Submission + - The Real Function of the Appendix (physorg.com)
eldavojohn writes: "PhysOrg has an interesting article on research currently up for review concerning the appendix. Long considered an evolutionary oddity in the human body or at most a nuisance that needs to be removed, it now seems that the medical community is hypothesizing that in the past it acted as a "safe house" for the good germs that populate our digestive tracts. In the past, this would have been necessary had something destroyed the germs in someone's digestive system although today you can reclaim these germs just by interacting with other people. The article also notes that appendicitis occurs at a lower rate in underdeveloped countries and adds to the theory that appendicitis may be another case of an overly hygienic society triggering an overreaction by the body's immune system. It's long been theorized that asthma, allergies & polio are diseases or conditions that increase when we are not exposed to the pathogens at a young age. Could appendicitis be another case where our increasing sanitation reduces our exposure to things that kill our digestive germs thus, in turn, causing us to over react when we finally are exposed to them? This research certainly raises some interesting questions."
