Gastrointestinal Tract
The human body is an expert at digesting and processing foods, both physically and chemically. It is important to understand the basis of the gastrointestinal tract anatomy, alongside its physiological features and functions. This system provides the human body with nutrients that are crucial for human functions. It is important that you are also familiar with these chemical processes and how they work together to help the body function. This unit will introduce you to the gastrointestinal secretions that occur in multiple areas throughout the system. You will also become familiar with the directionality and anatomy of the epithelial tissue and how this ties in to the remainder of the system. After reviewing the method of macro and micronutrient digestion and absorption, you will take a further look into integration, and how the gastrointestinal tract works alongside other systems in the human body. This unit builds on many basic fundamentals you have already learned throughout the duration of HK*2810, and will allow you to see a more applied version of these fundamentals.
Here is a list of subchapters that will direct you to the corresponding page:
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to…
- Identify and apply knowledge learned about the overall anatomy of the gastrointestinal tract, and additionally the concept and directionality of the electrophysiological aspects of the system.
- Learn the names and anatomy of important secretions and functions of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as important accessory organs.
- Familiarize yourself with the basis of macromolecule and mineral digestion and absorption as well as the phases of gastric secretion.
- Practice applying the knowledge learned in this chapter to integrated the content in a system-based scenario setting.
Gastrointestinal Tract Podcast
The podcast and paired transcript for this chapter will summarize the key concepts of each subchapter and provide helpful insight as well as examples that could be useful while studying. The podcast does not describe all of the content from this chapter, but it highlights the tricky concepts to hopefully make them clearer. When learning elaborate processes like the integration of content, it is commonly recommended to have a conversation with a classmate to gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between all the different variables. Listening to this podcast will feel like a discussion with a classmate, which could be a great way to review for tests!
The following list of hyperlinks will take you to each of the topics discussed in the podcast:
