Great question, we have no idea!
So, the appendix is about a couple of centimetres. It sits on the end of your cecum – which is the first part of your large bowel, where your large bowel connects to your small bowel, in the right lower side of your abdomen. It’s cheeky, and it causes problems in people.
We think it was a bit of a remnant stomach or something from the olden days, that then got really small, and is useless. So, there are people who are rarely born without an appendix. We’ve never proved what it can do, but there is quite interesting evidence that if you have inflammatory bowel disease – so something like Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis – if you have your appendix still in, sometimes you respond better to different medications, and you do better. That’s really weird and no one knows why.
But, the appendix currently serves no function that we can use other than to be annoying.
