The stomach, a J shaped organ located at the upper left quadrant of the abdomen, sitting underneath the left rib-cage, which stores solid food and liquid. The foods and liquids are received from the esophagus and digested in it. In today's post, I will be explaining the stomach and looking into how much food can the stomach handle.
I have seen a lot of people going for food competitions, and I see how they eat very much on TV, leaving me extremely dumbfounded. I have decided to try this so many times, and it looks like I do not have the same size of stomach as they do, or my stomach is just being a cheat, not allowing me to harness its full potential like the people I see on the TV in the food competition do. That being one, another thing that got me interested in this topic was when my younger cousin came to me and said she was hungry, and her stomach was already digesting itself. I was like whoops!! Your stomach is really a bad boy, because mine hasn't digested itself in years now. So in the post, I will be helping you understand the stomach, and we will see why your stomach isn't going to digest itself even at the peak of hunger.
Structure and Histology
The stomach has four regions, the Fundus, the Cardia, the Body, and the pylorus. The cardia is the anterior side of the stomach that connects the entire stomach to the esophagus for easy passage of food into the stomach, bulging left to the cardia, and inferior to the diaphragm, is the Fundus, which is dome shaped. After the Fundus is the body, which is the main part of the stomach. After the body is the pylorus, which is a funnel shaped structure, connecting the stomach to the duodenum. The narrow end of the pylorus, called the Pyloric canal, helps to connect to the duodenum. At the end part is the pyloric sphincter, which helps to control stomach emptying. The Stomach has two curves, the convex lateral surface (the larger curve) is referred to as the greater curvature, while the concave medial border (the smaller curve), is referred to as the lesser curvature. From the lesser Curvature is the Lesser Omentum, which holds the stomach in place extending from the liver, while to the greater curvature is the greater omentum which hold the stomach in place and runs to the posterior abdominal wall. When the stomach is not inflated, it is referred to as a rugae, which is when the mucosa and the submucosa falls.
The stomach wall is made up of four layers which are the mucosal layer, submucosa, muscularis externa, and adventitia/serosa. These layers are subdivided into; Serosa, Tela subserosa, Muscularis, Oblique fibers of muscle wall, Circular muscle layer, Longitudinal muscle layer, Submucosa, Lamina muscularis Mucosae, Mucosa, Lamina propria, Epithelium, Gastric glands, Gastric pits, Villous folds, and Gastric areas (gastric surface).
In other, to aid digestion in the stomach, understanding the cells types are important. There are four types of gastrointestinal cells in the stomach, which includes; the surface mucous cells (foveolar cells), chief cells, parietal cells, and neuroendocrine cells (G-cells or ECL-like cells).
The Chief Cells.
The chief cells in the stomach, located in the fundus, secretes gastric lipase(in the zymogen granules), and pepsinogen. Pepsinogen, which is inactive, get converted into pepsin which is important in digesting protein (peptide bonds) into polypeptide. The gastric lipase breaks down fat.
The Parietal Cells.
Parietal cell as epithelial cells that secretes a protein called intrinsic factor, and hydrochloric acid (HCL). Intrinsic fator is important in absorbing vitamin B12 in the small intestine, and Hydrochloric acid allows for protein to be denatured, and help to kill pathogens. It is important that you know that HCL is an acid.
The Surface Mucus Cells.
Since the stomach secretes acid, it should burn the stomach within a short while, but this isn't made possible because of the Mucus cells. The Mucus cells coat the inside lining of the stomach. This prevents the eroding of the stomach.
Neuroendocrine Cells
The neuroendocrine cells are cells on the gastric mucosa that aids the production of gastric acids. The Cells include, the ECL-like cells, D-Cells, and the G-cells. The ECL-Like Cells secretes Histamine, the D-cells secretes Somatostatin, and the G-cells produce a neuroendocrine hormone called gastrin. Histamine helps to increase the production of HCL, Somatostatin reduces the secretion of gastrin, and the neuroendocrine hormone gastrin, stimulates the ECL-like cells and the parietal cells.
The stomach, during digestion, allows for peristalsis which allows food to go up and down the stomach, thereby mixing the food in a process known as muscular blunder. The Pyloric Sphincter allows a very minute amount of chime through it, thereby allowing food to go in a propulsion and retro-propulsion wave. The time taken for the food in the stomach to move through the Pyloric sphincter depends on the type of food eaten, the quantity of food eaten, and the metabolism of the body. Carbohydrate tends to digest more compared to protein, and fats are always the slowest.
The answers people have given to the capacity of food the stomach can hold vary. According to an article by Wenzel, V. et al., the stomach is said to be able to hold between 2 liters to 4 liters. According to a publication by Scott Frothingham on healthline.com the stomach can occupy up to 1 quant of food as the stomach stretches when eating. It is important to know that the stomach being full doesn't give you a signal to stop. The hypothalamus in the brain does the regulation of appetite by getting information from the gut, and the gastrointestinal cells in the stomach. Cholecystokinin (CCK) according to article is responsible for inhibiting the intake of food into the body.
Conclusion
The stomach can be stretched temporarily to be able to accept food, but that doesn't mean that one person's stomach is overtly larger than yours. The stomach is very important in the digestive system and sense of being full is triggered by the brain
- National Library of Medicine - Physiology, Stomach
- National Cancer Institute - Layers of UGI Organs
- WdbMD - Picture of the Stomach
- Oregon State University - The Stomach
- Science Direct - Gastric Lipase
- National Library of Medicine - Lingual and gastric lipases
- Science Direct - Pyloric Sphincter
- Cleveland Clinic - How Long Does It Take to Digest Food
- Medical News Today - Tips for better digestion - how long does it take?
- National Library of Medicine - Gastric capacity in normal, obese, and bulimic women
- Healthline - How Big Is Your Stomach?
Image Reference
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2414_Stomach
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