Appendix

Just curious to hear how tcm approaches this organ.


Thanks.

:cool:

It doesn't as such merely as part of the Large intestine I believe.
But like in Western Medicine it doesn't have a function.

That would not surprise me.
It was thought of as a purely rudimentary (vestigial organ,see "evolutionary biology") and still it´s main function is seemingly to cause appendicitis and at times death,..but it serves some role in immune and endocrine functions and may be important in some respects in some (early) parts of life.

Thank you.

From an evolutionary point of view it functioned more when we were more omnivores. In herbivores it seems to have the faunction of breaking down cellulose and has an effect upon bile production/processing too.
However nowadays it doesn't really do a thing.

Since you seem to have read your biobasics,I can but agree on cellulose breakdown.
However,to approach appendix as a vestigial structure,we shall remember that it may very well be rudimentary (off to go,perhaps) if it would not do a thing,we could think it is shrinking away gradually but as it seems to happen for a vestigial organ or two (referring to both animal kingdom and man) they may "re-adapt" for some secondary purpose.
The answer to my original question one should (as I) consider somewhat obvious in a sense,which would be that of "no" since we are talking about ancient methods (we could have thought about such vital structures as thyroid as purely vestigial some,if considerable time ago in "pre-modern" context)
Thus it is of minimal,if no surprise that it would be recognized as utterly useless by such.