Spare Parts: In Praise of Your Appendix and Other Unappreciated Organs
A tribute to the parts we can live without... or can we?

This book sheds light on human body parts once considered extraneous but now – with modern medicine and modern medical paraphernalia – shown to play an important role in our healthful survival. With wit and research-honed wisdom, health writer Carol Ann Rinzler explains in layman's language why we need “bonus” body parts such as:

The appendix, once discarded as “the worm of the intestines,” but now believed to play an important role in our immune system
The coccyx, a.k.a. the “tailbone,” once considered the remnant of a human tail, but now considered the keystone of the boney pelvic arch when muscles meet and stabilize our seating
Wisdom teeth, that “extra” set of molars for which many “evolved” human jaws lack accommodating space but still remain in place where we higher primates still follow a basic “hard”diet that require extra chew power
On the other hand, having highlighted the still-important parts, Rinzler adds a chapter on dispensables: parts with which we can indeed happily dispense. Along the way, Rinzler weaves in Darwin’s theories of evolution and shares insights on what the human body may be like millennia from now.
1123362486
Spare Parts: In Praise of Your Appendix and Other Unappreciated Organs
A tribute to the parts we can live without... or can we?

This book sheds light on human body parts once considered extraneous but now – with modern medicine and modern medical paraphernalia – shown to play an important role in our healthful survival. With wit and research-honed wisdom, health writer Carol Ann Rinzler explains in layman's language why we need “bonus” body parts such as:

The appendix, once discarded as “the worm of the intestines,” but now believed to play an important role in our immune system
The coccyx, a.k.a. the “tailbone,” once considered the remnant of a human tail, but now considered the keystone of the boney pelvic arch when muscles meet and stabilize our seating
Wisdom teeth, that “extra” set of molars for which many “evolved” human jaws lack accommodating space but still remain in place where we higher primates still follow a basic “hard”diet that require extra chew power
On the other hand, having highlighted the still-important parts, Rinzler adds a chapter on dispensables: parts with which we can indeed happily dispense. Along the way, Rinzler weaves in Darwin’s theories of evolution and shares insights on what the human body may be like millennia from now.
14.49 In Stock
Spare Parts: In Praise of Your Appendix and Other Unappreciated Organs

Spare Parts: In Praise of Your Appendix and Other Unappreciated Organs

by Carol Ann Rinzler
Spare Parts: In Praise of Your Appendix and Other Unappreciated Organs

Spare Parts: In Praise of Your Appendix and Other Unappreciated Organs

by Carol Ann Rinzler

eBook

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Overview

A tribute to the parts we can live without... or can we?

This book sheds light on human body parts once considered extraneous but now – with modern medicine and modern medical paraphernalia – shown to play an important role in our healthful survival. With wit and research-honed wisdom, health writer Carol Ann Rinzler explains in layman's language why we need “bonus” body parts such as:

The appendix, once discarded as “the worm of the intestines,” but now believed to play an important role in our immune system
The coccyx, a.k.a. the “tailbone,” once considered the remnant of a human tail, but now considered the keystone of the boney pelvic arch when muscles meet and stabilize our seating
Wisdom teeth, that “extra” set of molars for which many “evolved” human jaws lack accommodating space but still remain in place where we higher primates still follow a basic “hard”diet that require extra chew power
On the other hand, having highlighted the still-important parts, Rinzler adds a chapter on dispensables: parts with which we can indeed happily dispense. Along the way, Rinzler weaves in Darwin’s theories of evolution and shares insights on what the human body may be like millennia from now.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781510712515
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date: 03/21/2017
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 189,325
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Carol Ann Rinzler is the author of more than 20 books on health, including Leonardo’s Foot, the bestsellers Nutrition For Dummies, 6th edition, and Controlling Cholesterol For Dummies, 2nd edition, and the award-winning Estrogen and Breast Cancer. She wrote a nutrition column for the New York Daily News.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Where in the World Was Charles Robert Darwin? 8

The Darwin Dictionary 9

1 Hide & Seek: The Appendix

Did You See What I Saw? 13

Mummy Meds 18

False Diagnoses & Favored Folk Remedies 21

From Needle to Knife 23

Sir Winston's Triple Complaint 30

Form Follows Function 31

After Words 40

The Appendix 42

2 Feathers & Fur: Body Hair

The Natural Nature of Our Hair 48

The Tree of Human Life 48

Hair & Fur & Feathers 52

How We Lost Our Hair 55

Hair on Top 58

The Price of Male Facial Hair 62

Hair in the Middle 62

Hair Down There 66

Less Hair but Not Hair-less 71

3 The Tale of the Tailbone: The Coccyx

The Incredible Versatile Tail 74

Fascinating Far End Factoid 75

Getting By with No Tail at All 81

The Man Who Invented the Human Tail 83

Defects Associated with "Human Tail" 89

At the Tail End 90

Flowers & Funnies & Men with Tails 92

4 Ear Rings: The Auricular Muscles

Breathing Through Your Ears 96

How We Hear 98

Smelly Ears = Smelly Armpits 99

Picturing the Pinna 102

Muscle Mechanics 108

5 Blink!: The Third Eyelid

What Richard Owen Wrote 114

Looking through the Lid 117

What You See Is What We've Got 119

The Human Eye Unmasked 120

The Very Human Version of a Third Eyelid 128

Two Eyes. Four Lids. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? 131

Eyelids of the World 133

6 Pearly Whites: Wisdom Teeth

Fish Teeth & Darwin's Finch 136

How Old Is Your Eon? 143

Missing Bone & Surplus Molars 147

Building & Keeping Human Teeth 149

The Last Bite 157

Name That Tooth 159

7 Dispensables

The One and Only Brain 162

Replaceable/Remediable 165

Transplantation Waiting List, United States, 12:14 PM, April 26, 2016 167

(Almost) Reliably Redundant 167

Useful but Dispensable 168

Four (Really Pretty Much) Useless Human Body Parts 173

One Indisputably Vestigial Organ 177

8 Future Man

Yes. No. Maybe 181

The End of Evolution 182

The Next Evolution 184

Man Improving Man 186

Infant Mortality in the United States, 2010 189

Life Expectancy at Birth in the United States, 1900-2010 190

Fictional Futures 191

Future Films 193

The Rise of Mr. Robot 198

9 Postscript

The Darwin Family Business 201

Development in Dress by George Herbert Darwin 205

About the Author 221

Endnotes 223

Index 263

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