4 ms·
About 10 years ago, one study set forth an interesting hypothesis: The appendix is a place where "good" bacteria can safely hide during infection. I'm not sure
by jawns 8y ago
About 10 years ago, one study set forth an interesting hypothesis: The appendix is a place where "good" bacteria can safely hide during infection. I'm not sure if there's been any work since then to confirm the hypothesis, but it sure is an interesting idea.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/health/research/17appe.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/health/research/17appe.ht...
- mr_luc 8y agoOh, yeah, I remember reading about that! I think that's seeped into my head as 'leading reason we think we have an appendix.' This is the great thing about HN -- there's a very good change somebody will come along and update my intuition.
- mirceal 8y agoPapers please. Bacterial edition
- sandworm101 8y agoHands and feet are also very useful ... until they turn septic and need to be removed. Antibiotics can treat infections in the early stages if diagnosed well ahead of time. But once an organ is totally taken by infection it may be unrecoverable. Either you remove it or it becomes a lump of dead tissue spreading evil to the rest of the body. By the time someone is in the emergency room due to abdominal pain, by the time they are seen by a doctor and ultrasounded, it will need to come out.
- cimmanom 8y agoPretty sure the whole point of this article is that often enough patients arrive in the emergency room at a point where it's NOT too late to treat successfully with antibiotics.
- sandworm101 8y agoLook at the people in the thread who ruptured. They certainly did not make it in time.
- cimmanom 8y agoThat’s correct. There’s a difference between “often” and “always”. There are also several people posting in this thread who had their appendicitis successfully treated with antibiotics.
- smaddox 8y agoI think I remember reading at some point that another hypothesis is that it acts as a repository for bad bacteria, so that your immune system doesn't forget how to make antibodies for those bacteria. I think I remember the sinuses being posited as serving the same role.
- pazimzadeh 8y agoWhat if the appendix is an attempt to "tame" bad bacteria into being good? Does giving bacteria access to nutrients from our food and mucus remove the selective pressure to evolve virulence factors?