What does the appendix do? finally an answer!

This info was very useful. My boyfriend got his appendix removed and now I know more about why he did it. At first I didn't even know what an appendix was, until he told me and I googled it. Thanks.

What kind of question is that? I'll tell you what MY appendix did...when I was 10 years old...May of 1974 to be exact my appendix burst...my father refused to take me in to the hospital at night...hospitals he thought were 9-5 Monday to Friday....besides I learned later that his oldest brother had a burst appendix in the mid 40's...and you guessed it...he died.

An important thing to do if you do have your appendix removed is to eat yogurt with acidophiles often.  Probiotics help as well and this is to replace the important bacteria in your gut.  I had my appendix taken out 20 years ago and a natural doctor told me that then.  It was only a matter of time before the medical community figured out what this organ does.  I find it amusing that if they can't figure out out what an organ does and you can survive without it it must be a rudimentary leftover organ from when you were a monkey.  Your body's intelligence works a bit smarter than that folks.

Thanks for this info. Very useful!

This information has no meaning seeing as the appendix is connected to nothing of importance, it's not connected to your gull bladder, stomach, or intestines. I may only be 12 but I am very smart and know that nobody in the world can know exactly what it does, there have been conferences etc. But this can only be a guestimate. They shouldn't project into anyones mind that this is the complete truth unless they see it in action "Researchers in the United States say the appendix produces and protects good germs for the gut by "rebooting" the digestive system.", as if to say they know exactly!

Could it be that the body's original designer (The Good Lord) knew what he was doing when he created human life, including the appendix?!  

Dang... I feel kinda bad now because I got mine removed due to Appendicitis (inflamation on the appendix which has to be removed). Well, I don't think they could've kept it either way.

p.s. why would there be a useless body part on your body? everything has it's purpose, like now we figured an appendix does really do something. name one thing that is useless on your body except fingernails, hair, skin, and the thing that comes outta your butt

Vestigial organ: An organ that we inherit due to our evolution but no longer has a 'true' function now (mainstream science currently states that there is no completely vestigal organs - basically evolution isn't an exact science so we have vesteges from our past which once served us in a major way that are now mostly (and becoming more) redundant.  So little in fact that we can live happily without them)!

With that in mind the Wisdom teeth are considered vestigial organs (they generally no longer sit in out mouths correctly as our skulls have changed shape so much since wizdom teeth first appeared in our evolutionary past).

You could also kind of say that the coccyx (tail bone) is a vestigial organ, although it helps us sit properly its not needed for this function (or for balance) and we can easily sit correctly without it.  Its basically the end of a tail ..which we once all had when we swung from trees.

The appendix is a interesting body part. My friend Jain got his removed when he was 6. My uncle Ken died because his exploded when he was 41. Sad yet interesting

This was extremely helpful with a science assignment, thank you!

Another theory as to the reason for an appendix is it refers to the time when man was exclusively a herbivore. Dr. Jerome Sullivan
'noticed' during his studies of iron overload that the loss of the appendix COMMONLY was found in those with iron excess. It is kind of a 'canary in the coalmine' which tells a person there is too much iron in the body.

I understand many people today believe in evolution, so I guess I could see why people might think that the incredibly complex and perfectly designed body of the human being might have a few spare parts, I mean after all, we supposedly formed from a glob of goo stuck to a twig after the universe exploded and magically created everything so wonderfully right? But for those who don't believe that, why on earth would humans have "spare parts"? If scientists are so intelligent why would they assume for so long that this organ had no use? Just because they didn't know what that use was doesn't mean it doesn't have one. I'm glad they found why its there but I just think its funny how they just assumed it was useless because they couldn't explain its existance to begin with.

Dr. Bill Parker, is right about this, and I have advance the same theory (more or less) myself for about 40 years. I never went with the "vestigial organ" idea. My thinking was that as soon as our bodies note a gut infection the appendix is sort of “valved” off, and the body does its wash out procedure etc. The good guys in the appendix are protected from the body’s antibiotic defenses, and the physical wash out, and the bad gut bugs etc. And when things are under control & safe for the good guys they are turned loss again. I do not believe we have any "vestigial organ" and I have reasons (possible ones) for the other so-called “vestigial organ".

R. Carlson      

question everything you hear/read when it comes to science and the media especially with health!! for medicine to teach us the appendix plays no role and to willingly lead the masses into believing having their appendix removed is for the good - is masochistic. It plays a role in the immune system because it is a living part of our bodies (whole body of life)! Is the reason for all the sickness of man (whole body of life) from eating a poor diet and from our general lifestyles?  Cooked, refined, processed, chemically treated food and water, GM, animal meats and dairy - all factors for contributing to sickness?  Have we been mislead/brainwashed into feeding our bodies (whole body of life) rubbish/dead foods which is leading to the growing sickness of man? i had my appendix taken out a few years ago, i have had major digestive problems ever since, however after starting on a raw living food vegan diet it is much more than my digestion which has dramatically improved!  When you take a living life form like a plant or animal etc and distort that information by cooking, processing etc and eat it, we are then eating that distorted information!
also, perhaps it is possible for us to 'grow' our appendix back!!? we have more abilities than we are taught/told.

Very very useful

If god had an appendicitis -- could he remove it himself?

Up till a few hundred years ago, people regularly ate undercooked and raw meat as part of their diet. In the 1800's (when appendicitis was first diagnosed by Reggie Fitz in 1886.) appendicitis was becoming almost epidemic because we cooked our meats thoroughly and the appendix was becoming obsolete. With no raw meats to help digest, they just got "sick" and needed removal. In a few more generations people will be born with no appendix at all. It helped fight bacteria associated with raw meats. That, creationists, is called observable evolution.

That probably explains why I always feel like there's a brick in my guts the next morning. I had an illius that rotted and died inside and was something like a benign tumor. The doc took the appendix along with the entire acending colon.

At 75 years old, do I still have an appendix or does it shrivel up?

A little off topic but...since we're talking of(purportedly..or not) of those organs for which there seems to be no purpose. 'splain to me the male nipple.

I got my appendix taken out a few months ago and I'm 12 so I got curious and tried to find what it does and now I finally know

The appendix might have been really useful back then mayb it's just become less useful now bc we know how to live a healthier life. Also wisdom teeth used to be useful because before we brushed our teeth people would lose teeth so wisdom teeth would act as back up teeth. But now a days with our high level of dental care we don't need wisdom teeth.

Do you people realize. Darwin actually believed in God? His original theory States that he believed God lost control which caused evolution to occur.

I had my appendix taken out and ever since then I have had gastrotestinal problems. Difficulty digesting food and having regular bms, Anybody else? I am glad I read about the study, because it helped me understand why I have my issues and what I can do to help myself.

I found this article very interesting, makes a lot of sense for the appendix to still have an role in our bodies.
I believe it does produce and process this bacteria still, because if something blocks the opening of the appendix this would cause the bacteria that is being produced to build up and then eventually make the appendix erupt thus leaving the body with the nasty infection.
I like this study and i am glad somebody has written something like this. I for one don't believe in evolution and I am quite sick of reading all the articles on the appendix doing nothing.

Thanks mate for the read and keep up the studies

my friend said someones appendix exploded

Lol these comments are silly.

1> if evolution is true why are ppl not evolving from monkeys now?

2> we did not come from some tiny mico-organism

3> animals adapt not evolve

4> our body can not digest red meat as we are not suppoed to eat mean only vegetation

5> just because other animals have some simular body parts etc does not mean we evolved from them.

6> a cow has been found to have grass in the appendix so must help with digestion

7> God created everything good, bad stuff like illness comes from the devil so god cant be blamed for bad things adm and eve decided to do wrong, they could live a perfect life in a perfect world and live forever but no they decided to do bad so this is the concequneces, untill god brings the end the devil will continue is bad ways, once god brings the end every good human who has done good will live for ever on earth with out death and illness and pain.

evolution does not exist get over it simple.

the appendix is in our body for a reason, whether the reason is known or not. whether or not it still does anything for our body which has adapted over many centrys will we ever know if this artical is true who knows.

God has no place in science. The truth is all religion is merely philosophy and can't be prove but science can. If a staff at duke published these findings why are you complaining. Before it is a law several other groups will test the results themselves and through many experiments may be prove correct. If all you have to do is bash, log off. If you want to study it, do it. The end.

Amazingly weak and unscientific arguments form both sides. Statistics are massively weighted AGAINST evolution as male and female entitites had to develop complex proteins and multiply stepped processes involving more proteins at the same time in close physical proximity in two nearly identical living organisms and then these organisms had to require each other to propogate life. For evolution to be true it has to be some sort of isolated singular event that is beyond possible. It is like a child throwing a penny in a pool in Vegas but through random chance it bounces, rolls and shimmys into the 1 in a googleplex penny slot machine to win the once in a millenia jackpot of the entire Milky Way as a prize. Kinda weighted against it. Also, keep in mind that it is still only a Theory as concrete evidence has not been confirmed to produce undeniable facts that this theory explains all of the observable evidence. What if some day an evolution believing atheistic phsyicist discovers evidence of God in the unified field theory or String theory?

Regarding God. He did it the way he did it and a true scientist is open to all possibilities, even those that might be counter intuitive to a theological belief system. There is a huge difference between making assertions and logically producing evidence to support a claim. The accuracies within the bible have been proven to make the bible a viable surce of information. It behooves the apologist to understand some basic truths within the bible such as documented prophecy concerning King Darius by Daniel hundreds of years before the King Darius released the Jews to rebuild the temple. Hammurabi's code is suspected to have come from God through Melchizedek via Abraham. When someone clings to a scientific belief as if it were a theology and defends it as faith, you are proselytizing to another religion rather than a scientist. You must appeal to the scientist through alternate hypotheses and theories, supported by documentable evidence to demonstrate its viability as a valid counter theory. A true scientist is a seeker of truth. A true scientist, to be wrong and to discover the truth of how things work, is a greater prize. Edison didn't fail 1000's of times, he just found the ways that didn't work. I do't see why there is such a divide between science and religion - they are both seeking the same thing - TRUTH. The universe was made to operate in one way and we will eventually discover it. Delving deep into particle physics etc. intorduces you to some really bizarre events that leave you in awe of the universe and how intricately it operates and was assembled to operate on its own. That awe is humbling enough to eliminate the ego and petty bickering of truth seekers, but will never silence the fool.

this was sooooooooooooooooooooo helpful

What a lot of hot air going backwards and forwards… god/religion/creation theories are simple guesses plucked from the air, in a manner of speaking. No proofs whatsoever, ever.
At least evolution theory can be observed and measured and tested to some extent..

How did we get from Appendix to weather or not God exists? Separation keeps us from evolving.

Does all human have appendix

Do any of you hear yourselves talk? FFS read a book. Listen to yourselves. Pull your heads out of your asses.

Religon - Ever hear of Chinese whispers

You can't fight belief with reason because it takes a complete lack of reason to believe something on faith alone. It is much easier to be told and believe that a supernatural god (and assuming your god is the correct one) than to educate one's self as to the observable realities of the universe.

Gods are used to fill in the gaps of our knowledge but as our knowledge, obtained through the scientific method of observation, testing and review, increases, the gaps decrease. In order for people to justify their outrageous claims of the divine with the increasingly small gaps is to ignore or make uneducated attempts to refute our advances in knowledge. The ironic part is that the religious commenters on this site are using technology that only could be developed because of the study of physics, because the theory of relativity (and others) has passed decades of testing. That theory also is used, along with others, to gauge distances in the universe and help determine its age and origins yet here they are mocking the very science that allows them to use their computers, to live past their 30's etc.

Science as a discipline and humanity as a whole does not have all the answers nor does it claim to. Science is about discovery and the wonder of the natural universe. If we all chose to throw our hands up and say "well I don't know why that is so it must be god" we would still be in the stone age and dying from tooth infections. Please feel free to question science as that is the very foundation of the scientific method but do yourself the favor of making it an educated question. Read a book that wasn't written by bronze age nomads in a desert 3000 years ago (or written by it's modern promoters) and I promise you a universe so full of wonder that no supernatural dictator could live up to it.

P.S. to the vegetarians/vegans...if you choose to not eat meat good for you but please read real science instead of quoting b.s. We evolved to eat meat, our canine teeth and incisors are to grip and cut meat, our digestive system obviously processes it or our bowel movements would contain whole chunks of meat (funnily enough only certain vegetables and legumes come out that way). Enjoy your lifestyle but don't attempt to pass off personal opinion and personal wishes as scientific fact.

There are lots of things to agree upon rather than to argue.  Let's find things that we agree upon and then agree to research the rest.  Let's make our points without putting down someone else.  We all will have different realities because we are different.

But we need to find ways to agree and to get along.

If we are born with something then there is a reason for it. Just like tonsils.. we do need them for something. Just because we can 'thankfully' survive without certain organs, doesn't mean in the long run we won't come down with certain diseases due to their absence. Gallbladder removal is barbaric. There are a lot of natural remedies that will take care of stones that doctors will never tell you about... they'd rather be jack the rippers then learn about natural remedies.. In this day and age of the internet it is up to 'everyone' to do their own medical research and treat yourself with natural remedies before getting torn apart by so called doctors.  And just because these so-called intelligent 'researchers' cannot find a reason for a specific organ doesn't mean there is 'no' reason.. just means they 'really' are not as intelligent as the world would like to believe they are, since they are all we have to do the research.. they are just humans like us.  Maybe if they used a little common sense and a lot of intuition they may just come up with some good enough theories they can 'then' try and prove.

..hahaha LOL only kidding, but now I have your attention.

7 years old, got appendicitis - it burst, very painful.. had it removed!

After the op, my appearance and general health declined.

Ever since that operation I have had heavy bouts of depression and ill health... not to mention an over reacting immune system, yes I have had seriously bad allergies ( especially itching ) ever since.  

I used to take an antihistamine pill every the itching came, now I take one or two everyday because I prefer a peaceful pain free life.

If I had the choice today and knowing what I know now about the appendix and its not so obsolete functions ... I would rather DIE!

I went to the emergency room over a week ago to be seen for vomiting abdominal pain and nausea. Er doctor ran urine test and blood tests, said I was fine prescribed me antibiotics for a uti and sent me home. For another whole week I couldnt est still nauseated and at times still vomiting so I wemt to a different emergency room. This er doctor went above and beyond doing any and all tests including a pelvic exam and a ct scan. They found my appendix inflammed enough it could have ruptured any day. If it wasn't for the antibiotics being gone and the abdominal pain getting worse my appendix ciuld have ruptured while I was sleeping or at any point and I wouldnt be alive today to tell this story. Within an hour of the results from my ct I was in surgery having my appendix removed, 2 hours later I was home resting with my fiance son and family. Its been 2 days since my surgery and my stomach hurts like hell but I feel better, im eating, no vomiting, and im here with my family so I thamk god im still alive to be with my family. Some of you think you need your appendix and some say you dont but im glad my appendix was removed and my family is happy to see me healthy and I am so glad not to be hovering over a toilet getting sick or starving so im glad for the doctors at the second emergency room I went to

Nothing is redundant in body or universe. just people could not find out the function of it. just wait evolution is nonsense. give up to think based on evolution theory.

I wanted information on the appendix- how do you turn it into a fight of God vs evolution?  Why can't you stay on target?  Sometimes lets focus on a detail rather than the huge big picture.

I am a vegetarian- when I ingest anything with animal protein my appendix hurts horribly.  This is a fact and it's already been tested by loved ones and is not just in my head.  What can it have to do with animal proteins?

Unreal - no evidence it makes any difference! I had mine removed after peritonitis aged 7. I suffered from constipation since, have very poor digestion, IBS, and pick up all manner of stomach bugs very easily when travelling. I had a full gut analysis from stool sample a few months ago and it revealed of the three basic strains of intestinal flora, I had 50% needed of one, 30% of another and ZERO  of the third. So no wonder my gut was permanently distended. I was not digesting my food but fermenting it. I now have to take very expensive high potency probiotics and be very careful with my diet. It is a total pain. I'd like to see more research on the appendix - why do they get inflamed in the first place? If this was understood, perhaps fewer people would need to have them removed.

" even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because since leaving it untreated could be fatal."

" because since"      lol really?