Scientists Theorize Function of Appendix
The appendix has long been considered a part of your body that serves no purpose. Nonetheless, you still need to keep an eye on it, because if your appendix becomes infected and inflamed; it can kill you. I’ve still got mine, but there are a lot of people walking around with appendectomy scars.
A group of from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School publish an article this week in the Journal of Theoretical Biology saying that actually, the appendix produces and protects good germs for your digestive system.
They say, sometimes the good flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases like cholera or dysentery would clear the system of useful bacteria and the appendix reboots the digestive system.
The article’s authors also say that the appendix is not generally needed in a modern industrialized society. If a person’s digestive flora dies, it can usually be repopulated with germs picked up from other people. This was crucial before dense populations in modern times and during epidemics of cholera that affected a whole region.
The appendix may still be useful in less developed countries.
Scientists not connected with the research said that the Duke theory makes sense.
I haven’t missed mine. The scar is quite little too.