Stomach

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

The stomach is a hollow organ that is a reservoir for the digestion of food. It is located between the esophagus and the duodenum. After grinding in the oral cavity, the food enters the stomach, where it accumulates and is partially digested under the action of gastric juice, which contains hydrochloric acid and some digestive enzymes. These enzymes aid in the digestion of proteins and the partial breakdown of fats.

Gastric juice has a pronounced bactericidal effect. Due to this, it has a detrimental effect on many pathogens that can enter the stomach cavity along with poor-quality food. It is a well-known fact that people with high stomach acidity almost never get cholera.

The gastric juice also contains a special mucous substance - mucin, which protects the walls of the stomach from self-digestion.

The structure of the stomach

The stomach is a muscular hollow organ, resembling the letter J in appearance. The length of its convex lower contour, called the greater curvature of the stomach, is three times longer than the concave upper contour (lesser curvature).

The stomach can be conditionally divided into three parts:

Cardiac department - includes the junction of the esophagus and stomach (cardiac opening) and the fundus of the stomach;
The body of the stomach is its middle part;
The gatekeeper or pyloric section is the junction of the stomach with the duodenum.

The stomach consists of four membranes. Inside is the mucous membrane, the cells of which produce gastric juice and enzymes. Next to it is the submucosa. It is represented by connective tissue fibers, between which are nerves, blood and lymph vessels. The next shell consists of smooth muscle fibers, and on the outside it is covered with a serous membrane.

The empty stomach is about half a liter. When filled with food, it can stretch up to four liters.

Stomach acidity

The total acidity of the stomach depends on the content of hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice, produced by the parietal cells present in the mucous membrane. The acidity of the stomach is also determined by the number of parietal cells and the alkaline components contained in the gastric juice, which neutralize the general acidity.

Diseases of the stomach

Among all diseases of internal organs, various pathologies of the digestive system are most often encountered, including stomach diseases: gastritis (acute and chronic), peptic ulcer, cancer. With all these diseases, there is a symptom such as pain in the stomach. These pains can be of the most varied nature: aching, acute, paroxysmal. Often stomach pains are associated with food intake. So, for example, in peptic ulcer disease, pain in the stomach occurs after eating, and in ulcerative lesions of the duodenum, pains that disappear after eating, the so-called "hungry" pains, are characteristic.

The stomach is treated by a gastroenterologist. To make the correct diagnosis in gastroenterology, various instrumental diagnostic methods are used: esophagoscopy, gastroduodenoscopy, ultrasound, laparoscopy, etc. These methods are quite simple, safe and sufficiently informative.

Modern gastroenterology has a large arsenal of medications that allow conservative treatment of the stomach. Surgical treatment is resorted to only in cases where drug treatment does not lead to the desired effect, as well as in the presence of malignant neoplasms of the stomach or massive bleeding.

It is easier to prevent than to cure! Therefore, get medical tests regularly. And save your test results in the Ornament smartphone app.

Ornament not only stores the analysis results, but also organizes them. And:

builds graphs of changes in indicators;
assesses the state of organs and systems on a 5-point system;
compares the indicators with the norm and highlights the deviations from the norm in yellow. "Yellow" indicators and scores less than 4 points - it's time to see a doctor.

And in the section "Community" medical consultants answer user questions.

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