Removing Tonsils and Adenoids: Health Blog
Is it necessary to always remove tonsils or adenoids when problems arise? Perhaps not. Tonsils, adenoids and Peyer's patches are small masses of lymphatic tissue in the body (some sources consider them specialized lymph nodes). These tissues serve to prevent infection in the body in areas where bacteria is abundant. There are five tonsils that form a "ring" around the throat that helps trap and remove any bacteria or other foreign pathogens entering the throat through breathing, eating, or drinking. Peyer's patches, which resemble tonsils, are located in the small intestine. The macrophages of Peyer's patches prevent infection of the intestinal wall by destroying the bacteria always present in the moist environment of the intestine.
Certainly, there are times it makes sense to remove tonsils and adenoids even though they are an integral part of the lymph/immune system. When they are removed, the body adapts and moves functions elsewhere; however, there are cases when natural alternatives are enough to relieve the problem. It’s also important to remember that unless the problem is, in fact, naturally large tonsils that restrict the throat, removing the tonsils doesn’t actually get rid of the problem – merely the place it’s manifesting.
When dealing with enlarged tonsils, then, the key question you need to ask is whether the problem is intrinsic or extrinsic. Are you actually dealing with very large tonsils, or are the tonsils merely continuously enlarged because of immune and lymph problems? If the latter, removing the tonsils and adenoids won't get rid of the problem -- it merely removes one location the symptoms manifest. You might want to see what happens short term if you try and boost the immune system. Do the tonsils shrink at all? If so, then you know that the problem is changeable. If improving immunity has no effect on the tonsil size, then they may indeed be abnormally large and need to come out. If the size of the tonsils changes from day to day, that means you most likely have an immune system problem. If so, the key focus for tonsil and adenoid health is improving immunity by following some general guidelines:
- Removing dairy from the diet has also been shown to shrink enlarged tonsils and adenoids, indicating relief for the immune system by reducing Circulating Immune Complexes.
- Using digestive enzymes with meals to help break down proteins that contribute to Circulating Immune Complexes can also be helpful.
- You might want to see what happens short term if you use immune boosters and pathogen destroyers.
- And finally, if you’re old enough, you can work on cleaning out and optimizing your lymph system.