MEDICAL LESSONS BY DR. ELIO GAETA: 2nd LESSON
๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ & ๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ผ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ - ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ผ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ
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Today we present the second lesson of medicine, written by Professor Gaeta. Enjoy the reading!
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"When we talk about the stress of modern life we โโmean an emotional, mental and above all relational discomfort with the outside world that sometimes reflects very negatively on the function of our organs and internal systems.
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The digestive system is among the first to be affected and, considering the development of the human being, this obviously shouldn't surprise us.
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The newborn, in fact, comes from the so-called maternal-fetal complex, that is, from an internal world and enters into a vital relationship for the first time with the external world through the orifice which represents the entrance door to the digestive system: the mouth.
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He then goes to discover the world around him by putting all the objects he encounters in his mouth.
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A little sketch to demonstrate the importance of the mouth in the first years of life.
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My 4-year-old nephew promises every night that he will give up his pacifier โin 100 days.โ
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For us 100 is a very specific number, for him 100 days obviously means never.
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So let's explain what the digestive system is, that is, that long tube that starts from the mouth and ends with the anus. To understand the meaning of its morphological and histological structure, we must refer to its embryonic origin, that is, to the primitive intestine that was closed at both ends.
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We will discuss the embryonic origin separately in a post dedicated to it.
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The wall of this long tube is lined on the inside with a mucosa which, at the level of the lips and the anal orifice, is continuous with the skin of the lips and the perineum respectively.
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We define mucosa as the lining of all internal cavities communicating with the outside, therefore the innermost layer of the wall that directly faces the lumen of the organ.
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All mucous membranes are made up of two layers: an epithelial layer and a more or less thick connective tissue layer called the โtunica propriaโ of the mucosa.
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We will see that the mucous membranes of the individual sections of our digestive system have specific anatomical and functional characteristics.
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All epithelia are not vascularized and therefore receive oxygen and nutrients from the underlying layers by diffusion.
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The tunica propria, which supports the epithelium, is made up of connective tissue in which many structures are immersed: glands, blood and lymph vessels, lymphatic tissue and nerves.
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The lining epithelium of the stomach has no particular metabolic functions of absorption and digestion since it is a simple conduit for the passage of the food bolus towards the stomach.
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Its only function, therefore, like the epithelia of the oral cavity, pharynx and vagina, is solely and exclusively to resist mechanical trauma.
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The esophageal epithelium must be very robust and resistant, therefore of a stratified squamous type like that of the oral cavity, the pharynx, the vocal cords and the vaginal cavity.
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Resistant to mechanical trauma but unfortunately not to chemical trauma that makes us so desperate.
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The esophagus suffers and sometimes becomes ill in GERD because, unlike the gastric epithelium, it is not protected from the acidic aggression of gastric juice.
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This is why you have that burning sensation along the entire esophageal tract which also affects the throat and sometimes the tongue.
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Sometimes an esophageal spasm can also occur when the peristaltic waves that should push the food bolus towards the stomach occur in a totally disordered and uncoordinated way so that the bolus stops and is crushed by the muscular spasm at one point in the esophagus.
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This disorder is also called nutcracker esophagus and causes the patient back pain or more often angina-like pain that terribly scares the sufferer by simulating a heart attack that is not there.
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Anatomy teaches us that the esophagus and the left atrium of the heart are in very close contact with each other and the brain, that is, we are unable to precisely identify the origin of the pain.
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In this case, as in many other similar cases, we speak of referred pain, that is, when the subject feels the pain in an area of โโthe body that is very far from the point of origin.
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This close relationship between the esophagus and the left atrium of the heart is used in cardiology to perform transesophageal ultrasound of the heart for example in cases where the formation of clots inside the atrial cavities is suspected such as in atrial fibrillation.
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Please note that this does not apply to you:
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Raise the bed from the legs to the head side by 30cm and sleep on a slope
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Don't sleep with something tight around your waist
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Chewing gum before bed helps dilute the acids"
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