The Surprising Role of the Appendix

Your appendix is that weird little organ that doctors thought was completely fucking useless

for years. For years, doctors thought it was useless—a vestigial organ

that evolution forgot to delete. It's a tiny, worm-shaped pouch hanging off your

large intestine that seems to do absolutely nothing... until it decides to explode and try

to kill you with appendicitis. BUT, recent research suggests your appendix

might actually be a "safe house" for good gut bacteria. When your intestines get wrecked by diarrhea

or infection, your appendix harbors a backup colony of helpful bacteria that can repopulate

your gut afterwards. So it's like a bacterial backup drive. Still, you can live just