What does bile do?
Bile is a liquid of yellow-greenor brown, bitter to the taste and having a specific smell. The bile is not produced in the gallbladder, but is produced by the liver cells, accumulates there and, then, through the bile duct, part of it is sent to the gall bladder for storage, and the other part enters the duodenum to take a direct part in the digestion process.
A Brief Historical Reference
In the Middle Ages, healers and alchemists were aware of the existencein the human body there are two types of bile - hepatic and vesicular, but did not understand its purpose, although they guessed that it is very important for the normal functioning of the body. They developed a special humoral theory linking the human temperament with the ratio of the four fundamental life juices circulating in the human body, to which they referred blood, mucus (now called lymph), and yellow and black bile.
According to this doctrine, hypothetical preponderancein the body of light bile made a man impudent, hysterical and quick-tempered, and the excess of black bile generated sadness and emotional anguish. And although all these theories have been in the distant past, and modern doctors know perfectly well why bile is produced in the human body, it is still customary to call it "bilious" in the people of spite and sarcasm, despite the fact that bile to its bad character has not the slightest relation.
Bile formation
Bile is produced by liver cells and small cellsbile ducts in it are located. Then it enters the gallbladder, where it is stored until the moment when the duodenum is filled with half-digested food in the stomach and the body needs a large amount of bile for its further digestion. Thus, over a 24-hour period in the adult body, more than a liter of bile is continuously formed, which is deposited in the gallbladder, in order to be used at the right time.
Functions of bile
- Bile provides a change in gastric digestion, carried out with pepsin, on the intestinal, in which the enzymes produced by the pancreas play a leading role.
- Bile contains bile acids, which emulsify fats that are in the digestible food, and thus contribute to their speedy digestion, absorption and assimilation.
- The next thing that bile makes in the intestine, it stimulates its motor function and accelerates peristalsis, which increases the rate of absorption of nutrients.
- Bile has a favorable bacteriostatic effect on the intestinal microflora and prevents the development of undesirable putrefactive processes in it.
- The importance of bile in regulationelectrolyte and protein metabolism, excretion of bilirubin and cholesterol from the body, which are not filtered by the kidneys and are removed from the body solely with its help.
