Fantastic Voyage! : Journey as a Nutrient inside the Human Body (1100 words)

Your “Fantastic Voyage!” is continuing. You are still a video reporter piloting a mini-sub that has been put through a miniaturization process making you and the sub only 8 microns long. This time, you have been swallowed by a 55 year old man eating a hamburger, french fries and a root beer.

For the first portion of the mission, you are to pilot your sub through the gastrointestinal tract to monitor the digestion of his meal. Describe all major structures you pass by or through, just like a tour guide would do. Also describe what happens to the meal during the digestion process. Once you arrive at the distal ileum, go through the mucosal membrane and enter the bloodstream via the Superior Mesenteric Vein.
Now in the bloodstream, you are to go to the left kidney, following the rules of the road Rules of the Road:
Rules of the Road:
You may never go the wrong way down a “one-way street”
You are not allowed to “create” new roads
You may choose any possible route

Trace your path from the superior mesenteric vein to the left renal artery, via the hepatic portal vein, heart and lungs. Once again, describe all major structures you pass by or through (but you don’t need to indicate every “side road”).
Once you’ve arrived at the kidney, enter the nearest nephron by crossing the glomerular membrane into Bowman’s capsule. Describe the structures you see, and narrate what happens as you travel through the urinary tract, until you leave the body via the urethra.
Based on your first-hand observations, wrap up your report by explaining the integration of the body systems in maintaining homeostasis. You must include at least the circulatory, digestive and urinary systems in your explanation.

Journey as a Nutrient inside the Human Body
After entering the body through the lips, you pilot your submarine through an area where foods are broken down mechanically by the teeth into smaller parts. At the beginning of the journey, starches are slightly digested in the mouth and on the tongue by saliva, produced in the sublingual and submandibular glands (“Digestive System Anatomy,” 2013). The saliva contains an enzyme known as amylase which performs the digestive functions (“Enzymes in Saliva,” 2013). Once you move towards the esophagus, a flap of tissue known as the vulva covers up the tracheal opening, preventing solid and liquid food from entering the respiratory system....

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