Accidental swallowing of foreign bodies occurs in children and adults. The majority of ingested foreign bodies pass uneventfully through the gastrointestinal tract. However, in some patient, the ingested foreign body may cause impaction, perforation, or obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract.

A professor at The Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is beginning an intensive program in Ethiopia this August to eradicate intestinal worms which affect as much as 50 percent of the population in Africa.

Endometriosis is a condition of unknown etiology in which endometrial tissue occurs at extra-uterine sites, including ovaries, fallopian tubes, and gastrointestinal tract. It usually occurs between 30 and 40 years of age. Four to 17% of menstruating women develop endometriosis.

University of Oregon scientists, using zebrafish to study the gastrointestinal tract, say that an enzyme long assumed to be involved in digestion instead is a detoxifying traffic cop, maintaining a friendly rapport between resident gut bacteria and cells.

Researchers in the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified taste receptors in the human intestines. The taste receptor T1R3 and the taste G protein gustducin are critical to sweet taste in the tongue.

Pediatrics researchers have identified a gene variant that raises a child’s risk of Crohn’s disease, a chronic and painful condition attributed to inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

Small changes in agricultural and sanitation practices may eliminate the spread of a disease that affects some 200 million people living in developing nations around the world. Researchers working in remote farming villages in western China report that providing medicine to infected people and animals, along with modifying irrigation and waste treatment practices could reduce, or even eliminate, the long-term transmission of schistosomiasis.

Due to the gastrointestinal tract's role in body weight regulation, gastroenterologists should work closely with other medical disciplines to oversee and coordinate the care of obese individuals, according to an American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute Obesity Task Force Report.