteria perform several useful functions, such as synthesizing various vitamins, processing waste products and food particles, and protecting against harmful bacteria. When the descending colon becomes full of stool it empties its contents into the rectum to begin the process of elimination.

5-Rectum and anus

Rectum has three main operations. It receives stool from the colon,lets the person know there is stool to be evacuated.and holds the stool until evacuation happens.

When gas or stool comes into the rectum, sensors send a message to the brain. The brain then decides if the rectal contents can be released or not. If they can, the sphincters relax and the rectum contracts, expelling its contents. If the contents cannot be expelled, the sphincters contract and the rectum accommodates so that the sensation temporarily goes away.

The last part of the digestive tract is anus. It consists of the muscles that line the pelvis (pelvic floor muscles) and two other muscles called anal sphincters .One is internal and the other one is external.

The pelvic floor muscle creates an angle between the rectum and the anus that stops stool from coming out when it is not supposed to. The anal sphincters provide fine control of stool. The internal sphincter is always tight, except when stool enters the rectum. It keeps us continent (not releasing stool) when we are asleep or otherwise unaware of the presence of stool. When we get an urge to defecate , we rely on our external sphincter to keep the stool in until we can get to the toilet.

Human digestive system anus

As we mentioned at the begginig,there are also three organs very significant for digesting the food.

Pancreas  the chief factory for digestive enzymes that are secreted into the duodenum and these enzymes break down protein, fats, and carbohydrates.

Liver has multiple functions, but two of its main functions are to make and secrete an important substance called bile and to process the blood coming from the small intestine containing the nutrients just absorbed. The liver purifies this blood of many impurities before traveling to the rest of the body.

Gallbladder is a storage sac for excess bile. Bile serves two main purposes. First, it helps absorb fats in the diet and secondly, it carries waste from the liver that cannot go through the kidneys Bile made in the liver travels to the small intestine via the bile ducts. If the intestine doesn’t need it, the bile travels into the gallbladder where it awaits the signal from the intestines that food is present..

 

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Laughter against dementia

October 2nd, 2011 Human Organs

For elderly demetia patients laguhter could be just the right treatment – and best of all, no side effects.

Humor therapist from Australia Jean-Paul Bell at the start was a clown doctor working with sick children, and now through program called Play-Up he makes elderly laugh.
Bell also studied the impact of humor on behavioral, mood,agitation and social engagment in dementia patients. The results showed that those who participated seemed happier.
„The whole idea behind the Play-Up programme and what we’re doing at the Arts Health Institute is encouraging them to play more because we believe that they’ve got potential to keep playing right until you take your last breath,“ Bell said.

Bell uses a combination of games, jokes, songs to get elderly to laugh.
Patients who were involved in the study seemed les agitated by 20 percen, said lead reseearcher Lee-Fay Low at the universitiy of New South Wale’s School of psychiatry.

„Twenty percent sounds like a small effect but it’s about the same amount, the same effect as you would get if you gave them an antipsychotic medication- medication you would use to treat schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder,“ Low said.

Expectations say that dementia rates could double in Australia , mainly due to an aging problem

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Health Insurance For College Students

August 1st, 2011 Human Organs

Health Insurance for college students has become a major concern for parents and authorities alike, given the importance role it plays and the limitations currently in the industry for a comprehensive and cost effective plan for the students. If you are going to college, your insurance may not be the first thing in mind but it plays a major role in your health security.

A health cover guards you from incurring costs in case of accidents or serious illness that may happen in the course of your study.

Health Insurance

It is therefore impertinent that you have appropriate health cover that will help you get the best healthcare possible and at the same time save you from incurring high costs that may end up interfering with your studies. Moreover, inside a recent study by the government Accountability workplace GAO, it had been found out that 30% of the educational institutions demand wellness coverage as a requirement for enrollment. It’ll hence be essential to make sure that whichever option you take attracts significantly of one’s requirements and is expense successful.

Even if you are a clean and health conscious person, you won’t be truly safe from diseases or infection. There will be other students who you will come in contact with them, and they may pass on germs, bacteria or virus to you. Colleges get students from all over the world and this means they could be bringing in foreign bacteria and diseases. You do need a clean bill of health to enter college but these viruses or bacteria might be dormant within their body and they won’t even know about it. The same can also apply to you.

Powerful resource for insurance policies for higher education students

{The other option is using college health insurance plans. These are offered by almost half of the institutions. Although they are a good option when dealing with average diseases or cases, they do not suffice in serious illness or accidents. The other Choosing the best health insurance for college students is one of the most important decisions that a person will have to make. At this time of life it is essential to have access to quality and comprehensive medical care. Being able to afford such a plan, however, is not always easy for young adults living on fixed incomes. The good news is that it is possible to get complete coverage at a feasible price.

Health insurance for college students is one of the things that people always neglect to prepare beforehand. You first live with your parents and everything is taken care of. Clean environment, proper food and someone to do your laundry.

Then when you move out to college, you need to do everything on your own and that is where you start to neglect your own health. Laundries are left unwashed for days, late night meals, lack of sleep, drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods. Most college students also thinks that they do not need – after all, they are still young, healthy and strong. However, being young doesn’t make you immune. In fact, college students can be very reckless and live an unhealthy lifestyle which could easily lead to health problems. Furthermore, inside a recent study by the Government Accountability workplace GAO, it was found out that 30% in the educational institutions demand well being coverage as a requirement for enrollment. It will hence be essential to make sure that whichever option you take caters for much of your needs and is price effective.

For instance, there is a large number of insurance companies offering health insurance for students, through which additional features can be purchased to bolster a plan that has been secured through the student’s learning institution. These can be used to secure such features as comprehensive vision and dental care, hospital stays and emergency services.

Student health plan information can usually be obtained through the counseling office or Financial Aid and Student Planning offices that are on campus. There is a variety of funding opportunities that can additionally be used to help cover health care costs at this time and these should be investigated as well.

The reason why you want is because some health insurance does not cover people that are outside of their issued state if you are studying oversea or in another state.

Other health insurances will drop your coverage privileges from your parents when you reach a certain age. While it is not worth it to get a full health insurance plan when you are still in college, you cannot go on without some sort of insurance. So getting a college student health insurance is an ideal move for you.

Price tag comparison sites might help a student to seek out essentially the most inexpensive premiums for your coverage that he or she will need taking into consideration any existing circumstances and unique desires or concerns. Taking the time to talk to a company representative following a provider has been selected will help the student to greater establish the specific strategy inclusions and exclusions. .

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Useful Human Organs

July 21st, 2011 Human Organs


 

The human  organs , which have long time been considered unnecessary because of their inaction, have appeared vital for survival in extreme conditions.

Teachers still explain at schools that vestigial organs are body structures considered to have been useful in ancestral species but are slowly being phased out in modern animals. Examples of vestigial organs in humans usually include the appendix, the coccyx (tail bone), tonsils and the spleen.

Researchers have recently found that they underestimated the role of the rudimentary organs. Actually, such organs can play a very important role in people’s survival under extreme conditions, in an unusual living environment, or during a serious illness.

“In our new study, we have found that spleen might have a critical role to play in healing damaged hearts,” Jeffrey Laitman , director of anatomy and functional morphology at New York City’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported.

It is the spleen that helps to cope with infections, creating filters for unhealthy blood corpuscles.

Besides, the new study in mice discovered that the spleen stores monocytes – white blood cells essential for immune defence, The Times of India wrote. Scientists previously believed that monocytes were produced only in the bone marrow along with other kinds of white blood cells, and were stored in the blood stream.

“The spleen is the source of 40 to 50 percent of the monocytes involved in the health recovery after a heart attack,” another researcher, Filip Swirski, of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Systems Biology in Boston said.

The appendix, a strange worm-like organ, also proves to be useful.
“The organ is actually a storehouse of beneficial bacteria that help us digest food,” Bill Parker, assistant professor of surgery at Duke University Medical Center said.

The researchers suppose that the organ is apparently vital for repopulating intestines with helpful bacteria after an illness.
The researchers also detected the utility of some systems of veins and arteries, previously unknown. Certain systems of veins and arteries ensure blood flow when the main paths are blocked or damaged.

For the moment being the scientists try to establish the utility of other “useless” organs, such as the coccyx, the body hair coat and ear muscles.

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Replacing Human Organs with 3D Printer

June 15th, 2011 Human Organs
3dbioprinter1

 

Did you ever think about what if your desktop printer used living cells instead of inkjet droplets? What would happened then, what would you print?

The answer would be body parts, human organs, to change the irreparably damaged ones that you or your loved ones may have. It would be a great, right?

A 3-D ( three-dimensional ) printer is authoritative strides against that goal. There is informations on the internet that describes the work that scientists are doing in the area of three-dimensional bioprinting, a small subset of the greater field of tissue engineering.

Reports by Bonnie Berkowitz :

In laboratories all over the world, experts in chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering are working on many paths toward an audacious goal: to print a functioning human liver, kidney or heart using a patient’s own cells.

That’s right — new organs, to go. If they succeed, donor waiting lists could become a thing of the past.

 

Tony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina, envisions what he calls “the Dell computer model,” where a surgeon could order up “this hard drive, with this much memory …,” only he or she would be talking about specs for living tissue rather than electronics.

We are still on the long road, few decades, before we can start running off a new kidney or liver for patient. But in a feat that sounds like it was taken straight from a SF script, scientists have already printed skin, cartilage-like tissue, vertebral disks and other things like that…Even more amazing or rather incredibly, they have successfully implanted them into living organisms.

Watch this video :

 

Human organs with a complicated vascular system are one more challenge in entirety.

But the earliest human trials for printed replacement parts are expected in tree to four years. Wich tells us that the potential for the technology is very good,breathtaking. ;)

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