How does gas move through the digestive system?

Question

Im sorry that this question seems crude, but I was told that material moves through the digestive system through peristalsis, which makes sense for solid and liquid matter, but I don't understand how gas can travel through the extremely long intestinal system, and relatively fast at that, to come out as flatulence.

I understand how the endogeneous would move through, but if you swallow air, how would that sink through the stomach acid and go through the sphincter muscle.

Answer 1

Intestinal gas is composed of varying quantities of exogenous sources (air that is ingested through the nose and mouth) and endogenous sources (gas produced within the digestive tract). The exogenous gases are swallowed (aerophagia) when eating or drinking or during times of excessive salivation (as might occur when nauseated or as the result of gastroesophageal reflux disease). The endogenous gases are produced as a by-product of digesting certain types of food. Anything that causes food to be incompletely digested in the small intestine may cause flatulence when the material arrives in the large intestine due to fermentation, particularly if yeast organisms are present.

Flatulence producing foods are typically high in polysaccharides (especially oligosaccharides such as inulin) and include beans, lentils, milk, onions, radishes, sweet potatoes, cheese, cashews, broccoli, cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes, oats, yeast in breads, etc. In beans, endogenous gases seem to arise from oligosaccharides, carbohydrates that are resistant to digestion. These pass through the upper intestine largely unchanged, and when they reach the lower intestine, bacteria feed on them, producing copious amounts of flatus.In the case of those with lactose intolerance, intestinal bacteria feeding on lactose can give rise to excessive gas production when milk or lactose-containing substances have been consumed.
Flatus is brought to the rectum in the same peristalsis method as feces, causing a similar feeling of urgency and discomfort.

Answer 2

Approximately 10-20% of a persons flatulence is from swallowing air while we eat. That air I assume is caught in bubble form between the food particles and gets pushed along just like the liquids and solids. However the rest of the gas we expell is created by the bacteria that inhabit our large intestines. Any food nutrients that is left over they use, a by-product of the bacteria breaking down our unused food is gas.

Answer 3

The gas is merely moving from high pressure to low pressure, not unlike fluids moving down their concentration gradients. The pressure usually starts to build up in the large intestine, where all the gas forming bacteria are, and then it moves either up or down. Since the pressure is much higher up compared to down, most of it goes down, and its helped along by peristalsis. There's little force preventing it from moving along, unlike the frictional forces the solid components have to deal with. That's why it can be so fast, and why the action of smooth muscle isn't always needed for gas movement.

Answer 4

I agree with the others about trying to make sure your not eating something that is upsetting the babies tummy. I also having had a colic baby found that sometimes a couple drops of baby gas medicine that is over the counter can help a lot. And holding them close to you and putting a little pressure on their tummies to help them push out their gas pain. Or laying the baby down on his back and slowly pushing his knees up to his chest may help relieve some of his discomfort. Hope this helps! God Bless You and Your Baby!

Answer 5

digestive System

Most animals have one of three main types of diets: they are either carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. Most humans fall into the last category. In humans, herbivores are usually called vegetarians. Strict vegetarians who consume no animal products, whatsoever, are called vegans. Some people are lacto-ovo-vegetarians, meaning that they also eat dairy products and eggs.

Digestion is the process of breaking down food into molecules small enough for the body to absorb. Proteins, carbohydrates, and fat in our diets must be broken down and later, reassembled in forms useful to our body.
Digestive System

The path of food through the human digestive system includes the following organs and structures:

1. the mouth, which includes:
* the teeth, which grind food to increase the surface area
* the saliva, which includes mucin, a lubricant; buffers to neutralize acidic foods, antibacterial agents, and amylase, which converts starch to maltose
* the tongue which tastes and manipulates the food
2. the pharynx, which in humans, leads to both the trachea and the esophagus. While food is being swallowed, the epiglottis blocks the trachea and the uvula blocks off the nose.
3. the esophagus, which is the tube from the pharynx to the stomach. Food is moved along the esophagus by peristalsis, wave-like contractions of the muscles in the walls of the esophagus. The lining of the esophagus secretes mucus to lubricate the ball of food. There are sphincter muscles (rings of constricting muscles) at the top and bottom of the esophagus.
4. the stomach is a J-shaped, expandable sack, normally on the left side of the upper abdomen. Several muscle layers surround the stomach, serving to churn food. The stomach can expand to hold about 2 L of food (= 1/2 gal). The stomach contains hydrochloric acid (HCl) strong enough to dissolve metal (pH about 1.5 to 3, usually around 2), which kills bacteria and helps denature the proteins in our food, making them more vulnerable to attack by pepsin. The stomach secretes mucus to protect itself from being digested by its own acid and enzymes. The stomach also manufactures pepsin, an enzyme to digest protein. The average person secretes about 400 mL of gastric juice per meal, containing 50 to 300 µg pepsin/mL. For an average of around 200 µg/mL × 400 mL of gastric juice, this would be 80 mg (or 0.080 g) pepsin/meal. For HCl with a concentration of around 6.08 g/L × 400 mL, this would be 2.4 g/meal. Consumption of antacids does just what their name suggests: they drastically change the pH of the stomach contents, interfering with pepsin’s ability to digest protein. Here is more background on pepsin and the effects of antacids. Here is a photograph of results of an experiment we perform to study pepsin’s ability to digest the protein in egg white, and a summary of the contents of each of these test tubes.

5. the cardiac sphincter (which, officially is not considered to be a true sphincter), which closes off the top end of the stomach and the pyloric sphincter, which closes off the bottom
6. the small intestine, which has a length of about 6 m. The surface of the small intestine is wrinkled and convoluted to produce a greater surface area for absorption. The total surface area is about 600 m2 (about the size of baseball diamond). Most enzymatic digestion occurs here. The secretions of the small intestine include amylase maltase, sucrase, lactase, etc. to digest carbohydrates and lipase to digest fats. Several other associated organs secrete chemicals into the small intestine to aid in digestion: the pancreas secretes enzymes like trypsin, chymotrypsin, and alkali solutions like bicarbonate as buffers and the liver and gall bladder make and secrete bile. Bile contains no enzymes, but salts to emulsify fat so it can be digested.
the sections of the small intestine include:
* the duodenum, the first portion
* the jejunum, the second portion
* the ileum, the third portion
7. the valve between the small and large intestines, which is the ileocecal valve, a sphincter that separates the two
8. the large intestine or colon, which begins with a blind pouch called the cecum. In humans, this terminates in the appendix, a finger-like extension which may function in the immune system. The large intestine functions to re-absorb (resorb) water and in the further absorption of nutrients. The bacterial flora of the large intestine includes such things as Escherichia coli, Acidophilus spp., and other bacteria, as well as Candida yeast (a fungus). These bacteria produce methane (CH4), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and other gases as they ferment their food. Occasionally, some of this gas is released as flatus. As these bacteria digest/ferment left-over food, they secrete beneficial chemicals such as vitamin K, biotin (a B vitamin), and some amino acids, and are our main source of some of these nutrients.
9. the rectum is the terminal portion of the large intestine and functions for storage of the feces, the wastes of the digestive tract, until these are eliminated. The external opening at the end of the rectum is called the anus. The anus has two sphincters, one voluntary and one involuntary. The pressure of the feces on the involuntary sphincter causes the urge to defecate and the voluntary sphincter controls whether a person defecates or not.