The stomach is the digestive organ of the human body and has a powerful digestive function. The gastric juice used in the stomach to digest food contains hydrochloric acid, pepsin and mucus. The concentration of hydrochloric acid in gastric juice is very high. Hydrochloric acid is a very corrosive acid that can even dissolve metal zinc. If the hydrochloric acid, pepsin and mucus in the gastric juice work together, basically any food can be digested. So many people have doubts, the digestive function of the stomach is so powerful, why didn’t they digest themselves?
The truth is that the corrosive gastric juice is indeed constantly breaking down our stomach. Our stomach is still there because of its tenacious self-repair ability and several self-defense functions.
Let’s first talk about the self-repairing ability of the stomach. The self-repairing ability of the stomach is amazing. It regenerates all the time to replenish the cells digested by itself. The human gastric mucosal cells shed about 500,000 cells per minute, and the stomach only needs 3 days to renew these cells. In other words, a complete stomach can be born in 3 days! Only this amazing regeneration ability can repair the damage caused by gastric juice to the stomach.
However, the erosive ability of gastric juice is still too strong. Generally, the entire stomach can be digested within a few hours, so the stomach can’t make up for it by relying solely on its own powerful regenerative ability. In order to protect itself, the stomach has its own special equipment, that is, a thick barrier covering the stomach wall called gastric mucosal epithelial cells. The epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa have the function of protecting the stomach wall. They can separate the more corrosive gastric juice from the stomach wall so that it cannot penetrate into the inner layer of the stomach wall.
Even if the stomach has the protection of gastric mucosal epithelial cells and its own regeneration ability, it is not safe enough. There is also a thin layer of carbohydrate on the surface of the epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa. The carbohydrate layer is a kind of carbohydrate. The sugar molecules have better acid resistance and can reduce the damage of corrosive gastric juice to the stomach.
In addition to the above methods, the stomach can protect itself. There is another way that the inner layer of the stomach wall is covered with a layer of fatty substances composed of fatty substances. The fatty substances are powerful for the hydrogen and chloride ions of hydrochloric acid. Hindering effect.
Based on the above protection, our stomach will not be dissolved by itself. When an ordinary person eats a meal, 500ml of gastric juice secreted by the stomach can basically make it digest. However, when overeating or mental stress is high, the blood circulation is affected and the protective mechanism is destroyed, then the phenomenon of gastric juice over-digesting the stomach will appear. In more serious cases, gastric ulcers and gastric perforation will occur.
It can be seen that due to the excessively strong corrosive ability of gastric juice, our stomach is constantly digesting itself. Only by relying on its super self-repairing ability and several effective self-defense functions can we protect ourselves. But it is precisely because of this that our stomach is in danger of fighting gastric juice at all times. Every unreasonable diet will become its safety hazard, so we must eat healthy and reasonable and maintain a positive and optimistic attitude towards life.
