This is a doc contains a brief but concise summary on Making connections - how the digestive system and GI tract assist in maintaining homeostasis.
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One of the many examples of homeostasis is the digestion of food within the body. Many systems in the
body contribute to making the digestion of food possible. In this discussion, I am going to talk about the
obvious system that contributes, which is the digestive system, and a less obvious body system that is
involved in the digestion of food, which is the muscular system. The digestion of food helps maintain
homeostasis in the body in several different ways. It helps to breakdown ingested food into smaller
structures that are absorbed from the GI tract. Absorption involves membrane transport of these
digested molecules, electrolytes, vitamins, and water from the GI tract into the blood and lymph. From
there, materials are either transported throughout the body or the unwanted and indigestible
components that aren’t absorbed are eliminated through defecation.
Food enters the GI tract through the oral cavity, where mastication, or chewing, occurs. The lips are
made up of the orbicularis oris muscle, which controls the movement of the lips to assist with chewing.
Another important muscle of the mouth is the buccinator muscle, which compresses the cheeks and
holds food between your teeth when you’re swallowing. The muscles that are involved in chewing
include the temporalis, the masseter, the medial pterygoid, and the lateral pterygoid. These muscles
help to move the mandible, or jaw, in different motions to chew the food within the oral cavity. There are
also several muscles that are involved with moving the tongue within the oral cavity to assist with
swallowing the bolus that is formed in the mouth. These muscles are the genioglossus, the styloglossus,
hypoglossus, and the palatoglossus. There are also muscles that assist in swallowing by moving the soft
palate. The levator veli palatine elevates the soft palate for swallowing and the tensor veli palatine
tenses the soft palate and opens the auditory tube when swallowing.
After the bolus is swallowed, it moves into the pharynx, which also has many muscles that assist with the
moving of ingested food further through the GI tract. The following muscles work together to constrict
the pharynx in sequence to force the bolus into the esophagus: the superior constrictor, middle
constrictor, and the inferior constrictor. There are skeletal muscles within the esophagus, stomach, and
large and small intestine that contract and moves the ingested food further through the GI tract. These
contractions are collectively called peristalsis. Not only does the muscular system assist digestion after
food has already entered into the body, it also helps move our arms to bring food to our mouth. The
following muscles are just a few of the muscles that are involved when bringing a spoonful of food to
your mouth: biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis.
As you can see, without the muscular system, the digestive system would not be able to properly
function on its own. They work together to maintain homeostasis within the body by giving the body the
nutrients that it needs to survive and eliminating waste within the body that could cause disease or
other complications.
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