It might help to first understand the purpose of the stomach. What does it actually do? It does several things. First, it stores food temporarily. Second it contracts and relaxes to mix and break down the food that you've just eaten by
adding digestive juices to it. There are several major parts of the stomach to help it operate smoothly:
The top part of your stomach is called the "cardia" which contains muscles that prevent food from going back up towards your mouth. The main part of your stomach is called the "corpus", and it is where the stomach begins to process the food.
Then, the "antrim" lies just below the corpus, and it stores the food until your stomach is ready to move it on into your small intestine. Lastly, at the bottom of the stomach are special muscles that control when the stomach's contents move on to the next stage of digestion. It's an incredible system! But, what happens if it's no longer there?!
A person who undergoes a gastrectomy will have their esophagus directly connected to the small intestine. Removing the stomach from this system simply shortens the digestive process, but amazingly, the digestive system will adjust! It does take time to do so, and each person's response can be different from the next person's, but given enough time, a person who has their stomach removed will be able to adjust to living without it!
I never would have believed this! I'm wondering now how many other parts can be removed and still have general functionality.
(No, I'm not going to have this done to my
brain!...)
