Dr. Toshi Is In! "GI tract and the digestive system"

Dear Dr. Toshi,

What is the GI tract and what's the difference between the GI tract and the digestive system?

You may have heard your doctor or other medical provider use the term "the GI tract," and may have wondered what that exactly means. So, today, we'll talk about your GI tract and also how it's related to your digestive system.

"GI" is short for "gastrointestinal." "Gastro" means stomach and "intestinal," of course, means your intestine, or gut. So, your GI tract is basically a pipeline that starts at your mouth and ends at your anus. When you eat something, obviously you put your food into your mouth, and then the food goes down your esophagus (the pipeline that goes from your mouth down to your stomach), then it goes into the stomach. Your stomach is located in your upper abdomen right below your ribs. Then the food goes down through the small intestine, then through the large intestine (which includes the cecum and the colon), and ends up at the rectum to anus, where you get rid of it. So, the GI tract connects like this: mouth to esophagus to stomach to small intestine to large intestine to rectum to anus.

Your GI tract is a surprisingly long pipeline that goes through your body! I say it's very long because the small intestine is three-and-a-half times your height, which is 22 feet on average in adults! Yes, the small intestine is actually jammed in your tummy! The cecum connects the small intestine to the colon which is located in the right lower area of your abdomen. From there the colon goes straight up to where your ribs are on your right side, then it goes across toward your left side above your belly button, and then goes down to your left side and connects to your rectum and anus. Can you picture that?

Because the mouth and the anus are open to the outside world, the GI tract is considered "outside of your body" even though it runs right through the inside your body. Interesting, isn't it?

Now I'll talk a little about your digestive system. You know that it has something to do with digestion, but you might have wondered what the difference is between the digestive system and the GI tract. The digestive system is more than just the GI tract. It also includes your liver, pancreas, and gallbladder because those three organs play key roles in digestion, which is the processing of your food so your body can use it.

So, if you ever have problems with your liver, you could go see a GI doctor, a doctor who specializes in the entire digestive system, including the liver, pancreas, gallbladder and GI tract.

I'll talk about some problems that can happen with the GI tract next week. But for now, I hope you got a picture of the GI tract and found out a little about the difference between the GI tract and the digestive system!

Dr. Toshiko ("Toshi") Luckow, MD, is a Family Physician at the West River Health Services Hospital and Clinics.