Body & HealthFact

The appendix is not a useless leftover.

The appendix is packed with lymphoid tissue and holds a bacterial community in a dead-end pocket that gut contents rush past. Duke researchers proposed in 2007 that it acts as a safe house for helpful gut bacteria. A 2012 study found people without an appendix had recurrent Clostridioides difficile colitis more often.

Useful: "Useless organ" usually just means we hadn't found the function yet.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

DarmImmunsystem

Difficulty:

Related cards

Your immune system: a patrol and a special unit.Picture two layers. Innate immunity responds within minutes to hours, recognises broad patterns …
Your body has antibodies for pathogens that don't exist yet.Your genome holds only about 20,000 genes, yet your immune system can produce more than 10 billion …
Why you feel cold when you have a fever.During an infection, immune cells release messenger molecules called pyrogens. In the hypothalamus …
How your immune system learns a disease without having it.A vaccine shows your body a harmless feature of a pathogen, such as a surface protein. The B and T …
Fibre isn't food for you – it's food for your bacteria.What your own enzymes can't split, gut bacteria ferment in the colon. That produces short-chain …
Your gut wall holds more nerve cells than your spinal cord.The human enteric nervous system contains some 500 million neurons – roughly five times the spinal …
The rule '8 glasses of water a day' has no source.In 2002 a kidney physiologist searched for the scientific evidence behind the 8-glasses rule and …
Breathlessness isn't caused by lack of oxygen.The urge to breathe comes mainly from carbon dioxide: chemoreceptors in your brainstem sense how …

Keep reading

This card belongs to the topic Body & Health. Every card is short, cites a source and can be saved – due ones come back by themselves later.

About Doomlearn · Projects · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms