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"The observational method also left a paper trail and legacy of false starts, false inferences, and adverse effects of medical treatment (iatrogenicity). tonsillectomy, for the prevention of childhood pharyngitis, is an example many older readers will recall. We learned the hard way that most children outgrow recurrent pharyngitis with or without tonsillectomy. Recently, we have learned the same lesson for "ear infections" in childhood. The triumph of the last fifty years is the development of methodologies to test whether clinical inferences are valid before they are unleashed on the ill." - Nortin M. Hadler MD, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (Get the book.)

"It was a long time ago, but what I remember so vividly about my tonsillectomy is the smell of the ether. "Just take a deep breath," the surgeon intoned. It was my first disobedient act against the medical community. I held my breath for all I was worth. But within seconds I understood the terrible truth: I had lost. I inhaled the dreadful stuff. Then falling, falling... Then I was awake, puking, too sick to claim my long-promised and long-awaited reward of unlimited ice cream. Later, in college organic chemistry, the smell of ether always made me ill." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.)

"The standard treatment is a course of antibiotics. tonsillectomy (surgery to remove tonsils) is still used occasionally to treat recurrent and acute tonsillitis, particularly if linked with breathing problems. If three or more attacks per year (documented as due to strep) occur that are sufficiently disabling as to prevent attendance at school or work, a tonsillectomy should be considered. T Tonsillitis can be bacterial or viral in origin and should be treated accordingly. (Also see Sore Throat, p. 299, and Strep Throat, p. 304." - Marshall Editions, 1000 Cures for 200 Ailments: Integrated Alternative and Conventional Treatments for the Most Common Illnesses (Get the book.)

"Wenneberg, who holds degrees in both medicine and public health, found that in the 1930s children living in Oxford, England, were about ten times more likely to have a tonsillectomy than children living in Cambridge. In the 1960s, 60% of children under age twenty had the operation in Morrison, Vermont, but only 10% from neighboring Middlebury had the same procedure. In the 1970s, the probability of a woman undergoing a hysterectomy in Middlebury was about one-quarter by age 75, whereas in nearby Lewistown, seven of ten women had the surgery." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.) "At the time I lost mine, tonsillectomy was the third most common surgery done in the United States. Today it is understood that these little organs in our throat contribute significantly to the immune response.43 The very notion of "unnecessary" often involves cultural as well as medical judgments. For example, about two-thirds of all newborn males are circumcised in the United States. Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American Medical Association recommend routine circumcision." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.)

"There were gaping holes in medical knowledge even when it came to something as seemingly mundane as a tonsillectomy. Maybe medicine wasn't an unbroken string of increasingly sophisticated scientific discoveries about the nature of disease and the human body. In fact, as research would show over the coming decades, stunningly little of what physicians do has ever been examined scientifically, and when many treatments and procedures have been put to the test, they have turned out to cause more harm than good." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"If people were instructed in the proper care and feeding of the body, virtually all of the following surgical procedures and many more not listed could be completely avoided: gallbladder removal, colostomy, stents, tonsillectomy, appendectomy, cardiovascular surgery of virtually all kinds, regenerative surgery, tumor removal and the most common unnecessary major surgery of all, the hysterectomy. Victoria Boutenko humorously points out that a baby's runny nose is not an indication of a "nose drop deficiency." I further ask, is a headache really an aspirin deficiency?" - Susan E. Schenck, The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet (Get the book.)

"We learned the hard way that most children outgrow recurrent pharyngitis with or without tonsillectomy. Recently, we have learned the same lesson for "ear infections" in childhood. The triumph of the last fifty years is the development of methodologies to test whether clinical inferences are valid before they are unleashed on the ill. These methodologies try to ensure that an association drawn between a stated health effect and any drug, surgical procedure, dietary change, or other intervention is genuine." - Nortin M. Hadler MD, Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (Get the book.)

"The observational method also left a paper trail and legacy of false starts, false inferences, and adverse effects of medical treatment (iatrogenicity). tonsillectomy, for the prevention of childhood pharyngitis, is an example many older readers will recall. We learned the hard way that most children outgrew recurrent pharyngitis with or without tonsillectomy. The triumph of the last fifty years is the development of methodologies to test whether clinical inferences are valid before they are unleashed on the ill." - Nortin M. Hadler, The Last Well Person: How to Stay Well Despite the Health-Care System (Get the book.)

"In the latter part of the twentieth century, dozens of common treatments, including the tonsillectomy, the hysterectomy, the frontal lobotomy the radical mastectomy, arthroscopic knee surgery for arthritis, X-ray screening for lung cancer, proton pump inhibitors for ulcers, hormone replacement therapy for menopause, and high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer, to name just a few, have ultimately been shown to be unnecessary, ineffective, more dangerous than imagined, or sometimes more deadly than the diseases they were intended to treat." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"The most frequently done surgery was tonsillectomy, accounting for almost one-third of all procedures (tonsillectomies are still the second most common surgery on children, and account for one-quarter of all operations performed by otolaryngologists). According to the 1938 data, setting fractured bones was the second most common surgery; appendectomies were third.4 In 2000 there were 31.5 million ambulatory surgeries performed, which is 63% of the total operations that year. The most common outpatient surgeries were: 6.9 million for the digestive system, including 1." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.)

"There were gaping holes in medical knowledge even when it came to something as seemingly mundane as a tonsillectomy. Maybe medicine wasn't an unbroken string of increasingly sophisticated scientific discoveries about the nature of disease and the human body. In fact, as research would show over the coming decades, stunningly little of what physicians do has ever been examined scientifically, and when many treatments and procedures have been put to the test, they have turned out to cause more harm than good." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.) "In the latter part of the twentieth century, dozens of common treatments, including the tonsillectomy, the hysterectomy, the frontal lobotomy the radical mastectomy, arthroscopic knee surgery for arthritis, X-ray screening for lung cancer, proton pump inhibitors for ulcers, hormone replacement therapy for menopause, and high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer, to name just a few, have ultimately been shown to be unnecessary, ineffective, more dangerous than imagined, or sometimes more deadly than the diseases they were intended to treat." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"The 190 tonsillectomy patients received either Arnica 30c or placebo (2 tablets 6 times in postoperative day followed by 2 tablets twice daily for subsequent 7 days). Questionnaires from 111 patients were available for analysis. A significantly (p<0.05) larger drop in pain score from postoperative day 1 to 14 (28.3) was recorded by the Arnica group compared to the placebo group (pain score 23.8)." - Thomson Healthcare, Inc., PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition (Get the book.)

"If three or more attacks per year (documented as due to strep) occur that are sufficiently disabling as to prevent attendance at school or work, a tonsillectomy should be considered. T Tonsillitis can be bacterial or viral in origin and should be treated accordingly. (Also see Sore Throat, p. 299, and Strep Throat, p. 304.) A medical emergency exists if there is an abscess surrounding the tonsils. Also if the tonsils remain very enlarged following treatment, referral to an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist is usual." - Marshall Editions, 1000 Cures for 200 Ailments: Integrated Alternative and Conventional Treatments for the Most Common Illnesses (Get the book.)

"I forgot to mention that three years ago 1 had recurring tonsillitis, and at the age of sixty-seven it is very dangerous to consider a tonsillectomy. Hence my search for an alternative, with good results! I've been through the winter every year since, without a cold or any sign of a sore throat! Thank You Again, Bev --«T- Dear Mary-Ann, I started your way of eating just over three months ago and cannot get over how wonderful it is. 1 heard you speak some years back but did nothing about it even though I had very high cholesterol." - Mary-Ann Shearer, Perfect Health the Natural Way (Get the book.)

"Craven started giving this aspirin-containing gum to his tonsillectomy patients so they could eat and sleep without pain. Some liked the Aspergum so much that they purchased additional packets and developed "serious postoperative hemorrhages which were difficult to control. The bleeding was sometimes so severe that hospitalization was necessary."463 Dr. Craven quickly realized that aspirin had a powerful anticoagulant effect. He could have dropped the matter and discouraged the use of aspirin. Instead he speculated that low-dose aspirin therapy might prevent blood clots in coronary arteries." - Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy (Get the book.)

"We learned the hard way that most children outgrew recurrent pharyngitis with or without tonsillectomy. The triumph of the last fifty years is the development of methodologies to test whether clinical inferences are valid before they are unleashed on the ill. These methodologies try to ensure that an association drawn between a stated health effect and any drug, surgical procedure, dietary change, or other intervention is genuine. Their success derives from the design of the clinical trials and the statistical methods to handle the data." - Nortin M. Hadler, The Last Well Person: How to Stay Well Despite the Health-Care System (Get the book.)

"If tonsillitis becomes recurrent or chronic, tonsillectomy (removal of the tonsils) may be recommended. In the past, doctors removed tonsils on a very frequent basis. Today we know that the tonsils are important for the proper functioning of the immune system. Tonsils should not be removed unless absolutely necessary. TOOTH DECAY Tooth decay rivals the common cold as the most prevalent human disorder. It is not a natural process, as many people believe, but a bacterial disease. This bacteria can enter the bloodstream and cause other problems in the body." - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements (Get the book.)

"He found, for example, that in Vermont the rate of tonsillectomy in children varied from one community to another between 8 percent to 70 percent. The rate of hysterectomy in women who reached age 70 in two areas not far apart in Maine was 20 percent in one and 70 percent in the other.3 Even today he finds wide variations in the use of procedures such as tonsillectomy, hysterectomy, and prostatectomy, all procedures for which there is considerable professional disagreement about their necessity." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.)

"It took a generation of observers before it was clear that children outgrow recurrent pharyngitis with or without tonsillectomy. It took two generations of observers before it was clear that retroverted uteruses are normal and present in a significant minority of perfectly well women (usually the angle at the juncture of the cervix with the uterus points the uterus towards the front; in 15 per cent of women, however, the juncture angles back towards the spine, so the uterus is retroverted)." - Nortin M. Hadler, The Last Well Person: How to Stay Well Despite the Health-Care System (Get the book.)

"May be kept dormant during childhood years by the Immune tonsils, adenoids, and appendix; incidence rises in those having had tonsillectomy or appendix-removal (esp. in males). Strikes in the early 20's to 3 5 years, more in females; may be genetic; may be precursed by herpes-6, Epstein-Barrvirus,orchlamydiapneumoniae; maybe linked to mercury amalgam fi 11 ings; high risk depends on where one grew up (urban areas in America) and stays with one through life despite emigration." - Joseph E. Mario, Anti-Aging Manual: The Encyclopedia of Natural Health (Get the book.)

"It appears that the unnecessary surgery of the past, the tonsillectomy, has been replaced by this new procedure. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the decline of the tonsillectomy and the rise of the myringotomy. Over two million myringotomy tubes are inserted into children's ears each year, along with six hundred thousand tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies. Are these surgeries necessary? Are they effective? Is current standard medical treatment successful? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding "no" for most kids." - Michael T. Murray, N.D., Joseph E. Pizzorno, N.D., Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Revised Second Edition (Get the book.)

"Scars Some scars from cuts, burns, dental work, falls, surgery, tonsillectomy, car accidents, Caesarean sections, etc., can strangulate the nerves causing many i 1 lness symptoms. To test for nerve strangulation in a scar, gently rub a pin over the scar every 1/8 inch to see if the nerve jumps, and is painful. Scars can be removed by rubbing with 2 oz. Camphoratedoil,ahalf-tsp.ofdissoIved Lanolin, and 1 oz. of Peanut oil. Gotu Kola cream. Castor oil and wool-flannel pack, undera heatingpad." - Joseph E. Mario, Anti-Aging Manual: The Encyclopedia of Natural Health (Get the book.)

"Now that medicine has recognized the protective function of tonsils and adenoids, the tonsillectomy is no longer a rite of passage for children entering school. Nevertheless, nearly 1 million tonsillectomies are still performed annually, and approximately 600 youngsters die each year from hemorrhaging and other complications of the procedure. Undoubtedly, tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy is justified where there is chronically impaired breathing or persistent loss of hearing due to blockage of the eustachian tubes." - Maesimund B. Panos, M.D. and Jane Heimlich, Homeopathic Medicine at Home: Natural Remedies for Everyday Ailments and Minor Injuries (Get the book.)

"In December 1972 she was admitted to hospital for a tonsillectomy, and because she could not swallow, was off all pills for ten days. Her voices came back, she became irritable and depressed, and on January 5,1973 was admitted to hospital where she was given 5 more ECT. By April 1973 she was well. C.H. was her first child. As a baby he had rocked a lot and later ran around in circles. In May 1969 he began to demand more attention, clung to his mother, became disobedient. Often he could not understand her." - Dr. Abram Hoffer, M.D., FRCP(C), Healing Children's Attention & Behavior Disorders (Get the book.)

"Even today he finds wide variations in the use of procedures such as tonsillectomy, hysterectomy, and prostatectomy, all procedures for which there is considerable professional disagreement about their necessity. However, for procedures such as appendectomy and hernia repair (for which there is considerable scientific agreement), there is little variation from one site to another." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.)

"The victims of a lot of needless surgery are children. tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures in the United States. Half of all pediatric surgery is for the removal of tonsils. About a million are done every year. Yet the operation has never been demonstrated to do very much good. Back around the same time I got into trouble for cutting urological workups on children at an outpatient clinic, I got into trouble again for not discussing the size of tonsils. There are very rare cases—less than one in 1,000—where someone may need a tonsillectomy." - Robert Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (Get the book.)

"It appears that the unnecessary surgery of the past, the tonsillectomy, has been replaced by this new procedure. In fact there is a direct correlation between the decline of the tonsillectomy and the rise of the myringotomy. Over 2 million myringotomy tubes are inserted into children's ears each year, along with 600,000 tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies. These surgeries are unnecessary for most children. A 1994 evaluation of the appropriateness of myringotomy tubes in children under 16 years of age in the United States found that only 42% were judged as being appropriate." - Michael T. Murray, ND, Textbook of Natural Medicine 2nd Edition Volume 2 (Get the book.)

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