It is said that you can safely live without almonds, which has of course been proven for many years by the many people who grow old without them, but I can hardly imagine that they have no function, and that function must be useful for our human body, not then?
Answer
Dear Phil,
At the back of our throat is a ring of lymph nodes, most of which are in the tonsils. One sometimes speaks of lymph nodes, but they are not glands. They are simple organs in which a very large amount of lymph cells are accumulated, and those lymph cells play a very important role in our defense system against germs, which is why our tonsils (but also those other lymph nodes in our throat) swell when we have a laryngitis.
Lymph nodes are found just about everywhere in our body, although most often in places where there is a good chance that “invaders” can enter our body (such as the throat, but also in and around the gut, under the armpits and in our groin area). There are also many lymph nodes in our appendix, which can cause so-called appendicitis. So we can live without that appendage or without tonsils, but if it can be avoided, they take away less quickly than in the past, unless it is really necessary.
For example, in some people, the small dimples that appear on the tonsils may be a little too deep, causing something to get left behind more quickly, causing constant inflammation.
Answered by
Prof. dr. dr. Schockaert Ernest
Biology/Zoölogy
Agoralaan University Campus Building D BE-3590 Diepenbeek
http://www.uhasselt.be/
.