Title : The mechanics of gastrointestinal motility – how do we digest the food in our bowels?
Abstract:
The small intestinal digestion has been a subject matter of interest to many researchers since its discovery. One of the first discoveries of bowel motion was reported by WB Cannon in his publication, “The movements of the intestines studied by means of the Rontgen rays,” Am. J. Physiology 6 (1902). No wonder, the undulations in the bowels were hypothesized to be useful in digestion, but with no scientific reasons as to how it performs the task. These undulated, termed as peristalsis are been speculated to be involved in facilitating digestion by grinding, mixing and transferring the content down the bowels. The clinical studies show that these contractions play a key role in causing efficient digestion and if by any means, the normal motility patterns are disturbed, it may lead to digestive disorders. Mechanisms leading to digestion remains elusive, until recently; where studies signify the relevance of the contractions especially, the propulsive and non-propulsive contractions (segmentation) in the development of the shearing forces to forcefully agitate the contents and bring about the digestion. Studies indicate that the mechanical parameters such as local longitudinal shortening (LLS), LLS spacing, fluid viscosity, velocity, wavelength of the wave, and occlusion play critical role in deciding as to how the contents are agitated and digested. This study presents an up-to-date knowhow in the area of mechanics of small intestinal peristalsis leading to digestion and pathology. Keywords: Digestion; Small Intestine; Small Intestinal motility; Peristalsis; Local Longitudinal Shortening; Circular Contraction.
