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117 Comments
- jester55, on 10/10/2007, -5/+32how the hell do you first make the connection between ADHD and tonsils?
- physphd, on 10/10/2007, -2/+27Buried as inaccurate, just because I still have my tonsils doesn't mean....hey, let's go ride bikes!
- eggo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20Repeat after me, "Correlation does not equal Causation." and give back the grant money.
- Asno667, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19What?
- superal1394, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Try RTFA!
"The key to making that connection is how the child sleeps. Snoring, restlessness, apnea, and gasping for breath during the night are clearly linked to hyperactive daytime behavior in very young children. And enlarged or infected tonsils and adenoids _ immune-related tissue masses in the back and upper throat _ most often are the cause of what's known as "sleep-disordered breathing."" - lifeat24fps, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13But what do they do with them once the anesthesia wears off?
- aldenhg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10From Wikipedia:
As with other organs of the lymphatic system, the tonsils act as part of the immune system to help protect against infection. In particular, they are believed to be involved in helping fight off pharyngeal and upper respiratory tract infections. - silverchrysalis, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10well, sometimes they swell up and get pink spots and ooze pus down the back of your throat.
- superal1394, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8RTFA, See above for direct quote.
- rheaume, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Aww great, here come the pro-circumcision folks to preach about its 'benefits'
- PantsTm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7make shiny things more interesting
- oneoverzero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6see my above comment. It exists, just is overdiagnosed.
- rhinopig, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7"In one recent study, at the University of Michigan, 22 children with ADHD and sleep-disordered breathing had adenotonsillectomies. After one year, 11 no longer battled ADHD."
Also there theory for why this would be the cause, restricted breathing causing poor sleeping that leads to mental deficencies, does a pretty good job of explaining why I have breathing problems, sleeping problems, and ADD.
Correlation does not equal causation, but when you make a prediction as to what the cause is, such as breathing problems, and then you test your hypothesis by removing the tonsils of people with ADD, and then your results show that it decreases the symptoms or eliminates it, well that's pretty good science, not just noticing a correlation. I'm not saying ADD is 100% caused by tonsils, but just that your arguement as to why this article is wrong doesn't make sense. - aussia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6RTFA!
- Apokalyps2547, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Does anyone know what tonsils DO?
- otheruser, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5FROZEN YOGURT?!
*****! I WAS PROMISED ICE CREAM! - oneoverzero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4in alot of cases, that's true.
just because something is over diagnosed, doesn't mean it isn't real.= - xtmno3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Maybe back in the dark ages. We have better methods now that don't involve cutting your penis up like Thanksgiving dinner.
- SeaMowse, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4It didn't work for me. I had my tonsils taken out when I was 8. But wait.... I had my adenoids removed too. So, maybe if I only had my tonsils removed, I wouldn't be ADD? Hmmmmmm....
- Blah_Blah_Blah, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4RTFA!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -9/+13except for the fact that ADHD isn't real....it's ***** to put your kids on meds.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7Most idiotic study / story on digg ever.
I am an adhd sufferer (I think the disorder if nothing more than a plot to fattern up wallets), I was diagnosed as such back in 1988 (before every ***** who cant control his kids decided to pill them up). I have had my tonsil removed last year and it has made no noticable difference on my ability or lack of to pay attention / stay focused. - Duncan3, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7All kids have ADHD, they are KIDS! "Modern" parents are just to busy working to enjoy their kids, and need a cure.
- Veritate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3That's a rather naive view. The diagnostic procedure for ADHD is horrible -- essentially a set of non-standard judgements. We don't even know if it's a single disorder, really it's just a set of symptoms.
View it like this: if someone comes in with a stomachache and fever, it could be because they've eaten bad food or they could have eaten a needle and gotten infected. Aspirin's likely to help with the fever in both cases.
Their findings are that sleep apnea may cause ADHD symptoms. Surely something else might cause these symptoms as well, but it's far better to get to the actual cause than just treating the symptoms, right? - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5LOL sounds like a way to get the little bastards to stop acting up! "IF YOU DONT SETTLE DOWN WERE GONNA GET YOUR TONSILS REMOVED!..."
- radish, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3ADHD has nothing to do with disciplined kids. You sir, are as ignorant as the teachers that wish to drug every kid that disrupts their class.
Sorry to be touchy, but my son was just diagnosed ADHD. He's an extremely well behaved child, and extremely bright (he was also diagnosed as gifted, which is unfortunately a bad combination with ADHD). Come spend 5 minutes with him and see if you still want to make cracks about ADHD kids having poor parents. - allaboutdatiki, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4They geld horses, don't they? d'oh!
- 662662, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3If children have 'uncontrollable' ADHD and removal of tonsils works, I am all for it. There are other methods to cure this one being drugs, but with their side effects (http://www.adhdnews.com/adhd-drug-side-effects.htm) I don't think it is wise. There are also programs out there that consider ADHD, dyslexia and other learning difficulties as gifts; hence the term the 'gift of dyslexia. Many inventors had apparent learning difficulties which I see as a failure in the schooling systems: schools aren't made for picture thinkers.
Many attempts have been made to 'cure' ADHD, ADD and dyslexia. The worst ones in my opinion involve doping the kids and the best ones involve learning to use ADHD,ADD and dyslexia as tools (http://www.dyslexia-mastery.com/learning-difficulties/index.html) instead.
Now, back to my multitasking. - Veritate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Because ADD is a "symptom diagnosis" not a "cause diagnosis". "ADD" is barely even really a disorder per se, it's a collection of symptoms. That's not to say in any way that sufferers of ADD aren't experiencing something real or don't have a real disorder, it's just that we've likely lumped a bunch of different things under that category.
Schizophrenia may be similar, incidentally, in that we're just describing the end results rather than the antecedent causes. - slimnickyy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Yea not so much. I've had them removed at age 5 or 6 and have ADHD even into adulthood.
- Pimptastic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Same here, diagnosed way back in the 80's got my tonsils hacked out and there was no improvement. What is interesting though, is an article i read last week linking kids with strep throat were more likely to have adhd.
- Eevee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3You're in trouble if you're relying on penile surgery to prevent HIV.
- mistahroth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I have ADHD (I was pretty ***** loopy as a child) and I had my tonsils removed at an early age... didn't ***** help me much lol
- insanebrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I have ADHD . .and I have no tonsils. .. strange. .
- Double0Doug, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I agree with your assertion that breathing problems may lead to sleeping problems which may manifest as ADD or ADHD symptoms, but I believe there is a strong argument that individuals who are successfully treated with sleep therapy may have been misdiagnosed in the first place.
There is no doubt that ADD is over diagnosed. Every parent wants there child to be perfect, even if that means mind altering medication over proper parenting. For me, it started as being labeled with a learning disability and being diagnosed with ADD almost 5 years later.
From there I went from a C and D Jr. High student to an A and B Jr. High student. That was almost 16 years ago. I’ve found that most people don’t understand what it is like when someone with ADD is trying to concentrate and starts to feel that concentration slipping. The absolute frustration of knowing the answer is just out of reach and if you could hold one more thought in your mind you would be there. Trying to read a 400 level college genetics text only to realize that you weren’t paying attention to the last 30 pages you just read.
Yeah, it happens to everyone, but it happens more frequently to sufferers of ADD. Hyperactivity is NOT ADD, period. - spyd3rweb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2must be the drugs they use during surgery
- HayString, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3It didn't keep me from having ADHD.
- Blah_Blah_Blah, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3first of all, doctors are NOT the ones that said "hey! tobacco has no correlation with cancer", those are the big tobacco executives. second, traces of fluoride in your water is NOT always a bad thing.
- Dillenger69, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It didn't do a bit of good for me.
I had my tonsils out in 1976 and I still have all the classic ADD symptoms.
Luckily a steady input stream of coffee keeps me nice and mellow. - 662662, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2There is more than one way to skin a cat.
I think this applies to many things including medicine. - honestpen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2This is as retarded as circumcision.
- dextrousm, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Just the threat of tonsil removal ought to keep those little buggers in line.
- rhinopig, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Good points. My biggest symptom might be forgetting what I was talking about midsentence.
@ Veritate. Yeah. Apparently this modern, 'empirical' psychology started after several non-crazy people were kept against there will and misdiagnosed. To correct that psychology got rid of the old classifications and started the new 'disorder' system (ADD, OCD, Schizophrenia, etc) that only looks at the symptoms. - DCGaymer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Being the middle child of three boys I think this might be something to it. My friends and siblings have always puzzled as to why my older and younger brother's are so different from me. They're both obviously ADHD and I am not. When I was six... I spewed blood across the room...ruining the drapes and carpet...It was soooo Linda Blair, in the Exorcist....Given that we weren't Catholic I couldn't get an Exorcism...so it was off to the hospital to have my tonsil's out. So now I have no ADHD and my brothers do. Neither of them had their tonsil's out. Go figure.
- noamsml, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Actually, I'm not so sure. Coffee, like Methylphenidate (more commonly known as Ritalin®), is a stimulant. Methylphenidate actually has the same effect as coffee on normal people.
- agentbad, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Prevents restful sleep in some and causes breathing problems hence brain not getting optimal oxygen which in turn is causing the child to release more endorphins then most to compensate.
- DCGaymer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2and I can assure you...you DON'T even want the ice cream/yogurt when it's done.....your throat is on FIRE.
- knumb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2i work in sleep (polysomnographic technologist) and i run studies on pediatrics all the time i think this is a great article and anybody who thinks there isnt a link between sleep and behavior is wrong. i saw a 6 year old boys oxygen desaturate to 60% 3 days ago. that is a severe problem that WILL cause behavior and health problems, and it is a problem that will most likely be fixed (at least for the time being) by removing the tonsils and adnoids. think about it every night this boy has to struggle to breathe and it gets worse as he falls deeper into sleep. where he should be getting his best, most restoritive sleep (rem) he gets a horrible fractured sleep with frequent arousals. plus his heart is stressed by low blood o2 levels diet is a big issue because weight and apnea are often related but there are other factors that play a part (hereditary, shape of the airways etc) anybody who is tired often or falling asleep in inappropriate places should talk to their dr and have a sleep study done. dont let your dr put you on any sleep medication without having a study done first (if they try to do this asked to be refered to a sleep/pulmonary specialist) k
- mungwise, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2my older brother was very hyper active as a kid. He almost never slept through a night. Many doctors wanted him on medication. My parents listened to the doctor that said he will grow out of it. My brother is now a soon to be happily married, calm, complacent school teacher
- joe7845, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Drugging up your kids with mind-altering drugs that have the potential side-effects of Ritalin (for your personal convenience and the convenience of schools) is never a good idea. But surgery has its risks and its costs. Before parents go and put their kids under the knife, some of the methodological problems of the study should be addressed. The study appears to rely on parental reporting of symptoms. ADHD is a very subjective behavioral condition. There's no accounting for placebo effect or bias in the study.
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