New Research Says Appendix Not Worthless
New research that has found that the appendix is apparently not a worthless organ. It may be a major player in the body’s immune system.
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My wife, brother-in-law and father-in-law all had problems with their appendixes before ultimately having them removed. Certainly since I was a little by it was thought that the appendix was worthless. It was considered an organ that “evolution had passed by.”
Of major interest is that all three of these people have had major problems with their immune systems.
In fact Charles Darwin suggested that the appendix was involved with eating foliage.
Charles Q. Choi reporting on Yahoo has issued an article titled “The Appendix: Useful and in Fact Promising.”
It seems that the appendix is a major player in helping the body fight diseases and that the absence of it can cause major problems.
It would appear that it was a part of a larger organ called the cecum. Within that organ good bacteria would and could lie in wait to ambush bad bacteria.
On a more astounding basis, they are used to train white blood cells.
The cecum has been observed in just a few animals such as the flying squirrel and dune mole-rats as well as several lemurs.
It was mentioned by Choi that perhaps Darwin missed it.
He was quick to take Darwin off the hook saying (and I paraphrase) that after all, Darwin’s ideas were used to criticize Darwin.
Without wanting to get into an argument what is the problem if Darwin erred on some point?
When our sons were young they all had inguinal hernias. When it came time to surgically repair them the surgeons in all cases suggested we have the appendix removed at the same time to prevent the possibility of appendicitis.
My wife was a case in point. When she was 13-years-old she began to get very sick. The doctor was unable to diagnose the appendicitis initially so ultimately the appendix ruptured and poison developed called peritonitis.
The rotted appendix floated across her abdomen and nearly killed her.
In my case I also had an inguinal hernia that the doctor chose to remove. I have had bowel problems my whole life and one must wonder in light of this new information if it might not have something to do with the absence of an appendix.
This is uniquely apropos since the bacteria referred to in the article that hangs out in the cecum is uniquely effective against diarrhea.
This is an astounding breakthrough. What is of concern is that there has been absolutely no questioning of the attitude that the appendix was worthless for so long. This information was based on evolution.
In other words, the suspected use of the appendix, since research wasn’t able to come up with a use for the appendix, simply said that it wasn’t worthwhile any longer.
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Health Ed | Aug 25, 2009 | Reply
Don’t get me wrong these findings are certainly very impressive, however I do wonder what implications they will have on existing healthcare practice concerning the appendix. People will still suffer from appendicitis, and therefore need to have their appendix removed, and those who dont suffer will remain with all of their bodily organs intact, so what difference do these new findings make, apart from adding to our knowledge of the human body?
Gary Davis | Aug 25, 2009 | Reply
Good point. It’s hard to say what information like this will do towards improving or increasing health care costs. If I get your drift, I would have to agree we as a society don’t have a great track record implementing cost-effectgive change on isolated pieces of research.