In “The Descent of Man,” he described the appendix as a vestige: a leftover from plant-eating ancestors with larger digestive organs. For more than a century, that interpretation shaped both textbook ...

In the United States, 1 in 15 people get appendicitis. Even though I was aware of this staggering statistic, I still never thought anything would happen to my sacred appendix… until it did. After a ...

The appendix is actually part of your immune system. Just because you can live without it doesn't mean you don't need it. Why can't people realise this? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. You may have heard that astronauts have their appendix removed before leaving Earth. After all, people say you can live without ...

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 ...

It was the first day of spring break in 1992 in Phoenix, and 12-year-old Heather Smith was excited for her family's upcoming ski trip. But before Smith and her family had even packed their snow pants, ...

We’re all familiar with the fact that we have an organ called an appendix—and more importantly that it can cause some scary trips to the ER. But does anyone know what the eff an appendix actually is?

The GI tract is a complex group of organs, each of which helps your body digest and absorb food. Your upper GI tract includes your esophagus, stomach, and the first section of your small intestine, ...

For years, the appendix carried a reputation as the body’s most pointless organ. Doctors often removed it without hesitation, and textbooks labeled it a vestigial structure—something our ancestors ...