Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

Marti Kimsey — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:44:06 GMT

My appendix was removed 42 years ago & I am 66 now. It was removed because it was inflamed in an emergency surgery just for that. What are Dr. Mercola's suggestions for those who no longer have their appendix besides taking a probiotic? I also have hypothroidism but so does my brother who has his appendix. My parents also had hypothroidism & they died with their appendix. Marti

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

valerino — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:56:27 GMT

I wanted to come back to this article and comment because it really helped to turn my life around. Thank you Dr. Mercola for providing this information!

After reading this article it was like everything became crystal clear. I was 20 yrs old and in college when I was struck with appendicitis (worst pain EVER). As far as I knew, my only option was to have it removed and I trusted the Drs to take care of me. They did - it was removed and they did their job. But no one mentioned that the appendix has a function (or maybe they didn't know).

I wasn't a month before I had my first infection - a UTI (bladder infection). I had never had one before and didn't know what it was... it got worse to the point where I was back in the hospital! I went my whole life up until that point without ever stepping foot in a hospital and there I was again. My new boyfriend (he's now my husband :) thought he was dating a sickly person and my parents back home were wondering what college was doing to me! That was far from my last infection - I had many more over the years which were treated w/antibiotics. I had so many courses of antibiotics that eventually I had an infection that didn't clear up with the normal treatment - back to the hospital!

Finally, after 7 years of suffering, a hugely bloated stomach and just feeling lousy I stopped trying to get my answers from the Dr's and specialists. No one ever brought up the appendix removal and it never occured to me. So when I read this I knew what I had to do and it was so easy.

If the Drs had just told me to take Probiotics daily after my surgery, I may have never gotten a single infection. And now, when I feel like I may be getting a UTI, I simply chug 100% cranberry juice or take the capsules and it clears up in 2 days. For me, the goal is NOT to take antibiotics at all if I can help it as it just causes a vicious cycle of yeast and bladder infections. I have been taking probiotics religiously and am so much healthier now. Thank you!

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

RatherNotTell — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:34:25 GMT

The original article mentions 'evolutionary ancestors', so the whole thing is all about religion from the beginning

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

jason bischoff — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:19:40 GMT

you all need to take "evolved" out of your vocabulary, unless you want me to treat you like chimps. the rest of you just need to remove sugar, coffee, soft drinks, and other processed foods from your diets and eat as much healthy organic fruits, vegetables, and grass fed meats as possible. our so called "evolved" or advanced american society is a joke because americans trust the government, the media, including this site, the industrialized food production industry, and places like mc donald's. ladies, when did y'all lose the knowledge and desire to feed and take care of your children in a healthy manner? oh, yea, the lesbians fooled you into thinking you were feminists by breaking your marriages, turning over your kids to government schools, and going off to work for some stranger or corporation instead of your husbands. now you're all fat and sick, struggling to lose weight you shouldn't have ever gained, your kids are fat, half of you are divorced, you're mutilating your bodies with plastic surgery... alas i'm casting pearls before swine.

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

Carol Morrisey — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:15:33 GMT

When I was about to have a cesarean section in 1977, my surgeon casually remembered to ask my permission to take out my appendix "while he was in there." He was astonished when I refused, but it was a red flag to me when he said it was just a useless leftover from evolution. I don't believe in evolution. Later I read that appendicitis may be due to a low-fiber diet. I get plenty of fiber and my appendix is still fine. However, when it's infected, I have no problem with removing the appendix. This happened to my youngest daughter when she was seven. Within a year or two she began to gain weight, and I've always wondered if it was related to the surgery. I guess we can't know for sure. But we didn't feel there was a safe alternative at the time. Thank God for probiotics.

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

TWS500 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:38:00 GMT

My mother came to live with me at 87; she had severe gastrointentinal problems and I tried any number of things to help her. One thing I didn't know then was that my mother had used much sugar in her foodstuff - this caused the real problem. In my research, I found the site that helped to save her life:

www.breakingtheviciouscycle.com/index.html

This is the best information that I have found to all gastro problems. I highly recommend it.

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

R Mann — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:08:13 GMT

As a child I was feed the myth that, if you eat watermelon seeds they get caught in your appendix which could create bacteria and eventually

cause you to have a appendicitis attack. True or false? Any knowledge to this fact please respond to: rvmann@gmail.com

Thanks,

R Mann

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

tigana — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:21:23 GMT

My daughters 14 year old best friend was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain. After a couple of days they decided in their wisdom to remove her appendix. On opening her up they discovered her appendix to be healthy but decided to remove it anyway (to avoid possible future problems).

Following the surgery she continued to become more ill until anything she ate or drank was vomited within ten seconds of taking it down. After being told by doctors that she was doing this to gain her mothers attention, her mother removed her from the surgical wing of the hospital and moved her to a paediatric ward of another hospital who quickly discovered the problem. She had a viral infection which the doctors had been treating with stronger and stronger antibiotics to no effect, and which had "ripped" away her stomach lining. She had always had a poor diet (borderline anorexic) and this was the final straw for her system. They gave her something to coat her stomach and presto, she made a full recovery. I dread to think what her prognosis would have been had she stayed in the surgical ward - scarey.

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

Perfect World — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:30:32 GMT

This is not news to me. About 15 years ago, I went to an Ayurvedic Doctor in Bellevue Washington that said in Indian and IAyurvedic medicine, they already reconnize that the appendix is a reservore for your intestinal bacteria. When for some reason you are sick and you have diarea, the bacteria amount goes down and it is replenished by the apendix. Good reason why you should not have your apendix taken out and why you should not take antibiotics.

Did I miss something, or does this comment box not include a spell check. If not, I would recommend to Mercola to fine someone else to put this together for him.

Perfect World

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

SCK90212 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:36:47 GMT

I don't particularly like the "one size fits all" feel of this article. I had my appendix burst and it runs in my family and many family members have come near death because of this. Proir to my appendix bursting, I had many episodes where I became horribly ill and had the characteristic illness and pain of appendicitis. These episodes became closer and closer together (about once a month) until I had full blown appendicitis and rupture. So, I think there may be exceptions to people who have chronic problems and there is a scary family history, particularly if you are person who travels extensively AND overseas. I could not image having one of thoese sick spells and/or having my appendix rupture while abroad. After my appendix removal, I NEVER got sick again and that was ten years ago. I am not proposing elective surgery but if I had been in a situation where I had abdominal surgery, you can bet I would have had the thing yanked...sorry to say!!!

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

CrowSnake — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:02:52 GMT

I love reading Dr. Mercolas articles and learning about my body. I have learned a lot from him and have learned enough that I started my own diet and lost 27 lbs since March. My Gaul Bladder was taken out during a surgery in 2003. I have never noticed any change. In fact I have been learning more and more about keeping my health up. I used to be sick all the time.

The only thing that makes me mad is when I start to read comments on the articles, which used to be good.. They now always end up going to some Religious comment. This is not a religious forum it is a Health Forum. I have my own beliefs, I do not need to bring them up all the time to everyone I meet. no one needs to be beat over the head with someone's religious beliefs when on here. If you want to talk about religion please go to a religious forum and talk all day about it. You people can make every subject you interact with about religion, that is the way religion is designed. Please let it go and talk about your health and your body, not religion. I am sure now that you all think I am going to go to hell for asking you to not talk about it, even though I did say I had beliefs, you will assume that I am an atheist and need saving.. Assume all you want, just do it somewhere else. LOL..

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

KSalyards — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:33:14 GMT

I have often wondered about the importance of the appendix. I know of three people (my mother, my husband's grandfather on his mother's side and his grandmother on his father's side) who have died of colon cancer and all three of them abused laxatives and had their appendix removed. Sounds to me like a lethal combination!

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

scottandmelody — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:57:03 GMT

any one know of any natural remedies to prevent the gallbladder from being removed due to gallstones?

For me it is too late,I had BAD attacks for 2 years after having my first child. They say pregnancy causes the stones for alot of women...a year after they started I found out what it was, I changed my diet to avoid trigger foods, and it helped tremendously! That is until my second pregnancy, It seemed that more things set off my gallbladder into attack mode than just the normal greasy or acidy things did. and at 3 months pregnant the doctors told me that I would need to have it removed between the 4-5 month range after the sensative 1st trimester, and before the "larger" last trimester. which would have been 1 month away.

I didnt do it.

I was determined that God gave me a gallbladder for a reason and I need it! So I changed my diet even more, and it helped I went through fewer attacks. Until after I had my baby. For some reason they got worse, I discovered that if I threw up all the offending contents in my stomach, the pain would stop. And I was down to eating cream or broth soups, sandwiches, fruit, veggi's. Until about 2 months later I had an attack that didnt go away, after 3 hours I couldnt take it and had someone take me to the hospital, was put on morphine and some hours later, released. A couple of weeks later it happened again. Same thing. only this time they recommended I have it taken out. I said I believe I need this organ and do not want it removed.

Until a week later I was eating lunch with my 2 yr old son, we shared a simple sandwich and a banana, and before I could finish I had an attack! Hospital time! and that time they said...Heres a surgeon, It HAS to come out! I was tired of all the pain. Honestly, I feel that the natural childbirth I went through was better that these attacks. Because I at least knew that the pain was going to be over soon.

I help alot people find natural remedies for this & that type stuff but have been stumped on this one!

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

Ondalor — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:54:47 GMT

This isn't news...I looked up the appendix in Human Anatomy & Physiology, 4th Edition by Elaine Marieb, and it states that, "The appendix contains masses of lymphoid tissue, and as part of MALT (Mucosa Associated Lymphatic Tissue), it plays an important role in bodily immunity." There is nothing fancy about this anatomy and physiology book and it was written in 1998, so the information has always been there it just a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle together. I think it is good to keep what we have been given, there certain is intelligence out there that we can't even imagine to comprehend.

re: Helpful Bacteria May be Hiding in Your Appendix

liketogarden_203 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:35:45 GMT

What do you when an arrogant surgeon removes an appendix because of abdominal surgery unrelated to the appendix? Many surgeons believe they are doing you a favor and the permission you signed for the surgery was carte blanche to do any other surgery they felt like doing. A lawyer would say no harm was done, although not having an appendix would have a weakening effect on the immune system and digestion, especially if subjected to heavy duty antibiotics. My father's surgeon removed his bladder and also his appendix and put him back together with all with staples and no sutures. The surgeon also contaminated himself by entering the holding area after he was all gowned up with his gloves and mask on because he was angry there had been a delay and there was a question about the permission form. My father's staples came apart and his bowel eviscerated and his organs were exposed resulting in a MRSA infection and sepsis. His pacemaker had to be removed. He survived, but was never the same. He could have used his appendix to fight the MRSA. Another surgeon put him back together who believed in sutures and they held and he healed, but the staples left in place caused massive scarring. His thyroid replacement was given with meds that caused it to be biologically unavailable resulting in severe hypothyroidism which went unrecognized for several months and the symptoms were treated with three anti-depressants causing more symptoms. Why is it if you question a surgeon they become enraged and red in the face. That's a red flag that is not the surgeon you want. As for my father, he died nine months later after contracting another MRSA infection from heel ulcers and VRE at another hospital in O.F. IL and sensitive antibiotics were withheld because the hospital thought his Medicare claim period had been exhausted and they did not realize that the secondary policy converted into a full policy. No money, no treatment is still the policy at many hospitals.