When it comes to parts of the human body, the appendix has long been treated more like a footnote – a sometimes troublesome and seemingly useless thing. But some scientists think they’ve figured out the real job of the appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut.
That’s the theory being advanced by surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School.
The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. Most of that bacteria is good and helps digest food.
But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. The appendix’s job, according to this theory, is to reboot the digestive system in that case by cultivating good germs.
The study is in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
(Source: Associated Press & Reuben Miller)
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20 Responses
I guess they’ll have to rename it now…
As Yiddin, we always knew that everything in the body has a reason. The doctors are always quick to remove things that they feel serve no purpose.
lkwdfellow – Of course we as yidden know that everything has a purpose. But don’t forget that in order to allow Bechira in the world the Ribono Shel Olam puts a mokkom in the briah for people to make a mistake. For all we know the “purpose” of the appendix was specifically to create a trap for the appikursim to make a mistake and think that it is a proof to evolution.
Of course for those who have trouble with their emunah this news tidbit hopefully can help them.
gemorakop – apikorsim need no traps – they seem to find enough ways to make up the things they want, without traps.
Even with a million proofs, they will still deny the Yad Hashem.
gemorakop
Even where Rashi makes the point that something was done for the purpose litain makom littous it is only in the presentation thereof not in the absolute of why it was actually done or exists. What I’d like to see though is the hautiness of the scentific field in general diminish as theory after theory gets unraveled. Those in medical school seem to recognise the existance of G-d after the first week of schooling.
Only the gedoilim can tell us what the purpose of the appendix is.
Only the gedoilim can tell us what the purpose of the appendix is.
Comment by azhei… — October 9, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
I hope you do not have them perform surgery for your loved ones. Besides, they are too busy with real Tzorchai Rabbim. Perhaps you can go do it yourself or have your neighbor do it with the gemara as a guide.
Those who believe gedolim can tell you the purpose of an appendix, should consult one and test it out. I assume they would throw you out. You are turning mamleches kohanim vegoy kadosh into planet of the apes.
DrYidd – Those who believe gedolim can tell you the purpose of an appendix, should consult one and test it out. I assume they would throw you out. You are turning mamleches kohanim vegoy kadosh into planet of the apes.
What????????
Have a little faith in Gedolim & go easy on the “kochi v’otzem yodeey”!
Why would you refer to people who rely on Gedolim to explain things as a “planet of apes”?
While a Godol is not a doctor & can’t operate on a person, one must still ask the advice of a Godol before going into an operation in which a doctor feels that something “extra” should be removed!
DrYidd,
Sorry your idea of an auto appendectomy is not original. If you look in JAMA about 20 years ago there is a review of people who did surgery on themselves. I believe a Dr. Kane removed his own appendix in the 1930’s. However, he wasn’t jewish and so I doubt he looked in the shas for instructions. I am not saying that you will not find instructions on the daf, only that books put out by goyim or apikorsim will serve the same purpose.
Re: The doctors are always quick to remove things that they feel serve no purpose.
When the Appendix is infected c”v, it MUST be removed immediately or else it will rupture chas vesholom.
I’ve never heard of a doctor removing an Appendix that was not placing the patient in danger.
envoy:
thousands of normal appendixi? are removed every day.
it is still standard practice among many general surgeons to remove the normal appendix during other abdominal procedures (as long as we’re here might as well remove it to forestall future trouble)
#10: I have. A friend of mine had abdominal surgery about 12 years ago, and the surgeon said afterward that “while he was in there” he removed the perfectly healthy appendix.
This was so that in case it would ever become inflamed, my friend wouldn’t have to go through surgery again.
I don’t think they would do this nowadays.
#11: The proper plural form of “appendix” is “appendices” 🙂
direct copy-paste from the Cambridge dictionary
“””appendix (BODY PART)
noun [C] plural appendixes””””
maybe it’s appendices for those things at the end of books??
When I was a kid, tonsils were thought to be unecessary, and mine were taken out. Gall bladders are also removed routinely and I believe that gall bladder disease also can be healed with proper alternative health methods,thus sparing many people form having surgery. I hope I stay whole until 120 (If had my say so at age six, I would still have my tonsilos)
I know someone who had a caeserean section and her doctor told her afterward that he did her a “favor” and removed her appendix at the same time, to spare her any possible trouble from it. (this was many years ago) She should have sued for malpractice. And I knew someone else who once had her appendix removed and later on she had another surgery and her doctor told her he also took out her appendix. Who knows what he actually took out because she had already had her appendix removed?Or did the first doctor not remove her appendix? We’ll never know, but, B”H this woman lived to one hundred years without her appendix(appendixes).
to:#11: The proper plural form of “appendix” is “appendices” 🙂
My spell checker okayed my spelling as appendixes.
#11: I can only go by a statistical sample of one (me). I had a history of inflamed appendix episodes when I was a kid, but it never reached the point of removal (got pretty close, though). Later in life, I had two abdominal surgeries, but my appendix is still firmly attached to my large intestine, where it belongs.
BTW, re #15, one of the surgeries was gallbladder removal, and based on the diagnosis and confirmed by the post surgery report, the only way to have treated it at the time was removal.
All these posts and comments are a bunch of appendices or appendixes, they serve no usefull purpose, ya’ll should “cut it out”!
this fascinating article is incomplete.
i would suggest appending an appendix to it…
but YW editor would probably remove it.
might be inflammatory.