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Apparently, the appendix isn't useless

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  • Apparently, the appendix isn't useless

    Scientists: Appendix protects good germs

    WASHINGTON - Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week.

    For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function, surgeons removed them routinely, and people live fine without them.

    And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn't removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most of it is good and helps digest food.

    But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.

    The appendix "acts as a good safe house for bacteria," said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author. Its location — just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine in a sort of gut cul-de-sac — helps support the theory, he said.

    Also, the worm-shaped organ outgrowth acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs, Parker said.

    That use is not needed in a modern industrialized society, Parker said. If a person's gut flora dies, they can usually repopulate it easily with germs they pick up from other people, he said. But before dense populations in modern times and during epidemics of cholera that affected a whole region, it wasn't as easy to grow back that bacteria and the appendix came in handy.

    In less developed countries, where the appendix may be still useful, the rate of appendicitis is lower than in the U.S., other studies have shown, Parker said.

    He said the appendix may be another case of an overly hygienic society triggering an overreaction by the body's immune system.

    Even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because it could turn deadly, Parker said. About 300 to 400 Americans die of appendicitis each year, according to the CDC.

    Five scientists not connected with the research said that the Duke theory makes sense and raises interesting questions.

    The idea "seems by far the most likely" explanation for the function of the appendix, said Brandeis University biochemistry professor Douglas Theobald. "It makes evolutionary sense."

    The theory led Gary Huffnagle, a University of Michigan internal medicine and microbiology professor, to wonder about the value of another body part that is often yanked: "I'll bet eventually we'll find the same sort of thing with the tonsils."
    In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
    The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

  • #2
    Neat.

    -dale

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    • #3
      Very cool.
      I enjoy being wrong too much to change my mind.

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      • #4
        Wonderful. I'm bloody ****ed!!

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        • #5
          As a young lad of 7 or 8 my appendix burst and I contracted Peritonitis, it was a close call and I was given the "Last rights". Not that you had many Rights as a young lad in Liverpool in the 50s

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          • #6
            Originally posted by dave lukins View Post
            As a young lad of 7 or 8 my appendix burst and I contracted Peritonitis, it was a close call and I was given the "Last rights". Not that you had many Rights as a young lad in Liverpool in the 50s

            You Catholic, DL??

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Kansas Bear View Post
              You Catholic, DL??
              No..brought up in a Convent so that cured me of that religion:))

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              • #8
                Originally posted by dave lukins View Post
                No..brought up in a Convent so that cured me of that religion:))

                Ok, well I didn't think the Anglican Church performed last rites..

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Kansas Bear View Post
                  Ok, well I didn't think the Anglican Church performed last rites..
                  This is ABSOLUTELY true..When I was in the hospital very ill..I didn't know this at the time..I was watching the nuns praying around my bed, the odd thing was, I was watching them from above It was as if I was floating just below the ceiling, slightly at an angle watching them..strange or what!! Many many years later I was to be told that this was an "out of body experience"

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                  • #10
                    Anyone wonder if we find out what the tonsils are for, what'll it'll be for?
                    Those who can't change become extinct.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by wkllaw View Post
                      Anyone wonder if we find out what the tonsils are for, what'll it'll be for?
                      Definitely for nothing. At least that's what I'm hoping because they took mine away when I was like 8.
                      In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
                      The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

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                      • #12
                        I wonder what else in the body is redundant or not used enough? ;) ;)
                        sigpic

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                        • #13
                          Thanks Stan for this piece of information.

                          It sure is very helpful.

                          Glad to have my appendix still now.


                          "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                          I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                          HAKUNA MATATA

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by mike nickeas View Post
                            I wonder what else in the body is redundant or not used enough? ;) ;)
                            Your Question will be answered in about 30yrs, by yourself;) :))

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