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11 Sivan 5762 - May 22, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Keeping the System Clear

by R' Zvi Zobin

This is not a subject which is usually discussed in public. Because it is so elementary [and alimentary], it is often overlooked, yet it can be the cause of many learning and emotional disturbances.

The alimentary canal starts at the mouth and terminates at the anus. Its main function is to process food to enable nutrients in the food to be accessed by the body. It also provides an environment for healthy bacteria which produce important dietary supplements.

The digestive path is about nine meters (30 feet) long. Food enters the mouth, where it is chopped by the front teeth, ground up by the back teeth, mixed by the tongue with saliva and then swallowed. The food passes down the esophagus, through the cardiac sphincter muscle to the stomach where it is ground and mixed with digestive juices until it becomes a liquid mass. Then it passes through the pyloric sphincter muscle to the duodenum, jejunum and the ileum (the small intestine -- about 7 meters 21 feet long and about 2.5 one inch wide), where the food is mixed with more digestive juices and where nutrients in the food are absorbed.

One of the glands which empties into the alimentary canal is the bile duct. Bile originally comes from the liver and is both a waste material and a digestive juice which helps the digestion of fats.

Finally, the remainder of the food, with bacteria and dead cells sloughed off from the lining of the alimentary canal, passes to the rectum where it is stored until it is eliminated from the body through the anus.

If the waste material is not eliminated, it causes the digestive system to start becoming clogged, which hinders the digestion of freshly-eaten food. Furthermore, the uneliminated waste material starts to putrefy, which produces poisons and gases. Another consequence is that bile is not released into the alimentary canal, which prevents the liver from efficiently performing many of its important functions.

The net result is that the person loses his appetite, feels lethargic, cannot think clearly; he might get a headache and he might even fall into a depression.

Some might regard eliminating waste material from the body as a waste of time which should be delayed as long as possible. However, Chazal stress that it should be an important part of a person's daily regime which should preferably be performed every morning, even before tefilla.

 

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