To remove tonsils and an appendix is ​​all the same, what to cut off a piece of immune system

Удалить гланды и аппендикс — это все равно, что отрезать кусок иммунной системы

Tonsils (latin tonsillae, fold glands) - clusters of lymphoid tissue located in the nasopharynx and oral cavity. Tonsils perform protective and hematopoietic functions, participate in the development of immunity - are the protective mechanism of the first line in the path of inhaled alien pathogens. The full immunological role of the tonsils is still unclear. Together with other lymphoid formations of the nasopharynx, the tonsils form a pharyngeal lymphatic ring.

Worm-like appendix (appendix vermiformis) is an appendage of the cecum in humans. It is a blindly terminating tubular formation, the lumen of which is connected with the lumen of the cecum. Inflammation of the appendix is ​​called appendicitis. The term "appendix" is often used, but it must be taken into account that, depending on the context, any appendix can be understood as an anatomical appendix.

The movement of scientific thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was so rapid that scientists fell into some arrogance. Everything that could not be explained in the structure of the human body was immediately declared rudimentary, "superfluous": tonsils, thymus, epiphysis, appendix. In the early twentieth century, after the discovery of Ilya Mechnikov, putrefactive fermentation in the intestines was agreed up to the point that the large intestine was not needed, and the surgeons carved it out from more than a thousand advanced supporters of science ...

Currently, Ukrainian and American oncologists have come to almost the same conclusions: people with removed tonsils (glands), cancer affects three times more often. The same thing, they say, happens to those who have lost an appendix. Americans, by the way, at one time were most zealous in the fight against "superfluous" bodies. Glands, and at the same time and an appendix, they cut out successively all newborns. And when the epidemic of poliomyelitis occurred in the 50s of the last century, these children got sick heavier and died first.

And that's interesting: by the time of conscription into the army - the expats were below the peers by 20 cm, frail, sickly and mentally retarded. That's when they realized that tonsils and appendices play an important role in immunity. Now, American experts recognize: from a million US residents, who have tonsils removed, 999 thousand it was useless. Remove the tonsils and appendix is ​​like cutting a piece of the immune system.

Studies have shown that the role of tonsils is to protect the body from infections. It is on them settles more than 70% of harmful microbes that enter our body together with air. In addition, the tonsils produce biological substances that help the synthesis of cells involved in hematopoiesis.

Those who have split with glands develop secondary immunodeficiency (AIDS) - they are more likely to have inflammatory and allergic diseases of the upper respiratory tract (pharyngitis, rhinitis, sinusitis, bronchitis), influenza and other diseases. And recently, Ukrainian scientists said that the tonsils are resistant to cancer: after studying hundreds of cases of disease, experts found that patients with tonsillitis suffer from cancer of the upper respiratory tract, digestive tract and lungs 3-8 times more often than others. The deepening in the tonsils (crypts) turned out to be a kind of laboratory where the antigenic composition of what gets from the outside (food, air, microorganisms) is recognized, and then protective proteins are formed.

Scientists have isolated from the tonsils several protein compounds with active immunomodulating properties. Studying their influence on cancer cells of the larynx and human blood, they found out that they are capable of killing an average of every fifth such cell. When these compounds were administered to animals, their survival in tumors was significantly increased.

It is important to refrain from surgery for the smallest and because tonsils interfere with food allergies. Statistics show that 70 percent of children with dysbacteriosis and food allergies do not have tonsils.

Scientists came to the conclusion that the tonsils, for example, belong to the central organs that control the local immunity of the mucous membranes. In addition, for immunity, they are equal in importance to such coryphae as the thymus gland and bone marrow. Now doctors are sure that before reaching the age of 8, tonsils can not be removed, and at an older age it is highly undesirable. The fact is that the mucous membranes open in the folds of the tonsils a kind of trap for insidious antigens and at the same time a special kind of B-limfocytes, responsible for the safety of the respiratory tract and the upper part of the digestive tract, develop here. Their development begins already in the 18-week-old fetus, especially intensively at the age of 3 to 8 years, later the intensity of production of B-lymphocytes goes down, but never completely stops. In addition, inflammation of the tonsils - a kind of natural vaccination, allowing the body for many years to obtain immunity to the inflammation that caused the inflammation, for example, streptococcus or a certain strain of the influenza virus. Accordingly, the earlier the tonsils are removed, the more defenseless is our body before the infections of the mucous membranes, pharynx and esophagus. It is interesting that the removal of tonsils in the Middle Ages was simple: the doctor scratched them with fingernails from the patient's throat.

A similar function is carried and adenoides. Together with the palatal, lingual and laryngeal tonsils adenoids form the so-called lymphoid ring of Pirogov, a closed line of defense against infection. Take out one link of the chain, and all the defense will crumble to dust.

And, of course, do not forget about the appendix. In the submucosa of the appendix wall, a large number of lymphatic follicles have been found that protect the intestine from both infectious and cancer diseases. For the abundance of lymphoid tissue, appendix is ​​even sometimes called the "intestinal amygdala". This comparison, which does not lame: if the tonsils in the throat are a barrier to infection tearing in the respiratory tract, then the appendix "slows down" the microbes that try to multiply in the contents of the intestine.

Scientists from the medical center of the University of Duke (USA) were convinced: the appendix has an important function - serves as a depot of useful bacteria living in the intestines, helping to form the immune system.

Useful bacteria that live in our intestines not only help digestion, but also support immunity. They synthesize antibodies - immunoglobulins and mucins, which inhibit the multiplication of harmful microbes. But sometimes useful bacteria can not cope with the infection, there is diarrhea. This is a protective response to an infection in which pathogens are removed from the intestinal tract. However, at the same time, useful ones are also rendered. But some of them are invariably kept in the appendix. The entrance to it is very narrow - no more than 1-2 mm, so it is rather difficult to penetrate harmful microbes there. And when diarrhea ends, useful microbes again colonize the entire intestine.

As is known, lymphoid tissue takes the most active part in all, without exception, protective reactions of the body. Its islets-divisions are scattered throughout the body and control certain areas of it. If through a graze, the wound gets a virus, a pathogenic microorganism, in a word, a foreign antigen, then the lymph node closest to the penetration site of the "saboteur" will enter the protective reaction first. When antigenic diversion is massive and can not be easily suppressed by local forces, general mobilization is declared and the whole system of immunity is involved in protection.

There is in the body such a channel, according to which the intake of foreign substances is on a regular basis, is the digestive tract. True, the antigens that are present in the food before they enter the blood are destroyed to universal proteins that do not carry the fingerprint of alien genetic information. And yet, along with non-antigenic molecules, antigenic agents can also slip through here. Here for this case in the intestine and "exposed" lymphoid garrisons: the so-called Peyer's plaques in the small intestine and the follicles in the appendix. But it would be wrong to think that the vermicular appendix takes part in protective reactions of only local significance. Thanks to the powerful lymphoid apparatus, the appendix becomes a constant and active participant in all the processes in the body, accompanied by some kind of pronounced immune response. For example, clinical observations have shown that people with a remote appendix have better transplant engraftment!

So, to date, two basic functions of the appendix are proven: first, the appendix is ​​an important organ of the immune system, and secondly it serves as the breeding site for E. coli. This stick is an important component of the microflora of the body. Without it, the normal absorption of certain fatty acids, carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleic acids is impossible, vitamin K and B vitamins are not synthesized without it, it participates in the regulation of water-salt metabolism, it releases peptidoglycan that stimulates our immune system and performs some other functions.

If the palatine tonsils are removed (or missed the infection), then, most likely, simply the stomach will ache or develop a disease whose causative agent has penetrated the body. And if the appendix is ​​missing? Then the pathogen will go further into the inguinal nodes. To the patient, they are most likely to become inflamed, which means that the work of the pelvic organs (ie, the genito-urinary tract) may follow, and then, in turn, can follow at best - Inflammation of the bladder or urinary ducts, and at worst - infertility.

Therefore, it is so necessary to preserve this body of the immune system, and the best prevention of inflammation of the appendix is ​​a correct, healthy diet, as well as a healthy lifestyle, the rejection of synthetic drugs and vaccines, and so on.

It is important to remember that God created man in the best possible way, and only ignorance leads to the fact that some organs are declared physicians as "superfluous".

Via ecology.md