Tag Archives: System – Digestive

What Is Chronic Diarrhea? Chronic diarrhea is an intestinal motility disorder characterized by 1) alteration in stool formation causing loose to fluid movements and quantity of movements with or without abdominal pain and 2) interference with normal carbohydrate salvage by ...

What Is Cancer Of The Pharynx? Cancer of the pharynx is a malignant growth of stratified squamous cells that line the pharynx, or throat. Q: What are stratified squamous cells that line the pharynx? A: Stratified squamous cells are thin, flat epithelial ...

What Is Adenocarcinoma Of Small Intestine? Adenocarcinomas are malignant tumors, or cancer, of the small bowel arising out of glandular tissue. They fall in the category of rare neoplasm, comprising only 3% of all gastrointestinal malignancies. Primary adenocarcinoma is the ...

What Is Sucrose Intolerance And Sucrosemia? Sucrose intolerance is the inability to digest sucrose, a widely available sugar, while sucrosemia is the abnormal presence of sucrose in the bloodstream. Q: Why cannot the body digest sucrose? A: Sucrose, such as cane ...

What Is Small Bowel Intussusception? Small bowel intussusception is a bowel derangement that is characterized by the slipping of one section of intestine into another, leading to bowel obstruction. Acute bowel intussusception is a rare manifestation in adults, which mainly involves ...

What Is Vomiting? Vomiting is the regurgitation of swallowed food back out of the mouth. What Is Vomiting In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

What Is A Pale, Smooth, Burning Tongue? A pale, smooth, burning tongue is an alteration in tongue tissue characteristic of iron deficiency. The tongue is also swollen.1 Additionally, the sore tongue surface may be invaded by candida yeast which takes ...

What Is A Fiery Red, Smooth, Burning Tongue? A fiery red, smooth, burning tongue is an alteration in tongue tissue that is characteristic of advanced niacin deficiency.1 Q: How does niacin deficiency cause the tongue to be red and sore? ...

What Is Beefy Red, Smooth, Burning Tongue? Beefy, red, smooth, burning tongue is an inflammatory alteration in tongue tissue characteristic of vitamin B12 deficiency. Inflammation makes the tongue red and sore which, when untreated, progresses to atrophied papillae (shrunken taste ...

What Is Food Allergy? Food allergy is an abnormal immune response to food proteins that may damage the small intestinal  lining and produce malabsorption of food. The reaction is usually delayed which makes it difficult to identify the offending food that ...

What Is Riboflavin? Riboflavin, also called vitamin B2, is fundamentally required for the breakdown of carbohydrates, amino acids, and fats in metabolism, enables oxygen to be used by cells, and acts as a component of more than a dozen enzymes involved ...

What Is Plummer-Vinson Syndrome Affecting the Esophagus? Plummer-Vinson syndrome is a manifestation of severe, long-term, iron deficiency anemia that is characterized by post-cricoid esophageal webs and dysphagia. Q: What are esophageal webs? A: Esophageal webs are one or more thin ...

What Is Occult Gastrointestinal Bleeding? Occult gastrointestinal bleeding is characterized by unseen or minute quantities of blood in stool. The origin of bleeding is from mucosa that lines the inside of the digestive tract at a site that must be ...

What Is Chronic Constipation Alternating With Diarrhea? Chronic constipation alternating with diarrhea is an intestinal motility disorder, or irregularity, characterized by alteration in stool formation, consistency, and evacuation which results in a bowel movement that consists of some hard or balled ...

What Is Volvulus? Volvulus is twisting of a loop(s) of bowel onto itself which effectively closes it thus preventing digested matter from passing and causing engorgement of the closed loop with gas and fluid. Q: How does the bowel get ...