eli5 How was a whole organ’s usefulness unknown for such a long time(appendix)?
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Microbial effects in the body and for that matter *their benefits* are not well understood, even as of now. The science and effects are under study and we are finding more and more links between our general health and our gut flora.
The thing is, we can absolutely live without a healthy gut flora and removing the appendix has had no noticeable negative short term effects usually. For many people, it’s a slow burn as our gut flora literally dictates some of our every day lives through moods and eating habits bit that can be hard to notice or even attribute to the appendix.
Basically, we didn’t anticipate the extent to which good bacteria helps a person and people with appendicitis who had their appendix removed showed no extreme signs of illness. So, it went unnoticed.
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