Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: Re: astronaut emergencies
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1996 14:07:31 GMT

In article <SHAFER.96Jul17122229@ferhino.dfrf.nasa.gov> shafer@ferhino.dfrc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes:
>...However, most crew are too old to get appendicitis;
>this problem is most common in young people and the aged astronauts
>are at very low risk.

Furthermore, appendicitis is much less common than it used to be.  Nobody
is quite sure why it has declined, although there is suspicion that it
just might be because kids no longer routinely have their tonsils out --
there may be some vestigial glandular action still occurring in both that
would produce interactions.

Incidentally, I'm told that appendicitis can be treated without surgery if 
caught early.
-- 
...the truly fundamental discoveries seldom        |       Henry Spencer
occur where we have decided to look.  --B. Forman  |   henry@zoo.toronto.edu