Easy to Swallow
The human gastrointestinal tract – including the esophagus, stomach and bowels – can be as long as 30 feet in an adult male.
Along those 30 or so feet of digestive system, many things can go wrong. Up until a few years ago, gastroenterologists the physicians who specialize in diagnosing and treating problems with the gastrointestinal tract – had difficulty diagnosing problems in certain areas of the tract.
It is possible to use endoscopic procedures to look inside the digestive tract, in which a small camera on the end of a long, thin tube, called a scope, is inserted into the tract (at either end, depending on the exam), but the scopes can see only so far and 30 feet of fiber optics simply do not fit inside a human being. This made it very difficult for physicians to diagnose problems inside the bowel, particularly in the small intestine, where scopes simply could not reach.