What does the uvula do for you? can you live without it?!
Question:
What does the uvula do for you? can you live without it?
Answers:
The uvula has a role both in the production of some sounds, and to prevent food from going up the nose during swallowing.
It also produces large amounts of saliva that keeps our upper digestive duct moist.
Also it's been suggested that the tissues that form the uvula have immunologic activity.
Yes, we can live without it. Its removal can cause throat dryness, but apparently doesn't affect speech or swallowing (although there's a lot of disagreement about this among different sources).
If you're interested, here's a link to a scientific article that reviews past hypotheses and current knowledge about this structure (only the abstract is available free, but I can provide the full article):
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/d...