Most people know only two things about the appendix: You don’t need it – and if it bursts, you need surgery fast. That basic story traces back at least to Charles Darwin, the English naturalist who ...

The appendix has long been dismissed as an organ that has outlived its usefulness in human evolution. But new research suggests it may play an active — and detrimental — role in the development of ...

For more than a century, the human appendix has been written off as a biological relic, a shrunken leftover from plant-eating ancestors that serves no real purpose. That view is now outdated. A ...

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 ...

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 ...

The vermiform appendix or appendix as we commonly know it, is a vestigial organ of the body which does not come into notice unless it is inflamed (such as in appendicitis). In cases of appendicitis, ...

Just when we thought we had enough on our medical to-do list-Pap smears, mammograms, cholesterol checks, stress management, hydration, posture-now we're hearing that appendix cancer is on the rise?