What does your apendix do?
Answers:
"An appendix is a 3 ½ long finger-like tube from the large intestine, located at the bottom right side,and serves an unknown purpose. Currently, scientists say that it serves no purpose at all. However, when that pathway is blocked, usually by a piece of food, it becomes infected, or diseased. When ignored and untreated, it bursts, leading to serious health problems, if not death. When swollen, before bursting, it is filled with many kinds of liquid, along with puss, causing it to cut off the blood supply. This infection is called appendicitis." -This is an exert from my research project. Your sister has appendicitis, poor thing, it hurts alot...and the only way of treatment is to take out the organ blocked-the appendix.
So really, you have nothing to worry about =). Appendicitis is very common.
it doesnt do much of anything for humans except get infected
The appendix, or the vermiform appendix, is a small seemingly useless tube that is connected to the cecum, essentially the beginning of the large intestines. The term vermiform is Latin for 'wormlike in appearance'.
The function of the appendix is quite controversial in the medical world. So far no use has been found for it. Some people are even born without it and have no negative impacts to the immune of gastrointestinal systems. It seems it is a useless organ, but why then do we have it in the first place, did it once have a function? It is still possible that it has a function now, the pineal gland was thought to have no purpose but recently it has been discovered that it produces melatonin.
These two links will give you some great theories as to what the appendix once was used for. Perhaps the appendix is a part of an intestine system that existed in our ancestors. Have fun these guys have done much investigating.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/vestiges...
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.
Accually your appendix doesnt do anything but if it ruptures you have to have it romoved.
Dr. Kurt Taylor
The appendix has no known physiological function but probably represents a degenerated portion of the cecum that, in ancestral forms, aided in cellulose digestion. It is believed that the appendix will gradually disappear in human beings as our diet do not includes cellulose no more. In other animals, the appendix is much larger and provides a pouch off the main intestinal tract, in which cellulose can be trapped and be subjected to prolonged digestion.
In human anatomy, the vermiform appendix (or appendix, pl. appendices) is a blind ended tube connected to the cecum. It develops embryologically from the cecum. The cecum is the first pouch-like structure of the colon. The appendix is near the junction of the small intestines and large intestines.
Medical literature shows that the appendix is not generally credited with significant function. The appendix is rich in infection-fighting lymphoid cells, suggesting that it might play a role in the immune system. Whether the appendix has a function or not, it can be removed without any ill effects or side effects.
There have been cases of people who have been found, usually on laparoscopy or laparotomy, to have a congenital absence of their appendix. There have been no reports of impaired immune or gastrointestinal function in these people. The most common explanation is that the appendix is a vestigial structure with no absolute purpose.
The appendix is thought to have descended from an organ in our distant herbivorous ancestors called the cecum (or cæcum). The cecum is maintained in modern herbivores, where it houses the bacteria that digest cellulose, a chemically tough carbohydrate that these animals could not otherwise utilize. The human appendix contains no significant number of these bacteria, and cellulose is indigestible to humans. It seems likely that the appendix lost this function before human ancestors became recognizably human.
The most common diseases of the appendix (in humans) are appendicitis and carcinoid tumors.
Appendix cancer accounts for about 1 in 200 of all gastrointestinal malignancies.
An operation to remove the appendix is an appendicectomy.
The health and medicine information post by website user , AnyQA.com not guarantee correctness , is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
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