Talk:Digestion

Things to Add

Digestive Molecules

This site talks about how digestion is affected by the circadian rythm. It would be also good to address this notion of how digestion makes you sleepy. Lot of people think that tryptophan is only in turkey, but it also present in other foods.

The serotoninergic system is known to modulate mood, emotion, sleep and appetite and thus is implicated in the control of numerous behavioural and physiological functions. Decreased serotoninergic neurotransmission has been proposed to play a key role in the aetiology of depression.
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/serotonin.htm

The graph on the left shows how alertness varies through out the day in relation to the three circadian phase regulatory molecules. Serotonin and SAM both start off in relatively high concentrations in the height of the day, while melatonin is almost no where to be found. As the sun begins to set, the pineal gland recognizes that there is less and less light. Norepinephrine begins to bind to β-receptors in the pineal gland, and the pineal gland used the day time store of SAM and serotonin to manufacture melatonin Understandably, while melatonin concentrations rise, SAM and serotonin concentrations fall. Once the concentration of SAM is to low to make any more melatonin, melatonin levels start to drop off, and SAM is free to rebuild. When the pineal gland senses the coming of light, SAM is produced again starting a new daily cycle. The graph on the right is almost identical to the one on the left. The difference is that sleepiness is show as the affect on the mammal instead of alertness. The purpose of having two graphs was to show that high melatonin levels correspond to feelings of sleepiness, while high serotonin and SAM levels correspond to high levels of alertness.
http://dubinserver.colorado.edu/prj/jph/braincircadian.htm

Even though you get energy from food, it also takes a lot of energy to DIGEST food so your body can use it. Energy use is called METABOLISM. When you eat, the rate of your metabolism goes up because of all that digestive activity in your gastrointestinal tract. (That's basically everything from your mouth to your anus.) So if you need energy to digest your food, it makes sense that there's LESS energy available for the REST of your body.

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Finally, when you eat some foods--mainly carbohydrates--the level of "tryptophan," an amino acid in your blood, increases. Tryptophan is converted into "serotonin" in the brain. And guess what serotonin does. It makes you sleepy!

http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/turkey.html

This last point is addressed in the tryptophan article. Maybe simply add a link then? --Moo 03:27, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Large intestine

What is the precise role of the large intestine in the process of digestion? --LostLeviathan 23:53, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

i rule

Possible copyvio

This very large and detailed edit [1] may be a copyright violation. The editor will only divulge that the source is "online" and has made numerous similar edits that are copyright violations. I recommend removing all that remains of this edit: Carbohydrate Digestion Discussion and Fat Digestion. Fat Digestion has been heavily vandalized which is why much is nonsensical. --Ronz 16:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Just to be clear, I removed the information in question November 20. --Ronz 02:45, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

♥Insert non[[File:[Example.jpg][[''Link title'''''<!-- Bold text -->''']]]]-formatted text here♥♥♥••• yeahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.218.123.250 (talk) 15:18, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Confusing

It might help to rearange the digestive process section to make it easier to read and more logically laid out.

Stages of protein digestion would be good to add, along with the fat digestion.

Esophagus vs Oesophagus

The spelling of this word in the article is inconsistent. I believe the word with an "o" is British, while the one with just an "e" is American. I'm Canadian and I don't know (or care) which one we use. Does Wikipedia have a policy in cases like this? If so, someone please apply it. Baribeau 02:36, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

man....... I just editted it to oesphagus (im from UK, and technically we invented the word so lets just keep it that way :P)

SeeWP:ENGVAR. --Ronz 00:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

esophagus feces --Ronz 21:29, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

And to save anyone else checking, the original usage in this article had the American spelling, so that stands. Dbfirs 07:16, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the original article used "oesophagus". So this article should use the international spelling: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digestion&oldid=1699362 85.4.105.114 (talk) 13:08, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Strong Acid/Base

It's always been my understanding that a "strong" acid or base is one that completely dissociates in aqueous solution, yet in the article it defines it as an acid less than 5 in pH or a base greater than 8 in pH. Then in the 2 paragraphs later it says the small intestine is "weakly alkaline" at a pH of 8.5. Please, could someone more knowledgeable on the digestion tract than me make this segment comprehensible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.130.137.158 (talk • contribs)

Stomach section

Changed to remove the false implication that Hydrochloric acid is an enzyme. David 13:44, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

This section and the section on gastric phase seems poorly written. A decrease (lowering) of pH is an increase of acidity, the stomach is normally around a pH of 1-3, the body/brain controls the amount of HCl secreted into the stomach. Parts of this article totally misstate this. Also, it is my understanding that acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter and only controls the amount of peristaltic activity not secretion of gastric acids. Could someone comment?Ecogreg2009 (talk) 17:33, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Definition

The article's definition of the term says: "Digestion is the breaking down of food in the body, into a form that can be absorbed. It is also the process by which the body breaks down food into smaller components that can be absorbed by the blood stream." I don't really understand this. To me, it sounds like the article defines two different meanings of the word - but are they not exactly the same? // habj (talk) 09:16, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Phases of gastric secretion

Overall this seems to be confusing and inaccurate. The original portion of the gastric phase misstate pH in stomach, said gastric acid increased pH, increase in acidic level is reflected by a decrease(lower pH number). The normal pH of a human stomach is 1-3 dependent on different types of food and quantity. Also I have never seen any literature that acetylcholine and histamine triggers secretion of HCl. References please.Ecogreg2009 (talk) 17:42, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

why is digestion important to our life?

what does digestion do for us? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.221.226.125 (talk) 03:57, 18 April 2009 (UTC) yea its true!!♥

Bile?

I was never taught that bile does anything other than emulsify fat.

If indeed it goes beyond this common knowledge, IMHO it should be cited.

66.189.205.253 (talk) 05:23, 30 May 2009 (UTC)