Tonsils, appendix, gallbladder: is anything actually useless?
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What are vestigial organs and why are they still relevant?
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So do you have an appendage you'd rather not have?
Um, no, I think my body is fine, just as it is. What are you trying to tell me, Norman?
Nothing, just wondering, really. I've been pondering on that. You've been pondering on my appendages? No, no, no. Well, really, it's an excuse for everything's about me. There's an appendage I'd rather not have. Is there? I'd quite like to have teeth that don't need fillings, you know? So there's lots of organs that I think I'd rather have in good shape rather than bad shape. But no, I'm quite happy with all my appendages.
Fair enough. Actually, shall we do a little appendage checklist? I'm interested to know how many of these items you still have within your body.
All right, go on.
Your appendix?
I do.
Tonsils?
I do.
Gallbladder?
I do.
Wisdom teeth?
I do.
What an intact 51-year-old you are, Norman Swan.
I know. God knows what it's going to be like in 20 years' time, but you know...
Well, this is kind of... Can I ask about yours? Yes, please.
So have you got all these things?
I have everything except for one wisdom tooth which had to be removed.
Oh, I remember that because we did a session on wisdom teeth.
We did. Got one single wisdom tooth that had to be removed. My other ones that came through are still there.
So yes, this... Wasn't there something odd that you only had three to start with?
Are we going to do the show or not?
Okay, let's do the show.
You're listening to What's That Rash? It's the show where we answer the health questions everyone is asking. Music.
And this week, we're asking about appendages you might not need.
Well, yeah, we're talking about things that maybe are useless, question mark. Jane and Cass have both emailed us. Jane says, I'm about to have my gallbladder removed. My question is, how does the body compensate if at all without this organ? Cass is also on the wait list to have her gallbladder removed and is wondering if we can remove bits such as tonsils, gallbladders, appendices, etc., why do we have them in the first place? So, yes, let us talk today about what some people might think of as vestigial organs. Others sort of feel like maybe we could call them nice-to-haves, maybe not must-haves.
Yeah, well, before we sort of zero in on the organs being asked about, let's talk about what probably are truly vestigial. Wisdom teeth are probably one of them.
Well, I mean, we did do a whole... Or three in my case. Wisdom teeth, we did a whole episode of What's That Rash on wisdom teeth fairly early in the piece. I went back and refreshed my memory on it. You should too by searching wisdom teeth in the What's That Rash feed. And I was surprised to find that they are less useful than I thought. than I thought, that there are certain, especially certain ethnic groups that are much less likely to have wisdom teeth at all than others.
Indeed.
What roles do tonsils play in our immune system?
And they're probably just a throwback to when we needed a full mouth of teeth, including the back, to chew on very difficult fibres.
So that's one thing. I think everyone, when I think about vestigial parts of the human body, I think about the tailbone, the coccyx, which, I mean, the name is there. We used to, well, our ancestors had tails. We don't. There's still a bone there. There you go. I wouldn't want to get rid of it, but it's not like we've got a tail waving around behind us anymore.
And then there's the plica semilunaris. Some people might say plica semilunaris.
I don't say either because I'd never heard of that thing before you said it just now.
So it's when you're gazing into your loved one's eyes and you see in the corner of their eye, you know, next to the nose, a little fold in the conjunctiva.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are vestigial organs and why are they still relevant?
0:00–3:26
2
What roles do tonsils play in our immune system?
3:26–6:49
3
How do tonsillectomies impact long-term health?
6:49–13:18
4
What is the function of the appendix in the human body?
13:18–18:23
5
Why is the gallbladder considered important despite being removable?
18:23–20:14