Expendable Body Parts?

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By Mary Carpenter

THAT HALF of all body parts is unnecessary “is a myth,” according to Harvard rheumatologist Robert Shmerling. Advising against unnecessary removals, Shmerling explains that “our understanding about so-called spare parts may change over time.” Already, those “parts” newly appreciated for roles in the immune system include the appendix and tonsils—also the thymus gland, recently seen as a hoped-for player in slowing the process of aging.

The tonsils, thymus gland and spleen—among “spare parts” listed by Shmerling — create links often likened to “a string of pearls” in the body’s lymphatic system. While injury or disease has been the most common cause of their removal, tonsillectomies used to be almost a rite of passage in early childhood; the spleen sacrificed if there was any risk of bleeding after injury; and the thymus eliminated as an unnecessary obstacle during chest surgery.

But the lymph system—and each of these parts—plays an important role by continuously cleansing the body, collecting byproducts of cellular activity and infection and transporting them for detoxification via lymph nodes and eventually the blood. Notably, lymph tissue located around the digestive tract helps protect this main entry point into the body against toxins and infection. A poorly functioning lymph system can cause fatigue and a feeling of heaviness in the abdomen —what the Chinese call “excessive damp.”

Joint pain, headaches, food sensitivities, cold and flu infections, including sinusitis, fatigue and depression may also be symptoms of disturbances in the lymphatic system — a high priority in Europe for both treatment and preventive health care. According to Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN nurse practitioner, author of Is it Me or My Hormones?: manual manipulations and movements for lymphatic drainage are considered routine treatments in European hospitals, especially before surgery “to improve healing by readying the system for recovery.”

Inactivity can seriously impair the flow of lymph fluid—because, unlike blood that is kept moving by the heart, the lymph system has no pump and relies on muscle contractions during deep breathing and physical activity to move fluids through the body. Lying on a slant board or otherwise hanging upside down can help. Estimating that 80 percent of women have sluggish lymphatic systems, Ann Louise Gittleman in her book The Fat Flush Plan suggests exercise on a mini-trampoline or any stretching or aerobic exercise; also drinking lots of water and eating raw fruit.

The thymus—meaning “soul” in Greek from the belief that the soul resides there—pumps out white blood cells called T-lymphocytes but is active only until puberty and then “withers away,” according to sciencenews. Afterwards it fills with fat, appearing “more like a fatty blob,” said Mass General hematologist-oncologist David Scadden. In research with colleagues on 1,146 patients whose thymus glands were removed during surgery—compared with a control group matched for age, sex and race but whose chest surgery did not include thymus removal—the thymectomy patients had nearly three times the risk of death and twice the risk of cancer.

Linking these results to loss of immune protection from newly formed T-cells, UCLA geneticist Steve Horvath and others studying the biology of aging looked at the possibility of restoring function in the aging thymus, according to MedicalNewsToday. The researchers based their hypothesis on the belief that “thymic involution leads to the depletion of critical immune cell populations and is linked to age-related increases in cancer incidence, infectious diseases…and all-cause mortality.”

In a trial called TRIIM (Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation), the UCLA researchers tested a cocktail of hormones, steroids and the diabetes drug metformin with the goal of restoring youthful functioning of the thymus.  In the original, small study of males ages 51 to 65, the cocktail reduced subjects’ biological age by two to three years. According to Forbes, “in most cases, their kidney functions improved, and some of the men’s hair became darker too.”

While a follow-up TRIIM-X study that includes women and a wider age range is underway, the organization PUR-FORM is testing slightly altered ingredients of the UCLA cocktail to affect biological age—also called “epigenetic age,” related to chemical modifications of DNA, in response to various environmental and lifestyle factors, as “a better predictor of age-related disease and mortality than chronological age,” according to PUR-FORM medical director Joseph Purita. “Our practice decided to enhance the TRIIM trial and design with what we feel will be [better] for thymus gland rescue.”

From Shmerling’s list, the seven “anatomic remnants” that might confer health benefits—in addition to tonsils, thymus gland and spleen—include adenoids, gallbladder and uterus. Finally, he adds the appendix—is shown in new research to play a possible “role in immune development and stores ‘good bacteria’ to repopulate the gut in case of future illness.” New appreciation for these remnants over the years has led to a steady decrease in their removal.

Years ago, I had several bouts of what was called “chronic appendicitis”—symptoms never severe enough to warrant treatment, even with antibiotics, the less invasive approach to appendicitis. The only spare part I have given up is tonsils—after years of childhood earaches that ended only after a second tonsillectomy to remove them completely.

—Mary Carpenter regularly reports on topical subjects in health and medicine.