2 Small Intestinal Physiology

rap, hip hop, acoustic chicago blues · 4:04

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Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Twenty feet of folded architecture, villi reaching like antennae to the sky
Surface area of a tennis court concealed inside — don't ask me how, just ask me why
Duodenum leads, iron and calcium report for duty, folate binds its carrier tight
Proximal jejunum handles monosaccharides, SGLT-1 dragging glucose to the right
Proteins cleaved by brush-border peptidases, dipeptides and amino acids flood the gate
Fats emulsified by bile into micelles, fatty acids slip the membrane — can't wait
Terminal ileum's got a specialist role — B12 needs intrinsic factor, that's the deal
And bile acids recycled, ninety-five percent recaptured — enterohepatic wheel

[Chorus]
Assorbimento — dalla bocca fino al sangue
Absorção total, cada nutriente que avance
Duodenum iron, ileum bile and B-twelve claim
MMC sweeps clean between the meals, three phases, cyclic flame
Assorbimento — the gut remembers every name

[Verse 2]
Nine litres flood this tube each day — saliva, bile, pancreatic juice, the lot
Seven thousand millilitres soaked back up before the colon gets its shot
Sodium pulls the water, paracellular routes and channels lining every crypt
Chloride secreted, sodium absorbed — electrochemical grip
CCK drops from the I-cells when fat and protein hit the duodenal floor
Secretin from the S-cells, bicarbonate surges through the pancreatic door
GIP and GLP-one — incretin axis — glucose-dependent insulin release
Metabolic surgery reroutes the meal, bypasses foregut, makes the incretins increase

[Chorus]
Assorbimento — dalla bocca fino al sangue
Absorção total, cada nutriente que avance
Duodenum iron, ileum bile and B-twelve claim
MMC sweeps clean between the meals, three phases, cyclic flame
Assorbimento — the gut remembers every name

[Bridge]
Migrating motor complex — motilin-driven housekeeper at phase three
Thirty minutes of propulsive contractions clearing bacteria free
Fed pattern interrupts it — segmentation scatters, mixes, slows the transit down
Ileal brake — fat in the distal gut, GLP-one and PYY slow the proximal crown
GALT in Peyer's patches, M-cells sampling luminal antigen all day
Microbiome fermenting SCFA — butyrate fuels colonocytes, keeps inflammation at bay

[Verse 3]
Short bowel — quando resta poco intestino, every centimetre counts now
Duodenum alone won't cut it — you need a hundred cm minimum somehow
Ileocecal valve intact? You can survive on seventy-five, colonic salvage amplifies
Without the valve you're writing prescriptions for parenteral nutrition supplies
Adaptation spans two years — villous hyperplasia, crypts deepen, transit slows
GLP-two from the L-cells drives that mucosal growth, that's how the remnant bowel grows
Colon absorbs fluid and ferments carbohydrate when the ileum's gone
A functional colon buys your patient months before the TPN's switched on

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