Digestive System Sphincter
You must have heard the word sphincter as you where growing up you may have associated it with a body part that’s not so nice. Well the true definition of a sphincter is a ring shaped muscle able to close off a tube and hold the contents inside. There are several different sphincters in the body so lets talk about a couple of them because they are found in the digestive tract. The first has a long name its the gastrointestinal cardiac sphincter, found at the top of the stomach and the end of the esophagus helping to keep food down inside the stomach.
The disorder where gastric juices creep back up the esophagus through the cardiac sphincter is called a reflux disease. This is a disorder that involves the incomplete closing of the cardiac sphincter and damage to the lining of the esophagus. I am sure you have seen the TV commercials of nexeum which is just one of the many medications used to fight gas the juices of the stomach from damaging the esophagus.
There is also a diorder where the opening in the diaphragm enlarging, allowing the esophagus to buldge or the stomach moving upward into the chest called a hiatal hernia.
Once the bolus moves into the stomach it is then broken down into a semisolid mixture by the stomach which is called chyme. I’ll go into more about what the stomach does next in the following article. Check back tomorrow.
