Dear journal,

The pyloric sphincter lets me out of the stomach and into the duodenum which is the first 25cm of the small intestines. The pancreas secretes its pancreatic juices into duodenum. The role of sodium bicarbonate in the pancreatic juice is to lower the pH and acidity of the stomach acid when it enters the intestine.  Insulin is released from the beta cells in the pancreas in response to rising glucose in the human’s bloodstream. After I was eaten, my carbohydrates were broken down into glucose and passed into the bloodstream. The pancreas detects this rise in blood glucose and starts to secrete insulin. Insulin works by improving the uptake of glucose from the blood across cell membranes and into the cells of the body, and so takes glucose out of the bloodstream. Once in the cells, the glucose is used as the energy to fuel the cells doing their different jobs or is stored in the liver or muscle cells as glycogen. This results in the glucose level of the blood dropping, which then triggers the pancreas to switch off the release of insulin.