How many appendix are in the body

Your appendix is a 4-inch-long tube. Its exact function is unclear. This conventional wisdom has led to the widespread use of appendectomies to prevent and treat disease.

For example, appendicitis happens when your appendix becomes inflamed. To treat it, doctors would historically perform an appendectomy to remove your appendix. Many appendectomies are used to prevent rather than treat disease.

According to the study published in World Journal of Gastroenterology , the rate of appendectomies is higher than the rate of appendicitis. An estimated 36 incidental appendectomies are required to prevent one case of appendicitis. Appendicitis can pose risks to your health, but so can surgery. Some people wonder if preventive surgery is the best approach.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, your appendix might serve a purpose. It might be a haven for useful bacteria in your body. These useful bacteria might help promote good digestion and support your immune system.

For years, researchers have noticed that appendicitis increases when communities introduce sanitary water systems. Such modern conveniences may lead to fewer friendly organisms in our environments.

In turn, this may cause your immune system to become overactive. It may leave your body vulnerable to certain disorders such as, appendicitis. The infection might start in your stomach and travel to your appendix. It might also arise from a hardened piece of feces in your intestinal tract.

My young friend has already expressed further interest in the nervous system and the heart, so stay tuned for more human body information. All students learn more when their interests and experiences drive their learning. Online learning may have significant drawbacks, but in my experience, it is leaving more time for students to pursue their own interests.

Many of them also now have the means to do that exploration, with access to district-provided tablets and available WiFi. I encourage everyone to find ways to bring out those interests in your budding scientists. Becky Stewart is a geologist by training and a writer by avocation. She has worked for scientific and educational publishers and is currently a scientific copywriter for a laboratory informatics consulting firm.

The muscles lining your GI tract, along with the hormones and enzymes that the system produces, allow your GI tract to break down and process food. Your appendix doesn't directly help with digestion. It's been unclear what role the appendix has in the body, and removal of the organ doesn't appear to have any negative health consequences.

For many years, scientists believed the appendix was a vestigial organ — one that lost its original function through centuries of evolution. Researchers thought that no other mammals had an appendix, aside from our closest ape relatives. What's more, the cecum of plant-eating mammals is far larger than it is in humans.

On this basis, Charles Darwin theorized that our distant ancestors also had large ceca, which allowed them to dine on leaves like the herbivores of today. But as these ancestors shifted to a diet based on fruits, which are easier to digest, their ceca shrank. The appendix, Darwin believed, is just a shriveled up part of the cecum, which evolution hasn't entirely eliminated.

Some scientists now believe the appendix is not useless after all, and may help our guts recover after a gastrointestinal disease strikes. The appendix contains a particular type of tissue associated with the lymphatic system, which carries the white blood cells needed to fight infections. In recent years, scientists have found that lymphatic tissue encourages the growth of some beneficial gut bacteria, which play an important role in human digestion and immunity.

Studies have also shown that the lining of the gut contains a biofilm, or a thin layer of microbes, mucus , and immune system molecules — and these biofilms appear to be most pronounced in the appendix. According to the so-called "safe house" theory, the appendix protects a collection of beneficial gut bacteria when certain diseases wipe them out from elsewhere in the GI tract. We know, for the most part, the purpose for most organs in the human body.

But what about the appendix? Sometimes, however, there is no blockage responsible for the inflammation. Other symptoms of appendicitis can include: Sudden pain that starts around the navel and shifts to the lower-right side of the abdomen. Pregnant women may experience pain from the upper abdomen, as the appendix shifts during pregnancy. Loss of appetite. Abdominal bloating. Nausea and vomiting. Constipation and diarrhea.

A low-grade fever that may worsen as the illness progresses. The earlier appendicitis is diagnosed, the better the outcome for the patient.