Large Intestine (colon)
The colon is the main reservoir for feces (mainly in rectum) before defecation. It is also where the liquid stool becomes solid, by losing its water, and electrolytes. The colon also actively secretes bicarbonate and potassium, which explains why severe diarrhea can cause metabolic acidosis as well as hypokalemia. The colon also houses symbiotic bacteria that produce vitamin by-products and are essential to the human health and homeostasis.
Read more about this topic: Digestive Enzyme
Famous quotes containing the words large and/or intestine:
“The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)
“Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)