GI thought questions from old vanders book

1. If the salivary glands were unable to secrete amylase, what effect would
this have on starch digestion? Not a whole lot since the starch contents
would reach the small intestine will then be diagnosed by the amylase the
pancreas secretes.

2. Whole milk or a fatty snack consumed before the ingestion of alcohol

decreases the rate of intoxication. By what mechanism may fat be acting to
produce this effect? Alcohol can be absorbed across the stomach wall, but
absorption is much more rapid from the small intestine with its large
surface area. Ingestion of foods containing fat release enterogastrones
from the small intestine, and these hormones inhibit gastric emptying and
thereby prolong the time alcohol spends in the stomach before reaching
the small intestine.

Milk, contrary does not protect the lining of the stomach from alcohol by
coating it with a fatty layer. The fat content of milk decreases the rate of
absorption of alcohol by decreasing the rate of gastric emptying.

3. A patient brought to a hospital after a period of prolonged vomiting has

an elevated heart rate, decreased blood pressure, and below-normal blood
acidity. Explain these symptoms in terms of the consequences of excessive
vomiting. Vomiting results in the loss of fluid and acid from the body. The
fluid comes from the luminal contents of the stomach and duodenum,
most of which was secreted by the gastric glands, pancreas, and liver and
thus is derived from blood. The elevated heartrate is the result of decrease
in blood volume that accompanies vomiting. Because gastric acid is lost
during vomiting, the pancreas is not stimulated to secrete HCO3 and no
H+ ions are formed to neutralize the HCO3.

4. Can fat be digested and absorbed in the absence of bile salts? Explain. Yes.
Only the fat at the surface or large lipid droplets available to pancreatic
lipase. The process will be very slow. This will lead to no miscelles being
formed. The fat will be sent to the large intestine where bacteria produce
compounds that increase colonic motility and promote the secretion of
fluid into the lumen of the large intestine DIARRHEA!

5. How might damage to the lower portion of the spinal cord affect
defecation? This will produce loss of voluntary control over defecation
due to disruption of the somatic nerves to the skeletal muscle of the
external anal sphincter. This will leave it in a continuous state of relaxation
and defecation will occur whenever the rectum becomes distended and
the relex is initiated.

6. One of the older but no longer used procedures in the treatment of ulcers
is vagotomy, surgical cutting of the vagus (parasympathetic) nerves to the
stomach. By what mechanism might this procedure help ulcers to heal and
decrease the incidence of new ulcers? This will decrease the secretion of
acid by the stomach. Parasympathetic nerves stimulate acid secretion by
the parietal cells and also release gastrin, which in turn stimulates acid.
This will aid in decreasing acid and contribute to the production of ulcers.