This story is part of a series exploring human anatomy and physiology complexities. Each story in this collection showcases discoveries reshaping our understanding of the body's inner workings, ...

The human body comes with some strange quirks. Stacker reveals the explanations behind some of the weirdest reactions, like ...

When it comes to intestines, it sure seems like two are better than one. I asked my friend Franck Carbonero why that is. He’s a microbiologist at Washington State University. He studies the bacteria ...

Why Do People Get a Colonoscopy for Ulcerative Colitis? Ulcerative colitis is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation and sores to form in the large intestine and rectum. It ...

The way in which the body processes cholesterol affects the risk of cardiovascular diseases. LDL cholesterol is obtained from ...

Unexplained bloating, gas, and sudden digestive discomfort may not come from junk food, but from a natural sugar commonly ...

Forget emotional baggage — you’re hauling around spare parts. Turns out, you don’t need all 78 of your organs to get through life, which comes in handy when surgeons have to start making cuts.

We’ve all been there: you try your best to keep it in, but you just can’t hold it anymore. You have to let it slip – how bad could it be? Then the unpleasant smell wafts your way, and all you can do ...

Microbiome research to date has been much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant. How much can be said about an elephant by examining just its tail? Researchers have studied what is most ...

A man was rushed into emergency surgery after his colon 'spontaneously' exploded out of his abdomen following a common surgery. The 83-year-old suffered a 'spontaneous evisceration' of his small ...

Chemical digestion occurs when the body uses enzymes to break down certain molecules, such as carbohydrates. This process allows the bloodstream to absorb smaller molecules to transport around the ...