Your Appendix & Tonsils Aren't Useless - Here's Why - Episode 318

You've probably been told your appendix and tonsils are basically optional. I don't buy that — and the research backs me up.

In this episode I break down the full story on two of the most dismissed organs in the body. What they actually do, why they matter more than you've been told, what drives removal, and what can shift afterward — plus how to support yourself whether you still have them or not.

Your appendix is an active microbiome reservoir that helps reseed your gut after illness, infection, or antibiotics, and plays a direct role in IgA immune regulation. Your tonsils are your immune system's first line of defense — tied to your oral microbiome, lymphatic drainage, airway mechanics, and vagus nerve tone. These are not evolutionary leftovers. They are functional, living parts of systems your body depends on daily.

I cover what actually drives appendicitis and tonsil failure, the connection to dysbiosis and chronic inflammation, and what people notice after removal — gut reactivity, anxiety, shifted gut-brain signaling, and immune changes. I also walk through the practical tools that support your body on both sides — fibre, prebiotics, polyphenols, gut barrier support, warm salt water gargling, nasal breathing, tongue posture, anti-inflammatory nutrition, hydration, and nervous system regulation.

I also explore the somatic and energetic layer — safety and intuition with the appendix, and voice, truth, and boundaries with the tonsils. Science and soul, together.

This is Part 2 of 2. Part 1 covers the gallbladder and uterus — two more organs dismissed as optional that your body would strongly disagree with.  

Listen to Part 1 here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sandy-k-nutrition-health-lifestyle-queen/id1496677282?i=1000763762231

I'm a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and a Certified Metabolic Balance coach with numerous certifications, including in functional lab testing, clinical nutrition, hormones and endocrinology, peptides and anti-aging. Sandy K Nutrition — Health & Lifestyle Queen | over 1.4M downloads worldwide.

Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it helps more people find balanced, unbiased and grounded health conversations.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Philosophy

Sandy Kruse 0:02

Hi everyone, it's me, Sandy Kruse. Welcome to Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. For many years now, I've been a trusted voice for people in midlife and beyond who want a deeper, more honest conversation about wellness. One that includes the physical, the emotional, the mental, and the esoteric. Most episodes are solo now because I want to bring you thoughtful research, lived experience, and grounded insight without noise or bias. And when I do bring on a guest, it's because their work genuinely adds something meaningful to the conversation. Here we explore the full spectrum of what it means to be well, how the body functions, how the mind heals, how the spirit expands, and how all of these layers shape life lived with clarity and joy. Thanks for being here. And if this show resonates with you, please follow, rate, review, and share it. It truly helps the message reach more people. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. This is part two of the organs that we're told we don't need, and how to support our bodies to try and keep these organs healthy. What happens when we have to have them removed, as well as the energetic and the more spiritual component of the function of these organs and how you can keep them healthy from an energetic and spiritual side. Because as you know, everything I do is science and soul. And if you haven't already seen it, maybe go back to the first part one. I talk about the gallbladder and the uterus. And it was such a long episode that I decided to break this into two separate episodes. I also decided not to talk about the ovaries in this episode. I'm only going to cover the tonsils and the appendix because the ovaries is kind of similar to the uterus in a lot of ways. Um, maybe not scientifically and medically, they do different things. However, energetically, it's very similar, you know, the same kind of thing as the uterus with chronic self-abandonment and having more of a masculine heavy shift when they're removed. So go back to the first part one episode and watch that one if the gallbladder and the um uterus interest you on how to stay healthy without these organs or how to keep them healthy. Gallbladder is a big one and it really, really affects so many people. So I know the uterus it doesn't, it's women only, but you know, the next ones that I'm gonna talk about appendix and tonsils, those are massive. I'm gonna stop right now and ask you to subscribe or follow wherever you are watching or listening and share this with one person. Today it's gonna be all about the appendix and the tonsils. I know that when my son was little, we had his tonsils removed. He was only five, and I still remember the ENT. She was like, you know, he has such big adenoids and tonsils. Let's just get them out. They're affecting his sleep. He was snoring, and you know, she also did say, well, you know, he'll probably grow into them as he gets older. But anyway, back then I didn't really realize how important it is to do what you can naturally, if possible, to keep the organ healthy. And then there's also the fact of genetics. You know, my husband has the same issues, and so, you know, was it the right thing? I can't go back and say, oh my God, I wish I didn't do that. But at the same time, I wish I was more educated. And that's the reason I do what I do, is because I come every week with unbiased information. I rarely have guests anymore for that reason. Not to say I won't have guests, because I still will have occasional guests, because I really value what they have to bring to the conversation. When it comes to research and science, I am a researcher. I am in the holistic health industry for many years now. I'm a registered holistic nutritionist with multiple certifications. And I also am a massive advocate for health and wellness to try and do what we can to age better naturally, but taking into account balance and science and soul. I used to be heavily um, I guess, entrenched in that whole biohacking industry. And then I pulled away because I saw a lot of things that I just no longer resonated with. And I feel like we all have the right to change our minds. I found it to become, you know, very science heavy, very coupon code driven heavy. I just didn't know what to believe, how to believe it. And then I also saw that, you know, a lot of times people are almost like treating themselves and their bodies like they're robots. And so I found a lot of the soul and a lot of the spirituality and energetics around health and wellness was missing. So I pulled away from that and I've really kind of come into my own, let's just say. And this episode, I'm gonna tell you, you're not gonna see this. The science, the soul, the energetics, the spiritual component anywhere else. I don't even know if I've ever seen anyone do a podcast on this, on you know, why certain removal, what these organs do, why they're removed, and they're commonly removed, what you can do to rebalance the body, both from a health perspective as well as from a spiritual perspective, because I do believe that every single organ has a purpose. And I referred to this in part one. I did do a lot of work on the metaphysical anatomy, how the body is very connected to trauma and emotional ties and energetic ties and experiences. And I have recorded a few podcasts. Please go into my catalog. I have over 300 episodes. Check out Yvette Rose, check out Julia Cannon, and you know, that's a lot of the energetic. So I'm gonna get going. I'm gonna ask you to follow me wherever you do social media, Sandy Knutrition, everywhere. And also, if you would rate and review my podcast wherever you listen, preferably Apple or Spotify. I think there's a place where you can add a rating, add a review, add a few kind words. It just really helps me to just keep going and to be seen, you know, amongst all these massive podcasters who have all this money behind them to promote themselves, whether they're celebrities or whatever. I don't have that. So I have you guys and I love you guys and I appreciate you who come back each and every week. So let's get started. I'm gonna start with the appendix. I told you I'm not gonna do the ovaries because it's way too similar to the uterus. So if you're interested, listen to the part one. Okay. So why does the appendix fail? I have I'm two organs down, my friends. I'm not gonna do the thyroid because I think that the thyroid is just way too complex to throw into one of these episodes. So I'm gonna do that separately down the road, but I don't have a thyroid gland. I lost that at age 41. I also don't have an appendix because I think I was about 11. I had an appendicitis. So acute appendicitis, that's what happens. And why does that happen? Nobody really asks the question. Everyone's like, it's just a useless organ. So the reason is number one, acute appendicitis, number two, chronic inflammation, and number three, rare tumors. Now, what does the appendix do? Because everyone's like, what the hell does it do? I don't, I'm a 1970 baby, and I remember hearing, oh, if you swallow too much gum, you're gonna have to have your appendix out. I don't know if you've ever heard that, but I remember hearing that. And I'm like, I guess I swallowed too much gum. I don't know. I was 11. So what does the appendix do? It is a microbiome reservoir. Okay, so you know the microbiome, it is all that bacteria in your gut. Okay, it's a reservoir for that bacteria. It also reseeds the gut after illness. Like, who knew this? I had to do a lot of research because I'm like, I don't know, I didn't know this. And it produces IgA, which is a component related to your immune system, immune function. Okay, so it ties to the immune function, and there is a gut immune nervous system junction. It's a junction for all of that, your appendixes. I was like, wow, I found that so mind-blowing. So, what are the myths that you often hear from our doctors? You know, we love you, but I just have to say, you know, you gotta be more of an educator for your patients. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to do this stuff, right? I didn't even know what a thyroid was when they took my thyroid out. I'm like, am I gonna be fat forever? Like, what, huh? I didn't even understand it. So, myths about the appendix. Number one, it's useless. The reality is it is a vault for your microbiome, it is an IgA producer, it is an immune regulator. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, evolution forgot to delete it. Have you ever heard that one? I've heard that one actually. And the reality is it has a conserved function across all mammals. So there you go. Number three, removing it changes nothing. And the reality is that the microbiome resiliency drops, immune reactivity rises, and the gut brain signaling will shift. Okay. But remember, these are often micro changes that you don't even really, you don't feel, you don't realize. But then down the road you might go, oh, I have gut issues, or oh, I have you know issues with my immune system. There's a connection there, whether it's a huge one or a small one, there's a connection. Myth number four appendicitis is random. It is not, my friends. It often is preceded by inflammation, infection, dbiosis, or obstruction. So there's those are the four main reasons. So what happens when it's removed? You can have more dysbiosis in your gut, more of that imbalance of the microbiome, less microbiome resiliency, more immune reactivity, more anxiety, and a loss of gut intuition. So I think that's really interesting. So remember, I'm always covering the science in the soul. I'm gonna keep going. So, how to keep it healthy? You want to have lots of fiber in your diet? I was only 11. I don't know. My mom always cooked at home, but I hated vegetables, and that was a big source of fiber. It's not like I was eating bran cereal back then either, right? So fiber is a big one. Prebiotics, okay, so that feeds the good bacteria. It's not a probiotic, it's a prebiotic. It's helping to repopulate the gut with good bacteria. Uh, polyphenols, avoid constipation and treat infections early. So don't let infections go. Okay. Poop every day, everyone. If you don't poop every day, you could have a problem. Now, how to live well without it. Well, I'm 56 years old and I haven't had it since I was 11. So I've done okay. But it's not to say I haven't had issues with my gut. But again, there are many other variables that come into play if you have gut issues. But how to live with well without it, microbiome rebuilding, gut barrier support. So still to this day, I do stuff. I take tributrin, it's just a variation of butyrate. I, you know, I do a lot of, then there's other options. There's, you know, L-glutamine, there's a few different things that you can do to support that gut barrier. Stress management. I do a lot of that. And I don't think I'd be where I'm at if I didn't do a lot of that. And then track gut mood patterns. This is really interesting. So if something's going off in your gut, how is your mood? Are you anxious? Are you, you know, do you see the connection of how your gut feels to your mood? So that's a big one too. There are some connections to safety instinct, um, gut knowingness, which I mentioned, safety. This is a big one. Appendix is the microbiome vault plus IgA. So when it's compromised, the gut can become reactive and the brain can read as non-safe. Isn't that an interesting connection? I find that fascinating. Instinct, the gut can signal intuition. Okay, appendix removal can weaken that gut brain signaling. That I find fascinating. Microbiome resilience. Without it, it's harder to recover after illness. And then the whole gut knowing. Literally, the appendix sit at the gut, it sits at the gut immune nervous system intersection. Pretty fascinating. So let's get into the energetic meaning. Why does it fail energetically? Okay, this is the works of Yvette Rose, Julia Cannon. Uh, there's another one, Michael J. Lincoln. He's another one that then there's Dr. Bradley Nelson. I've done so much on this stuff. Why it fails energetically, chronic fear, hypervigilance, distrust of instincts, ancestral survival trauma. So I've done shows on that where we can carry trauma forward into our lifetime from our ancestors, which maybe someday I'll record about it. But you know, I come from a long lineage of poor Eastern European farming people, and there's a lot of trauma, let me tell you. That's a whole other topic. So Yvette Rose says it's a feeling of not feeling safe. Julia Cannon says it's ignoring your intuition. I don't know how sharp my intuition was at 11, but you know, the not feeling safe really resonates with me if I look at ancestral lines. Definitely. Why removal happens? The body can't hold the fear, refusal to trust instincts, and removal forces reset after removal, loss of gut intuition, loss of inner safety, increased anxiety, and more instability. Now, maybe this is one of the reasons why I always do a lot of grounding work. I'm a pretty grounded person. I'm also a pretty intuitive person, but I had to work on that because often I didn't listen to my intuition. Much better at it now. So, how to stay balanced if you don't have the organ. Grounding. What's grounding? Well, you know, you get all these influencers and biohackers who say you have to go and have the sun hit your eyes first thing in the morning to reset your circadian rhythm, put your feet in the grass, feel the grass, or go in the ocean, or whatever. Grounding is quiet, grounding is nature. Grounding is going outside without your phone, putting your feet on the ground, whatever the hell kind of ground it is, putting your feet down and just coming into center. That is grounding. You don't need to go to the ocean to ground or to put your feet in the sand. Okay, my friends. It's much easier than that. And it's intuitive if you if you listen. Nervous system regulation. I do a lot of work on this, and I've recorded it numerous times because I know that something within me, I need to work harder at it. It's just something I know. Intuition rebuilding. There's so many different practices on you know getting more in touch with your intuition. But really, once you do the first two, like calm your nervous system and just step outside and ground and get just block the noise. Watch one of my podcasts a few weeks ago. I talked about block the noise. Guess what's gonna happen? Your intuition is naturally gonna just really come online again, which is pretty cool. Predictable routines, safety root rituals, and just that coherence of the gut and the brain, just having that awareness. So, that, my friends, is the truth all around the appendix. Now let's get into tonsils. Tonsils is a big one. You know, how many kids get their tonsils removed every year? I didn't even do the research on that. But the tonsils represent expression, truth, boundaries, vulnerability, and why do they fail? Reoccurrent tonsillitis, chronic inflammation, tonsil stones, sleep apnea, which is what they were guessing my son had, uh, because they were so large that he wasn't breathing properly and he was snoring, immune overload, oral microbiome imbalance. By the way, I've recorded podcasts about that, about biofilm and all of that. Just go to my catalog, you guys. Lymphatic congestion, mouth breathing, which my son also had, allergies, which he also had, chronic sinus issues. My husband has that. So there's that whole genetic component. Remember, I always say there's always a little piece of that. Now, what do they do? Tonsils are the immune surveillance at the entry level, like at the throat. So first line antibody production produces that IgA oral microbiome regulation. We have the the mouth has its own microbiome, and I've actually recorded about that. So go and listen to that podcast. It was with um darn it, what are they called? They uh I can't remember the name, but it I don't know, look it up. Oral microbiome. Um lymphatic drainage for the head and the neck protects the lower respiratory tract, influence resonance and airflow, affects the jaw, the tongue, and the neck tension patterns, and communicates with the vagus nerve. Okay. So one thing, ever since my son was young, anytime he would feel that tickle in his throat, like he's getting a cold, and it works a lot of the time. Okay, there's always going to be that like 99% of the time, 1% of the time, it hits his chest. However, if you feel if you don't have tonsils, you don't have adenoids, when you feel that tickle, start gargling with salt water, like warm, like room temperature salt water. It is the best. Use clean salt water, gargle a few times a day. More often than not, if you're really on it, on it on time, you will see that it will lower the inflammation and that. Area and it's like it's sterilizing all that bacteria. So just a little, just a little natural note from a holistic nutritionist. So let's get into the myths. We hear this a lot. They're useless. They actually are immune gatekeepers. Your tonsils are at the entrance to the respiratory and digestive tracts. This is why gargling with salt water is just this easy, natural hack if you feel like you've been exposed or if you feel like you're getting a tickle. So myth number two: removing them prevents infections. Actually, it shifts infections downward into the respiratory tract. So more uh bronchitis and other issues, it just pushes down. Okay. So it might prevent tonsillitis because they're not there anymore, but it doesn't mean you're not going to get other infections. Uh, myth number three, they don't affect the voice. Tonsils can influence resonance, airflow, and jaw-neck tension. Not necessarily the voice, but it can change those things. Number four, they don't affect immunity, they actually produce and regulate the oral microbiome. Keep that in mind. And by the way, one of the one of my favorite uh mouthwashes, it is made by that company. Why can't I think about it? It is using erythritol. Okay, just look it up. Look it up. Uh, myth number five, they're just lymph tissue, they're actually part of a coordinated immune ring that shapes early immune programming. So, again, you know, I'm always like every organ has a reason, every organ has a purpose. So, what happens when the tonsils are removed? Reduced immune filtering at the throat level. It totally makes sense, doesn't it? More sinus or respiratory infections, unless you're on it. Like I said, there's always natural options, lymphatic congestion in the jaw and neck, more sinus and oh, I said that oral microbiome shifts, jaw clenching can increase, neck tension increases, voice resonance can change, more mouth breathing, more snoring, more dryness and irritation, and vagal tone shifts. So, how to keep your tonsils healthy? Nasal breathing, my friends. By the way, when I'm recording, I can tell I'm talking too much and I'm not doing enough of the nasal breathing, right? So nasal breathing is so important. And if you have, you know, I've seen some biohackers put those nasal things to just keep it open. I mean, my husband had a deviated septum and he tried to have surgery to fix it. It didn't quite work. So being able to breathe from your nose is really important. So maybe get to the root, see a specialist, a practitioner who specialized in that to see if you can get help. Mouth breathing is not good. Uh, tongue posture, holding your tongue up on the roof of your mouth instead of down. Oral microbiome care. There you go. Oh my god, it's here. Xylitol, which is what I was talking about. Uh, tongue scraping, nasal rinsing, so like a neti pot type thing, make sure it's sterile, allergy management. So that's another story in and of itself. My son had really major, major seasonal allergies. He hasn't taken allergy pill, and he's baseball, he was a baseball player um in university and throughout high school. And imagine being on a baseball field all summer long and having the worst seasonal allergies, like grass, trees, ragweed, pollen, all of it. And I did the uh, it was medical. I don't know what it was, what was in it. This is a long time ago. They were immune drops that were supposed to help his body build immunity, but there was some sort of a chemical in there. It was like these weird liquid drops. One day he woke up, covered in hives, head to toe. This is before I even went back to college. I'm like, forget that. You're not taking that crap anymore. And then I brought him to a naturopath and we started to use natural solutions, which I still do. I still do. And still to this day, so it's probably been about 10 years since he's taken allergy medicine. And the one you can only get it through a practitioner, it is orthomolecular and it's dehist, it is the most powerful. You do a loading dose. I'm not giving you advice. You have to see your own practitioner, and you can't get it from anybody except for a practitioner. But look into that if you have very severe seasonal allergies, you want to have your allergies under control and in a natural way. Like this one, dehist has uh quercetin, stinging nettle, it has a bunch of stuff. You do a loading dose for like 10 days, and then it's like I think two capsules a day, but see your practitioner. So allergy management is key, hydration, humidification. You don't want to have like dryness in the air, anti-inflammatory nutrition. This always goes down to eating whole real foods, right, my friends? Lymphatic drainage. You know, the best way to do that, you you got to move your body, gotta move that lymph, right? Avoid the chronic mouth breathing. So, how to live well without the your tonsils are gone, you have no choice, too late, it's over, they're out of there. So, you want to retrain and do the proper breath work. You want to retrain to not do the mouth breathing, nasal breathing, lymphatic drainage. Go see an osteopath if you have problems with jaw neck pain. I love osteopaths, they're amazing. Jaw and neck release, again, osteopath, voice activation, oral microbiome support. So that's that, you know, xylitol. I think the one that I use is called spry. S-P-R-Y. I use the non-alcohol, non-fluoride one. I love it. Um, strengthen the vagal pathways. Yes, humming, gargling, breath work, all of that will help strengthen the vagus nerve, right? Now let's get into the explanation or of you know consoles, the expression, it's all about expression, truth, boundaries, and vulnerability. After removal, loss of vocal power. Remember, this is the energetic difficulty expressing needs, over-explaining. I mean, people do that anyway. There are many reasons to overexplain, but you might notice this fear of confrontation, difficulty setting boundaries, emotional shutdown around your voice. You know, even if you look at the thyroid, it's the uh throat chakra, right? Not speaking your truth. So there's always all these connections to these amazing organs that have a function in our body. So, how to stay balanced? We want voice activation, boundary setting. I've talked about that, I think it was with the um gallbladder, truth telling, jaw and neck release, reclaiming your vocal identity, humming, chanting, resonance work, speaking truth in real time as opposed to holding it in and not speaking your truth. I just want to summarize because I actually found this to be fun. And I am going to do the thyroid. And I will say this one thing: these organs were never just optional in our bodies. Sometimes, you know, there's nothing we could do, we have to have them removed, or we don't know enough. Like if I look back even at my thyroid gland, the long-lost thyroid gland, the lumpy gland, we'll call it the lumpy grand gland that you know I had cancer. And I found the system at that time, it was very fear-mongering. You better take the whole thing out. There's an 80% chance that we have to go back and take the other half out if we take only half. And and I'm like, I've gone through a lot that has been directly related to not having a thyroid gland all these years. And I think the timing is one thing too. It was right around perimenopause when I had it removed, and now going through menopause without it, it makes a big difference in my life. So what I experience may not be your truth, but it's mine, and that's why I believe that there are so many different things we can do when it's gone to come back into balance, both with our health, you know, through the science, but also through the soul. So these organs were anchors, they were anchors of timing, rhythm, desire, safety, expression, identity, a balance of our masculine and our feminine energies, and removal is not the end. Like I said, there's nothing you can do if they're gone. It is the beginning of a new physiology, so you get to choose. And when you understand the mechanisms, the somatic patterns, the energetic conflicts, identity shifts, and other things, you can support the body really with intention instead of you know fighting what has changed. There's no one to blame here, there's no blame game. It's not about fear or blame, it's about agency. And because once you know, like what these organs do or did in your body, you can rebuild their functions, even if they're not there. You can do it energetically. And I think you know, it's using some clarity and some precision. And always remember this, my friends. Power comes from within us. Always, always. We can get knowledge from all these little places. You know, you listen to my podcast, but it all goes down to you and the power within you. If you like this episode, please let me know. You can always email me, sandy at sandyknutrition.ca, and you know, engage with my content. Show me that you like it. I really appreciate that. And I appreciate you, and I thank you so much for coming each and every week. Have a good week. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit. And always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me keep going, bring these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new excited conversation to help you live your best life.