J M
- Body parts that have rare functions.
- These body parts look useless but can have surprising functions that affect the overall health of the human body.
The human body is made up of countless parts and elements. Even if most of us have studied their functions and use in school, there are still information that we don’t know.
Here are several body parts that have surprising functions that most of us have no idea about.
8. Your eye’s pink part
When we look at our eyes in the mirror, we can see a tiny bit of pink along the sides of our cornea. It is actually called plica semilunaris and its primary function is to help with tear drainage and eyeball mobility.
But before it became what it is now, it was once a “third eyelid”, a translucent eyelid that can be drawn over the eye to keep it moist and protected while maintaining a measure of vision.
7. Interstitum
The interstitium is known as the “organ wrapped around other organs” and it is the tissue that is placed in between all the other organs.
But it’s not just there to fill space, it also protects our organs from external shock.
6. Gut Bacteria
Talk about life inside the body. No it’s not babies, but research has found out the existence of microbes that live inside us, especially in our intestines. They may not sound much but they are implicated in such diseases like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome.
They are also important in order to regulate our appetites and mood.
5. “Useless” Immune Cells
There are immune cells in our body that no one knows the function for.
These “silenced” lymphocytes are present in our bodies in large numbers and only seemed to emerge to attack the body in autoimmune diseases. Turns out that these are not just that, they also attack infections that evade the immune system by disguising themselves as a part if the body.
4. Junk DNA
“Junk DNAs” makes up a part of our genome and was labeled as somewhat not beneficial.
But recently, researchers found out that it plays a critical role in holding out genome together by “ensuring that chromosomes bundle correctly inside the nuclei if our cells”. Without its function, the cells may die.
3. Wrinkly Fingertips
Whenever we stay too long in the water or we wash our hands for too long, we tend to get these interesting looking wrinkles in our hands.
According to a 2013 paper published by Biology Letters, our fingers adjust to the environment and whenever we go underwater, the wrinkled fingers give us an improved grip on underwater objects as well as wet surfaces.
2. Extra Ear Hole
Some people are born with an extra hole on the ear – at the space where the helix meets the side of the head.
The hole is called preauricular sinus, which is a rare birth defect first documented by Van Heusinger in 1864. No one knows the reason to this yet – but evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History has hypothesized that they’re an evolutionary remnant of fish gills.
1. The appendix
We all know that the appendix is the weird thing attached at the end of the colon but additional research has found that it might play a key role in our immune systems by harboring good bacteria that help fight infection.
