Top 10 Most Useless Body Parts

While looking over the internet i was amazed at all the 'extra' parts we were born with
including a large percentage of our brain(some)people do not utilize, i was particularly interested in the Tonsils and how they actually function to stave off infection,and why/how we can do without it.
Nipples..theres another one,why do men have nipples?,did we develop in the womb primarilly as females?again interesting stuff,could bring up some good evolutionary discussion,just thought i would bounce it off ATS

www.toptenz.net...
listverse.com...

We use a hundred percent of our brain. Maybe not for conscious activity but for immune system regulation and all necessary subconscious thinking. The frequency of this is considered background noise but it has been found that this background noise is very necessary to our bodies functions and sometimes advanced thought perception.

Well, sure it's useless now, but you should have seen me 40 years ago.


All right, I know, Minimal off-topic post. You can turn me in, but I'll plead temporary insanity. I had to do it.

The other night I was investigating a part of the body called the "Eustachian Tube ", which connects the nasal cavity to the ear.

The Eustachian tube extends from the anterior wall of the middle ear to the lateral wall of the nasopharynx, approximately at the level of the inferior nasal concha.

Apparently this explains why when you blow your nose really hard, it causes your ears to get clogged causing popping etc.

Now initially I had thought, what a seemingly useless anatomical faculty that only seems to cause bizarre issues... then I read this :

The Eustachian tube also drains mucus from the middle ear. Upper respiratory tract infections or allergies can cause the Eustachian tube, or the membranes surrounding its opening to become swollen, trapping fluid, which serves as a growth medium for bacteria, causing ear infections.

So essentially it is quite useful and aids in health greatly. Without it we may not have functioning ears for very long.

Point of the story that I learned was, the human body is full of highly complex and diverse organic systems. And although we may not understand or know of it's purpose as of yet, we can be sure that there was a purpose (at least at one point historically) that improved survival rates.

So obviously my initial notion to take out the Eustachian tube seemed clever, it quickly became apparent that it was an incredibly foolish and idiotic presumption.

It appears wise to consider that every part of the body has some sort of purpose, although it may be possible that some are leftovers from bygone eras.

Originally posted by rickymouse
We use a hundred percent of our brain. Maybe not for conscious activity but for immune system regulation and all necessary subconscious thinking. The frequency of this is considered background noise but it has been found that this background noise is very necessary to our bodies functions and sometimes advanced thought perception.

I agree, modern brain scans reveal chemical and electrical activity throughout the entire brain and neurological system.

The whole "10% myth" is pretty much out of context.
It would better said if it went more like this :
"We only know 10% of the facts" to explain our mental barriers more accurately.

did we develop in the womb primarilly as females?

Yep.

We all start off as females, then those predisposed to, will change (I think its YY for females and XY for males) one Y to an X and will become male.

This is funny you post this. I went with my daughter to see her surgeon the other day, she is having her gallbladder out, and he made a comment that some day when people turn about twenty they will go in and have all the extra body parts they don't need taken out. He said there would be about ten or twelve things they would take out.

She and I were trying to figure out which useless parts beside the obvious, appendix, gallbladder, etc. This is probably what he was talking about.

Originally posted by all2human

why do men have nipples

www.toptenz.net...
listverse.com...

edit on 6-9-2012 by all2human because: (no reason given)

I might be giving away too much here - but I want to keep my nipples.

They are extremely sensitive and very useful - if you know what I mean



S&F - Interesting stuff indeed

* Ned

Originally posted by charles1952
Well, sure it's useless now, but you should have seen me 40 years ago.

All right, I know, Minimal off-topic post. You can turn me in, but I'll plead temporary insanity. I had to do it.

Had to quote it so it could be seen again! Charles you win. Shut down ATS. We have a winner.

reply to post by muzzleflash


The Eustachian tube actually performs a far more important role that allows humans to be able to hear clearly at different altitudes(atmospheric pressures) without our ear-drums bursting.

The Eustachian tube allows pressure within the ear to equalise with the atmospheric pressure outside of your body.

You can prove this by - don't do this with a cold or running/blocked nose as all you will do is push mucus into your ear cavity.

Increasing the ear pressure....pinch your nose closed and close your mouth....breath out gently through your nose until you hear/feel your ears pop/click. Note....SCUBA divers must do this whilst descending or will burst an ear-drum(after considerable pain) or a blood vessel and subsequently end up with a lot of blood inside their mask.

After increasing the pressure, you can decrease the pressure by yawning and you will know when your ears have equalised by another popping/cracking sensation.

reply to post by Watcher777


They have found that the appendix is very important to the bacterial fluora of our intestines. When there is wars in our guts between our symbiotic resident bacteria and the invasive bad bacteria some of the symbiotic bacteria go into the appendix while others commit suicide and secrete their chemicals. This causes the guts to vacate everything but the appendix and we get the runs. The bacteria in the appendix then come out and clean up the mess and kill any surviving invading bacteria.

The gall bladder is very necessary, it gives us the ability to help digest fats and a lot is yet to learn about other functions also. Science has found uses for many of these useless organs since I have been in school. Even the tonsils and adenoids have been found to have important functions but still need to be removed if they are severely infected. They don't automatically pull out our appendix or tonsils if something happens anymore

an occultist told me the tonsils are for breathing under water. i have none

reply to post by biggmoneyme


Hold his/her head under water and see if it's true.

reply to post by OccamAssassin

We all start off as females, then those predisposed to, will change (I think its YY for females and XY for males) one Y to an X and will become male.

Oops... you got that one backwards...

It's XX for women, and XY for men....

The Y chromosome pretty much codes for the testes, and not much else.

Your chromosomes are set during fertilization, actually, and do not change in the womb, during gestation at any point.

What DOES change, is the type of hormones that your body produces... and these hormones effect how our cells pattern themselves into various tissues and such.

Vertebrate embryos start out in the typical female hormone pattern, because it is essentially the default, but this changes during the second trimester (I think) for males, as the gonads begin to develop, which changes the overall hormone balance within the gestating fetus.

This change in hormones helps cause the associated changes within the developing tissues (Brain, Gonads, Skeleton, etc) to be more male than female.

I can't find any specific details on how Tonsils function..if i was to view my body as an airplane..i removed a part surely the airplane would crash, why not the same with our bodies? i'd hate to find out we actually need it one day

reply to post by OccamAssassin


Wow thanks for the info, I didn't know much about that.

That's really cool though, I wasn't aware of this methodology being employed in deep diving.

reply to post by all2human


another one is male genitals we have a bag you can not put anything in,, balls you can not bounces ,a head that can not think,, and an eye that can not see ,,how useless

reply to post by seethetruth


Well mine certainly thinks. Just not clearly. I dont get why its so stupid but at the same time hacks my brain. Ive triied yelling at it, but I just get a blank stare.

reply to post by Domo1


yes i forgot about its mind control powers

Earlobes are pretty useless, other than for sticking holes in so we can bling them up with shiny things.