Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, how does your stomach keep from digesting itself? Your stomach, if you want to be technical about it, is a crescent shaped, hollow organ about the size of a large melon. The average adult stomach holds about three courts or three
leaders of fluid. Your stomach is made up of a variety of layers, including the sarosa, the outer layer that acts as a covering for the other layers, the two muscle layers, the middle layers that propel food from the stomach into the small intestine, and the mucosa. The inner layer made up of specialized cells, including perietal cells, G cells, and epithelial cells. Perietal cells produce hydrochloric acid, a strong
asked that helps to break down food. The acid in your stomach is so concentrated that if you were to place a drop on a piece of wood, it would eat right through it. The G cells produce gastron, a hormone that facilitates the production of hydrochloric acid by the perietal cells. The stomach is protected by the epithelial cells, which produce and secrete a bicarbonate rich solution that coats
the mucosa. By Carbonate is an alkaline a base and neutralizes the acid secreted by the perietal cells, producing water in the process. This continuous supply of by carbonate is the main way that your stomach protects itself from autodigestion or the stomach digesting itself, and from the overall acidic environment. In some individuals, due to impairments in blood supply to the stomach or to the overproduction of acid, this defense system does not work as well as it should. These
people can get gastric ulcers. There are also specific bacteria called Helicobacter pylori that may cause impairment of the stomach's defenses and can also be responsible for ulcers. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.