Onion Kid

The Appendix is Very Useful and Promising

Why would God have made a body with a worthless evolutionary artifact anyway more apologetics. As a few days ago a group of researchers has made some interesting claims regarding the appendix. The body’s appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation.

This theory has become the most common answer to what the appendix does or rather doesn’t do. Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. However Parker and his colleagues recently suggested that the appendix still served as a vital safe house where good bacteria could lie in wait until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty case of diarrhea.

The lowly appendix used to get no respect and was simply regarded as a useless evolutionary artifact but two years ago researchers at Duke University Medical Center proposed that it actually serves a critical function as a safe haven.

Not only does the appendix have functionality namely it provides a reservoir for healthy bacteria to hide out during digestive. We used to blame the appendix for this. We called it vestigial and removed it at the drop of a hat. Darwin hypothesized that the appendix was a vestigial organ that was left over from our evolutionary anscestors.

The Appendix Useful and in Fact Promising

Now, in the first investigation of the appendix over the ages, Parker explained they discovered that it has been around much longer than anyone had suspected, hinting that it plays a critical function.
“The appendix has been around for at least 80 million years, much longer than we would estimate if Darwin’s ideas about the appendix were correct,” Parker said.

Moreover, the appendix appears in nature much more often than previously acknowledged. It has evolved at least twice, once among Australian marsupials such as the wombat and another time among rats, lemmings,meadow voles, Cape dune mole-rats and other rodents, as well as humans and certain primates.
“When species are divided into groups called ‘families,’ we find that more than 70 percent of all primate and rodent groups contain species with an appendix,” Parker said.

Several living species, including several lemurs, certain rodents and the scaly-tailed flying squirrel, still have an appendix attached to a large cecum, which is used in digestion. Darwin had thought appendices appeared in only a small handful of animals.

“We’re not saying that Darwin’s idea of evolution is wrong – that would be absurd, as we’re using his ideas on evolution to do this work,” Parker told LiveScience. “It’s just that Darwin simply didn’t have the information we have now.”

He added, “If Darwin had been aware of the species that have an appendix attached to a large cecum, and if he had known about the widespread nature of the appendix, he probably would not have thought of the appendix as a vestige of evolution.”

What causes appendicitis?

Darwin was also not aware that appendicitis, or a potentially deadly inflammation of the appendix, is not due to a faulty appendix, but rather to cultural changes associated with industrialized society and improved sanitation, Parker said.
“Those changes left our immune systems with too little work and too much time their hands – a recipe for trouble,” he said. “Darwin had no way of knowing that the function of the appendix could be rendered obsolete by cultural changes that included widespread use of sewer systems and clean drinking water.”

Now that scientists are uncovering the normal function of the appendix, Parker notes a critical question to ask is whether anything can be done to prevent appendicitis. He suggests it might be possible to devise ways to incite our immune systems today in much the same manner that they were challenged back in the Stone Age.
“If modern medicine could figure out a way to do that, we would see far fewer cases of allergies, autoimmune disease, and appendicitis,” Parker said.

The scientists detailed their findings online August 12 in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Read more The Appendix Definition Wikipedia here

Watch Video about: "The Appendix is Very Useful and Promising"

Tags: abdominal pain appendix, acute appendicitis, appendix large intestine, appendix small intestine, appendix vestigial organ, prevent appendicitis, the appendix, The body's appendix, the digestive system appendix, vermiform appendix