The colon is part of the digestive system. It helps the body absorb water and nutrients from food before excreting the waste. It is made up of muscle and located just below the stomach. People ...

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 That view is now outdated.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 ...

DURHAM, N.C. – The lowly appendix, long-regarded as a useless evolutionary artifact, won newfound respect two years ago when researchers at Duke University Medical Center proposed that it actually ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Contrary to conventional wisdom, the appendix may not be useless after all. New research suggests that the structure helps beneficial bacteria survive and repopulate the ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Long denigrated as vestigial or useless, the appendix now appears to have a reason to be – as a “safe house” for the beneficial bacteria living in the human gut. Drawing upon a series ...

WASHINGTON — 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

As humans have evolved, some anatomical parts with functional roles in the body have become unfunctional and are often referred to as vestigial organs or structures. Some are believed to be a ...