Avoiding Surgery for Big Tonsils, Gallstones or Fibroids

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Things you may not know Anthroposophic Treatments are good for:
Avoiding Surgery for Big Tonsils, Gallstones or Fibroids

We get sick in stages: there is a waterfall relationship between the immediate impressions of a situation; to what with time becomes a more chronic,physiologic imbalance; to what eventually becomes a true pathological (illness causing) change. An example: if I have an sudden shock or scare, then heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tone will naturally all go up, but they should all gradually relax and return to normal over the course of a few hours. That would likely change if a shock or scare began to happen every day, then soon the body's steady state changes, it gets reset—perhaps to a place where there are persistent challenges with falling asleep, or painful tight muscles that become the norm. And if my “reset” physiology stays imbalanced long enough we meet irreversibly illness, like a heart attack, a tumor, or high blood pressure that cannot be brought down. Most medical interventions happen in this third stage,though obviously working to change the process earlier (upstream) is a more ideal, and potent place to work.

There are at least three examples of illnesses that really exist at the level of imbalanced physiology (the middle stage), but are routinely treated straight away with surgical intervention (in this case removing the organ completely, a third stage solution). The first example, surgical removal of enlarged tonsils and adenoids. This is much less common than it used to be because medicine has come to realize that there are advantages to keeping your tonsils. Big tonsils actually reflect a delayed process of pneumatization (the opening of airways in the head and the shrinking of lymphatic tissue) that is a normal part of childhood growth. That process of shrinking down tissue can be supported with remedies when it is too slow. 

Second example: gallstones. These result from a slowed emptying of bile from the gallbladder. Rhythmic release of bile into the small intestine has both important digestive function (for breaking down fats) and excretion of substances that are filtered out by the liver. Stimulating better gallbladder activity can actually be helpful on many levels, not just because it offers an alternative to. gallbladder removal. 

Third example: the uterus is an amazingly flexible organ, as it grows and stretches to accommodate a full pregnancy to the extent that it fills the abdominal space (plus some!), then returns down to the size of an apple by six weeks post-partum. Amazing! Uterine fibroids are a one-sided accentuation of the growing muscle process of the uterus, which can be balanced by bringing better form and structure to the uterus as a whole.  

All of these treatments are accomplished by finding and using plants and minerals from the natural world that support the processes inherent in our own body. There are natural substances that complement nearly every aspect of our physiology. Thoughtful preparation of those substances makes possible medical approaches that work “mid-stream.” Surgery is of course an important and potent approach, particularly if a process has been out of balance for years. But anthroposophic treatments offer additional options—requiring 6–12 weeks—to try to balance out a process without needing to use a scalpel.