• Question: if we can do without our tonsils, why do we have them?

    Asked by R2D2 to Andy, Duane, Giovanna, Katie, Theresia on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Duane Mellor

      Duane Mellor answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      These are lymphatic tissue so they are a place where our immune system cells group. We can manage without them as we have other lymphatic tissue close by in our necks and arm pits

    • Photo: Andrew Philp

      Andrew Philp answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      A lot of systems in the body have redundancy mechanisms that can work as a back up if something stops working. The tonsils are like this in that other tissues/organs can compensate of tonsils are removed. It makes the system really efficient as it can cope with injury, damage.

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