Scientists: Appendix protects good germs

Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week. For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function, surgeons removed them routinely, and people live fine without them.

And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn't removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most of it is good and helps digest food.

But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.

The appendix "acts as a good safe house for bacteria," said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author. Its location - just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine in a sort of gut cul-de-sac - helps support the theory, he said.

Also, the worm-shaped organ outgrowth acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs, Parker said.

That use is not needed in a modern industrialized society, Parker said. If a person's gut flora dies, they can usually repopulate it easily with germs they pick up from other people, he said. But before dense populations in modern times and during epidemics of cholera that affected a whole region, it wasn't as easy to grow back that bacteria and the appendix came in handy.

In less developed countries, where the appendix may be still useful, the rate of appendicitis is lower than in the U.S., other studies have shown, Parker said.

He said the appendix may be another case of an overly hygienic society triggering an overreaction by the body's immune system.

Even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because it could turn deadly, Parker said. About 300 to 400 Americans die of appendicitis each year, according to the CDC.

Five scientists not connected with the research said that the Duke theory makes sense and raises interesting questions.

The idea "seems by far the most likely" explanation for the function of the appendix, said Brandeis University biochemistry professor Douglas Theobald. "It makes evolutionary sense."

The theory led Gary Huffnagle, a University of Michigan internal medicine and microbiology professor, to wonder about the value of another body part that is often yanked: "I'll bet eventually we'll find the same sort of thing with the tonsils."

I love when scientists use phrases like “It makes evolutionary sense”. What exactly is “evolutionary sense”. Does it mean that there has to be some hidden advantage to every biological function? Why is there such a need to say meaningless things about biological discoveries? How many times I’ve heard otherwise rational scientists discussing evolution as if it were some kind of persona or deity of sorts. Such and such creature began flying because it was chasing prey up trees as if some kind of magic were at work causing it to grow first strange scales, reduced limbs, and finally wings. I’m not saying such a process did not occur but I do wish they’d explain more fully the magical process that produced such a thing.

Evolutionary thinking has really become a limiting factor to discovery. It has forced a singular perspective that very well may not be true. Many still limit their ideas of evolution to natural selection which is clearly not the only driving force of adaptation. Sure adaptation occurs within a range of already existing genetic extremes but what becomes much more difficult to explain is the driver of vast morphological changes allowing organisms in a historical blink of an eye after vast catastrophes to differentiate and totally reclaim the Earth.

The fear of the idea of intelligent design reveals something about those who hold undirected evolution as sacrosanct and I don’t think it has as much to do with science as it does the need to deny any universal order with a particular reference to purpose.

They are limiting themselves to a reality so small...when they should be thinking of a universe of infinite order with intelligences as big as the universe or bigger. I think that the idea that such intelligences could have played a role in creation and actually have a stake in our progress makes them afraid just as the ideas of good and evil do. They ask with much indigence “Why a God would be concerned with little ole us.” and assert that “Gods would be too busy to look down on us ant like specks of nothing”.

If we are to use ourselves as an example we being the only representatives of sentient life we can possible use as a model we can quickly see how empty such questions are. As human beings we frequently find ourselves concerned about animals far less interesting and capable than ourselves. I am also certain that if we were to discover an ant with the capability of splitting atoms I’m sure we would also be very interested in it. The idea that matters of size governs interest is false. The very extremes those who claim to be shepherds of scientific thought go in feigning ignorance of the obvious by making statements suitable only for convincing ignorant masses and the already convinced shows a certain dishonesty.

They are smart enough to see the limits of their own reasoning and also where their reasoning and research becomes nothing more than blind faith.

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