Why We Still Have These 11 Body Parts We Wouldn’t Need to Survive

The human body is extremely capable of adapting to changes — our bodies can lose several organs and still function, unless it happens all at once, which would be unhealthy. However, if you lose certain parts of your body that play important roles, most of the time, there is a fix, and you can still lead a fulfilling life.

O awesome.club brings a list of body parts that we wouldn’t necessarily need to survive.

In our nose there are two holes, or nostrils, separated by the septum (this is what separates the left nostril from the right). They go through something called the nasal cycle and that basically gives us two noses. This cycle indicates that one of your nostrils works harder than the other.

Every few hours, we switch from breathing from one nostril to the other due to the swelling of our internal tissues. It’s important that one nostril receives less airflow than the other, because that’s what gives us the ability to smell. We really are superhumans!

The lungs, as we know, serve to supply oxygen to the body. But the surprising thing is that we can survive with only one lung, in certain situations. Athletes, for example, would not be able to exercise like they used to, but they would still be able to exercise.

The body would adapt to functioning without one of the lungs, compensating for the loss of oxygen. Also, the lung that wasn’t removed gets bigger to adapt to these changes. All it takes is time and practice to fully get used to it.

You read that right, most people could live without a stomach. While the small intestine is vital to our survival and is the most important part of digestion, the stomach is not. Our body is able to skip the “breaking down” of food and pass it straight to the intestines.

Through a surgical procedure, surgeons can connect the esophagus (the tube that connects the throat to the stomach) to the small intestine and, as a result, the person would be able to eat normally by adding vitamin supplements to the diet. However, the stomach is usually removed only if the person has a serious illness, such as cancer.

Most people have their tonsils removed as a child, and it’s perfectly possible to live without them. The tonsils are located at the back of the throat, and their job is to prevent germs from entering through the mouth.

For many people, the tonsils tend to shrink over time, but sometimes they don’t, and infections can occur, and then they need to be removed through a process called a tonsillectomy.

Oh yes, we all know that we get goosebumps when we listen to exciting music, when it’s very cold outside or when we’re scared. But we don’t really need those muscles, which were needed in the era of our hairier ancestors, as extra protection against the cold.

Muscle fibers, known as arrectores pilorum, produce the shiver, and our ancestors needed them like we need coats today to protect us from freezing temperatures.

Of course we need the ears to hear, but we don’t need to move them to do that. There is a muscle group called auricularis, which was useful to our ancestors: they moved their ears to hear better and express emotions, as animals do.

Although we still have ears today and can move them a little, the muscles are weaker for evolutionary reasons. In any case, our ears move when we feel emotions like happiness, and this is a phenomenon that cannot be explained.

The main role of the large intestine is to remove waste from the body. This does not mean that it really contributes to metabolism and is the only way to a belly, which is why people can survive without it. There is no reason to have it removed unless it is due to a serious illness. But, if it does, you can live a full life without it.

If you look at your eyes through the mirror, you will see a small pink circle in the corner. It’s your third eyelid, useless to us but useful to animals, like birds, to keep dust and other dirt from getting into your eyes.

If you’ve heard of natural selection, this might sound familiar to you. To sum up, natural selection keeps some parts of the body across generations, but some of them are harmful and so eliminated in the next generation; but others end up remaining, like the third eyelid in some people.

We do, in fact, have a coccyx which is useless to us, unlike mammals who need it for balance and communication. The coccyx was useful to our ancestors when they were just starting to walk on two legs.

Evolution turned this into the bones located at the base of our spine. Some findings suggest that this bone is still used to support some muscles in the pelvic area, but it has been proven to be of little or no practical use.

The spleen is located on the left side of the abdomen, close to the stomach. It is an important organ, but some people can live without it. When the spleen no longer works properly, such as when it becomes enlarged or damaged, it may be a go-ahead to remove it.

After removal, you may be prone to getting infections more quickly. However, the liver, for example, will take over its tasks and you will still be able to control these infections.

The gallbladder is located on the right side of the abdomen, below the liver. Without it, the body would not be able to store a digestive juice called bile, but as a substitute, the liver could do this job and would release the bile into the small intestine.

You will still be able to digest a lot of food, but fatty foods may be a problem as they can cause bloating and gas.

Were you surprised by any body part we don’t need? Have you ever had an organ removed?