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Regurgitation is the controlled flow of stomach contents back into the esophagus and mouth.
Regurgitation is used by a number of species to feed their young. This is typically in circumstances where the young is at a fixed location and a parent must forage or hunt for food, especially under circumstances where the carriage of small prey would be subject to robbing by other predators or the whole prey is larger than can be carried to a den or nest. Some birds species also occasionally regurgitate pellets of indigestible matter such as bones and feathers.
It is a normal and voluntary process unlike the complex vomiting reflex in response to toxins.
A subset of people, most current or former bulimics, are able to regurgitate without using any external stimulation or drug, by means of muscle control. Practitioners of yoga have also been known to this.
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- This page was last modified on 13 September 2008, at 14:15.
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