1. The colon

When you are eating, the food that you ingest has to go through an entire journey. First it is the mouth, then the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, and last but not least the large intestine, which is also known as the colon. Quite a journey, right?

Until the food arrives in the large intestine, all the nutrients have been absorbed, and what is left are generally fibers that are impossible to digest and salts. The colon is the one that collects all of this waste and then helps pass it.

So, this must be a really important organ, isn’t it? Obviously, the colon has an incredibly important function in our bodies, but thanks to advances in medicine, a person can now live without a part of their colon or, in some cases, without a colon at all.

According to some surveys, 10% of all the surgeries performed on US territory are colectomies. This is a surgery that removes a part of the colon or the entire colon and is performed to treat cancer, polyps, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s up with those people who have a bag attached to their abdomen, now you have the answer. They don’t have a colon or a piece of it. In this way, these people can still remove waste without a colon. So, to sum it up, the colon is one of the organs you can live without.