Digestive System
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7.18 Growling and Heartburn – Our stomach starts growling at mealtimes. This sound is from the churning action of the stomach. If food is not eaten for a long time, the churning action becomes so intense that the acidic contents released from the stomach wall push upwards to damage the lining of the foodpipe and produce a painful burning sensation, called heartburn, behind your breastbone and into the neck and throat. It has nothing to do with the heart! Normally, a circular valve-like muscle, called sphincter, separates the stomach and oesophagus (food pipe), keeping the acidic content where it belongs. But if this valve becomes weak due to age or obesity, it loses its ability to stay closed. If your heartburn is bad enough, it can develop into Barrett’s oesophagus. This is a condition in which the body, in an effort to protect the oesophagus from too much stomach acid, replaces the cells, which line the oesophagus with new cells like those lining the intestines. However, this change increases your risk of cancer of the oesophagus by as much as 40 times. It starts near the heart and rises towards the throat. Sometimes, due to heartburn, the mouth gets filled with watery saliva. Heartburn may occur after drinking a hot or cold liquid. Or it may occur after eating, when a person is tense and tired, due to habitual overeating, overuse of spices, frequent use of painkillers, prolonged tension, excessive intake of tea, coffee or alcohol.
7.19 Gall Bladder Stones – The gall bladder removes water from the bile and stores it in a concentrated form. Sometimes bile becomes too concentrated, and hard concentration of minerals and salts, called gallstones, form. If the gallstones are large enough to block the flow of bile out of the gallbladder, they cause a great deal of pain.
7.20 Belching – Burps or belches are simply the sound of gas leaving your body. When we eat or drink, we also swallow air. There may be other causes like carbonated drinks and whipped products like ice cream, smoke and chewing gum. Those bubbles in the body need to escape. Gas is also produced from the stomach, travels up the food pipe and comes out of the mouth. Usually, a belch is a body’s way of saying that the meal was good!
