Speaker 1: Hi, folks. Ear Wax colon Live with It is your
Speaker 1: Saturday Select this week. This is from March Boy. This
Speaker 1: was a good one. There's a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of things people don't understand about ear wax and what
Speaker 1: you should do with it and what you shouldn't do
Speaker 1: with it. So this was very instructive for both of
Speaker 1: us and should be for you as well. So enjoy
Speaker 1: and don't ear candle for God's sake. Welcome to Stuff
Speaker 1: You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles
Speaker 1: w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry Uh. Yeah, that's stuff you
Speaker 1: should know. He just shrugged, like, what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: That's what we are, episode number seven something. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I don't either. In the seven hundreds
Speaker 1: of folks. If you think there's only three hundred because
Speaker 1: you're on iTunes, you're in for to be doubly surprised. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: somebody um tweeted recently, I've just found the How Stuff
Speaker 1: Works app and there's way more stuff you should knows
Speaker 1: than there is on iTunes. I hate you guys. Now. Wait,
Speaker 1: I was cool with three one. But that's it. I
Speaker 1: had someone aska the other day if we feel like
Speaker 1: we're running out of things topics, clearly we are, because
Speaker 1: we're recording on your way exactly what you tell him.
Speaker 1: Look for boogers in the near future. Um no, I
Speaker 1: said no that Sometimes it feels a little like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, what are gonna do? But there's gazillions of
Speaker 1: topics in the world at least, and gazillions of scientific
Speaker 1: that's right. What is that? How many zeros? Is that
Speaker 1: a real number? I don't know. I don't think it is.
Speaker 1: Let's say it's a real number if you're eight years old,
Speaker 1: but watch it probably is a real number. Yeah, I think, Um,
Speaker 1: a jillian is a real number. A bazillion jillian definitely is.
Speaker 1: I would guess gazillion is by now I might actually
Speaker 1: look that up. I mean, there's just like a handful
Speaker 1: of mathematicians who are in charge of naming that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, you know, So chuckers. While you're looking that up,
Speaker 1: do you have ear wax? Um? Do you have a a
Speaker 1: problem you're wax? None? No, I don't either. No, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say so. Um. It is a little distressing though,
Speaker 1: even though we will find out it is awesome and
Speaker 1: exactly how it's supposed to work when it just sort
Speaker 1: of falls out of your ear onto your shoulder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's ideal. Actually, yeah, because ear wax and your
Speaker 1: physiology in general doesn't care about what social group you're
Speaker 1: a part of. Nope, it's just like, here's some ear
Speaker 1: wax on your shoulder. Deal with it. Although and I
Speaker 1: didn't look up why this is true. Apparently in northeast
Speaker 1: are in Asian countries like Korea and China, um they
Speaker 1: there ear wax is a little different. They're more likely
Speaker 1: to have the dry ear wax um, which can be
Speaker 1: hard and red to black in color, which sounds gross
Speaker 1: and flaky or pale yellow, whereas over here we have
Speaker 1: that um nasty, guey orange e mess. Wet ear wax
Speaker 1: is what it's called. Yes, And the reason why actually
Speaker 1: is because of the ABC leveng gene. Oh is that why? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they isolated the gene that causes the type of ear
Speaker 1: wax that you get. And it turns out that they
Speaker 1: say the w UM mutation is um or the D
Speaker 1: mutation dry ear wax is recessive. So the only way
Speaker 1: to get dry ear waxes of both of your parents
Speaker 1: have dry ear wax. Both carry the D gene or
Speaker 1: D mutation or the ABC leven gene. Well, I have both.
Speaker 1: Most people have our w D. Say yeah, so you
Speaker 1: have to get too D alleles to dry ear wax
Speaker 1: alleles to have dry ear wax yourself. If you have
Speaker 1: a W and a D or two ws, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have wet and for some read I have both, can't
Speaker 1: you like one year is dry and the other's wet. No, Like,
Speaker 1: sometimes you know, if I get the old cotton swab out,
Speaker 1: which now you're introducing something way beyond genetics. That's not
Speaker 1: even apo genetics. That's human intervention. The point is, if
Speaker 1: I get the cotton swab out, that's when I'll get
Speaker 1: out the orange e wax wet stuff. But um, I'll
Speaker 1: also have the dry, flicky stuff that falls out sometimes probably,
Speaker 1: I would guess. And I'm no seremon expert, I'm no seaminas.
Speaker 1: Now what's the what's the word? Uh? Actually looked it
Speaker 1: up for someone who studies this. It has to have
Speaker 1: to do with ceremon m. I can't find it now.
Speaker 1: It's so Seamonius doesn't ringing a bell, No, it's wrong.
Speaker 1: I can't find what it is. Sorry, okay, well the
Speaker 1: person who still I'm not a person who studies ear wax,
Speaker 1: but what I would guess is that when you're when
Speaker 1: you're digging in there, you're getting to the fresher ear wax,
Speaker 1: That's what I think. And then as it works itself
Speaker 1: further and further out your ear, which is the natural process,
Speaker 1: it's exposed to drier air, that ambient air, and it
Speaker 1: drives out and flakes off, which is what it's supposed
Speaker 1: to do. So I don't think you have both. I
Speaker 1: think if you have both, the stuff inside your ear
Speaker 1: would be drying, would be dry as well. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, well that makes sense. Um, So what ear
Speaker 1: waxes or uh ceramon c E r U M E
Speaker 1: N is the scientific name, but I'm sure they call
Speaker 1: it wax. It's the third chubby angel. Now that's ceremum.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, um. It is made up of secretions of
Speaker 1: a couple of little specialized glands uh in the skin
Speaker 1: on the outer third of the ear canal. Yes, so
Speaker 1: you have your sebaceous glands and they're gonna secrete and
Speaker 1: these names all sounds so growth really, but they're perfect
Speaker 1: for describing what they are. Yeah. Yeah, um. They secrete
Speaker 1: sebum A S E V him uh, and then you
Speaker 1: have um, an apocrine sweat gland that's modified that produces uh,
Speaker 1: it's kind of hem. Yeah, it combine, it combines with
Speaker 1: the sebum, and that's where you get your ceremony. And
Speaker 1: so seebam in and of itself is fairly normal. If
Speaker 1: you like, take your fingertip and rub it alongside where
Speaker 1: your nose folds into your face. Yeah, I get a
Speaker 1: little dry in there. That's well if if your stuff
Speaker 1: is at all oily, the oil is seebam. So apparently
Speaker 1: it mixes in in your ear with the m the
Speaker 1: that kind of apocrine gland, like you said, to form ceramon,
Speaker 1: which is its own thing. It's not just see them, right,
Speaker 1: But all of it is basically fatty, oily lipid e
Speaker 1: UM compound that's secreted by these glands in the skin cells,
Speaker 1: specialized glands. Yeah, about six caratin, which is a protein.
Speaker 1: And then like you said, the fatty acids, you've got
Speaker 1: dead skin cells, you've got um, hair follicles, dead bugs,
Speaker 1: little bugs. Yeah, lots of stuff that comes out in
Speaker 1: this and like you like you said dust it probably
Speaker 1: dust mites then too, And like you said, um, it's
Speaker 1: produced in the inner third of the outer ear outer
Speaker 1: one third of the ear canal, okay um. And when
Speaker 1: it's produced in there, it's migrates outward thanks to um,
Speaker 1: the motion of the ocean, right and you talking and chewing. Oh,
Speaker 1: is that what it is? Yeah, I couldn't figure out,
Speaker 1: like how does your ear wax move? But it's just
Speaker 1: from jaw movement. Normal jaw movement moves the old or
Speaker 1: the newer stuff outward and as it's coming out, all
Speaker 1: the gunk and stuff that's protected did your ear from
Speaker 1: are moved out with it. So this stuff that flakes
Speaker 1: off and falls on your shoulder, uh, that everybody points
Speaker 1: and laughs at at the at the party, Um, that
Speaker 1: is filled with all the stuff that your ear wax
Speaker 1: caught along the way. It's a it's a beautiful, elegant process.
Speaker 1: Probably it was beautiful, um, aspect of the entire human experience. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you're making a joke, but I really do
Speaker 1: think that, Like it's the little things like that about
Speaker 1: Like I'm amazed about the function of the brain and
Speaker 1: of course the organs and all that. But just something
Speaker 1: as simple as that, mechanical talking and chewing will work
Speaker 1: ear wax out of your ear. It's just so basic
Speaker 1: in I think it's awesome and I think it's really cool.
Speaker 1: Actually I know. To me, I agree with you. Um,
Speaker 1: so some people produce a lot of this. Um, I
Speaker 1: was gonna say gross stuff. But have you seen Paddington
Speaker 1: the movie? Yeah? No, I heard it was really good.
Speaker 1: It's very good, super super cute, really well done. Why
Speaker 1: did you see that? Just because it's a cute movie?
Speaker 1: Really yeah? Um, sold in theaters and everything. Um, please
Speaker 1: tell me you took you me? Yeah, And as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, it was just me and you, me
Speaker 1: in the whole theater. But if it's just you and
Speaker 1: no kids, you, then it's like somebody you might want
Speaker 1: to call that security, and they did. I'm just a
Speaker 1: Paddington fan, um, but I am now. So anyway, Um,
Speaker 1: there is a part where there's a part featuring ear
Speaker 1: wax in Paddington and it's it does not celebrate the
Speaker 1: beauty of ear wax. It's the exact opposite. And actually,
Speaker 1: you me was like, god, it was really gross, but
Speaker 1: just awesome. So anyway, Gussie, Gussie Paddington. Is that a spoiler? Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Maybe for like a five year
Speaker 1: old you know. Um. So, like I said, some people
Speaker 1: produce a lot of the stuff. Um, some people don't
Speaker 1: produce as much, and they don't really know why, but
Speaker 1: they do know that sometimes stress an anxiety, um can
Speaker 1: increase production of ear wax, which makes interesting hormones Sure,
Speaker 1: hormones affected your glands go off. It also said that
Speaker 1: some drugs can increase your ear wax production. And I
Speaker 1: looked all over and did you find the drugs? But
Speaker 1: if stress and anxiety does hiahuasca, I imagine, yeah, cocaine
Speaker 1: would probably make you produce more ear wax or something
Speaker 1: oh yeah, when you put that stuff in your ear, yeah,
Speaker 1: or something that makes you like cheer your jaw a lot.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, that could probably get more ear wax out. Yeah. Interesting,
Speaker 1: I never thought about that. I couldn't find any anything else.
Speaker 1: Um is gross as you might think. Ear waxes, though,
Speaker 1: it actually is a great thing for your body. And
Speaker 1: there's a very good reason, uh why you have it,
Speaker 1: because there are four main functions that your ear wax
Speaker 1: is going to serve. My friend, Uh, one of them
Speaker 1: is it creates an acidic environment. That's great. That kills
Speaker 1: helps kill bacteria and fung gi. Oh even better. Number two,
Speaker 1: um it is, well that's that's a big deal too,
Speaker 1: because your ear, your inner ear, like that is really
Speaker 1: a place where fungus in bacteria would thrive because it's
Speaker 1: moist and dark. And you know what we always say
Speaker 1: about moist dark places, fun Guy thrives. That's right. Um.
Speaker 1: The thing is is, it doesn't seem like that be
Speaker 1: a big problem to have fun Guy in your ear,
Speaker 1: but it would because it would affect things like your balance, nausea,
Speaker 1: ear aches. Um, it just wouldn't be good. So the
Speaker 1: fact that earwax produces in a city environment alone makes
Speaker 1: your wax a beautiful thing and to be celebrated. So
Speaker 1: if we did, we could just stop there. We could,
Speaker 1: but you can go on. Like you said, there's four
Speaker 1: and that was just one quarter of these these benefits
Speaker 1: that your x pistos. Uh. Secondly, it is a lube. Um.
Speaker 1: It lubricates your ear canal basically to keep it from
Speaker 1: drying out. And um, you know you don't want the
Speaker 1: inner ear become all like itchy and dry and craggedy,
Speaker 1: and you want to hear something weird that I've a
Speaker 1: new personal hygiene thing I have to do as of yesterday,
Speaker 1: starting yesterday, something I'll probably have to do my whole
Speaker 1: lot hair. I have to moisturize my ears. Now. I
Speaker 1: thought you're gonna say hair inside the ear. I was like,
Speaker 1: I have been doing that for a while. It's getting
Speaker 1: I got a little fro inside ear fro. Yeah, but no,
Speaker 1: like taking moisturizer and like rubbing on my ears because
Speaker 1: I got a haircat yesterday and like my ears were
Speaker 1: exposed and all of a sudden, I'm like, wait, why
Speaker 1: is like there a streak of white on my ear
Speaker 1: and they're bright red? And I realized, like my ears
Speaker 1: are chapped and that is brand new or else I
Speaker 1: just noticed it. So I'm an ear moisturizer. Now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you had that seventies uh ear muff hairstyle cut off
Speaker 1: of your ears so your ears were exposed. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was pretty seventies, wasn't well. I was growing my hair
Speaker 1: out to to create like a blank slate of you
Speaker 1: know that could be worked with. It was kind of
Speaker 1: longish for you. I was really long, and it it
Speaker 1: was that seventies, like your muff thing wasn't quite it
Speaker 1: was getting there. It looks good, very nice. Thanks. Did
Speaker 1: that make you uncomfortable? No, I was fishing for that
Speaker 1: the whole reason I brought that story. You looked either
Speaker 1: sheepish or really uncomfortable with a little bit both. Alright, gotcha? Alright?
Speaker 1: Number three on top four things that earwax does. Uh
Speaker 1: is your ceremon and your hair just like let him exactly, Um,
Speaker 1: it's gonna discouraged. Uh. Everyone's worst nightmare, which is a
Speaker 1: spider crawling in there, which I covered. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: that happened to Emily. I think I talked about that
Speaker 1: on one of the shows. That was genuinely one of
Speaker 1: the most awesome things that I've ever experienced, because it
Speaker 1: did not happen to me. Wasn't there a picture? Didn't
Speaker 1: you post a picture of it or something like that? Um? No,
Speaker 1: but there I think I I posted a picture of
Speaker 1: a happening to one woman in China. I think that
Speaker 1: was rightening, and it was a picture of a spider
Speaker 1: looking out of the woman's ear. Canal right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but Emily's If people haven't heard this story, it was
Speaker 1: I think it was in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: or something. She was like, I got this weird fluttering
Speaker 1: in my ear and I don't know what's going on
Speaker 1: in there. And I was like, well, you know. It
Speaker 1: took her in the bathroom and shined a light and
Speaker 1: I was like, holy crap, and the spider I think work,
Speaker 1: didn't it with the flashlight? Remember, like, if you look
Speaker 1: at your I don't know, did the very saying yes, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so there you go. Well, all I remember thinking is Emily,
Speaker 1: I don't want to have to break this to you,
Speaker 1: but you have the spider in your ear. You didn't
Speaker 1: like chloroformer first? I should have. Yeah. She was not
Speaker 1: excited about that. She was not pumped. But so, well,
Speaker 1: what was the process for getting it out? Well, I've
Speaker 1: looked on the internet super quickly, um to see how
Speaker 1: and they said to flush it out and um just
Speaker 1: like a little warm. Oh my gosh, you did use tweezers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I put the water in there and it kind
Speaker 1: of um loosened it up. And went in there and
Speaker 1: got the tweet sers and I was like, look at this.
Speaker 1: How big was it? Oh? I mean it wasn't huge,
Speaker 1: but it was it was enough spider for her taste. Yeah,
Speaker 1: more than enough, right, dude, it was. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: that some people like sleep with vaseline in their ears
Speaker 1: to keep bugs from crawling in. Yeah, like that is
Speaker 1: a thing. Yeah, I mean people don't want bugs in
Speaker 1: their ears. No, but that's taken. I mean, that's just parent.
Speaker 1: It's severe paranois. I think if you're sleeping with your
Speaker 1: muff or vaselly in your ears, you know your muffs.
Speaker 1: Idn't thought about that, so you all right? And number
Speaker 1: four finally is um, your ear wax is gonna trap
Speaker 1: some dead skin and hair cells and basically all of
Speaker 1: that junk to carry it back out to keep it clean.
Speaker 1: So it sounds sort of counterintuitive to trap that stuff,
Speaker 1: but it's trapping it so it can carry it out.
Speaker 1: And if you didn't have the ear wax, it would
Speaker 1: just go in there, right, And if you chew things
Speaker 1: like celery and you talk, then that your wax is
Speaker 1: going to work its way out in a slow process
Speaker 1: where all this stuff is cleaned out and you don't
Speaker 1: ever have to do anything with it under ideal circumstances.
Speaker 1: Not always are circumstances ideal. And we'll talk about how
Speaker 1: things can go wrong after this, Okay, chuck. So ideally
Speaker 1: you don't have to ever think about ear wax or
Speaker 1: anything like they except to brush it off your shoulder. Right.
Speaker 1: But um, for some people, ear wax can build up
Speaker 1: and become impacted a lot of times it's because people
Speaker 1: mess with it, like with cotton swabs on a stick.
Speaker 1: You know, you may have seen the advertisement the Big Game.
Speaker 1: You're just called cotton swabs, right yeah, okay, Um, so
Speaker 1: when uh if you use that, a lot of people
Speaker 1: use those to clear out their ear wax, right Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to know it's doing the exact opposite,
Speaker 1: because your ear wax is um created and moves from
Speaker 1: the outside third of your inner ear um. When you
Speaker 1: rub a cotton swab on it, you're actually pushing it
Speaker 1: in further than it's supposed to be, and it it
Speaker 1: can't get out is easily there. So what you're going
Speaker 1: to do eventually is have ear wax build up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's it's so hard to get people to not
Speaker 1: do that because it's so um rewarding. When you get
Speaker 1: out of the shower and you use that swab and
Speaker 1: you get that orange kunk and you're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that's out of my body. But it's
Speaker 1: it's got a purpose. Leave it there. You're supposed to
Speaker 1: leave it there. Plus there's I mean, using cotton swabs
Speaker 1: can lead to other kinds of dangers, like you can
Speaker 1: push too hard and prefer your ear drums. You're I
Speaker 1: think it really is true. You're not supposed to put
Speaker 1: anything larger than the end of a football in your
Speaker 1: ear um. You can all so clean it too much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it can result in something called swimmer's ear. We're basically
Speaker 1: for people who spend a lot of time in the pool.
Speaker 1: Their ears are constantly irrigated and the canal becomes basically
Speaker 1: free of um of ear wax, and as a result,
Speaker 1: bad things can happen. Yeah, And they say, if you
Speaker 1: do have swimmers ear, um, put a few drops of
Speaker 1: an acidic slightly acidic, not acid like hydrochloric. Let's put
Speaker 1: a gallondrome, a hydrocord. What is a slightly acidic fluid?
Speaker 1: I wonder, Uh, mayby lemon juice. That's what I would guess,
Speaker 1: That's probably what I would do. I hope we're not
Speaker 1: advising something that's really nat As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: maybe you should go look up what you should put
Speaker 1: in there or go to your doctor. Yes, but they
Speaker 1: advise some slightly acidic fluid in the ear after you swim,
Speaker 1: and that established re establishes what should be a normal
Speaker 1: acidic environment. Yeah, because you when you strip out that
Speaker 1: ear wax, you lose those big four benefits and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, your ear is dry and cracky, and
Speaker 1: you've got fungus and bacteria growing in there, and you
Speaker 1: get ear infections and it's not fun. The big four um.
Speaker 1: You and back to creating a build up of ear wax,
Speaker 1: you get what's called ceramon impaction. And that is when
Speaker 1: like you have a bunch of ear wax pressed against
Speaker 1: your ear drum and it can result in all sorts
Speaker 1: of stuff like headaches, nausea, ear aches, coughing for some reason. Um.
Speaker 1: And that can be from using Q tips. People who
Speaker 1: use hearing aids run into this a lot. Uh. And
Speaker 1: when your ceramon becomes impacted, you have to go to
Speaker 1: the doctor. That's right. Which my sweet wife had to
Speaker 1: go to the doctor when she was a little girl
Speaker 1: because ear wax impaction. Yeah, and uh she said it sucked. Well,
Speaker 1: when you go to the doctor if it comes to that, Um,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have quite a few techniques they could use. Um,
Speaker 1: ear syringing is one of them, and then comes painful.
Speaker 1: It does. I don't think it is, though. I bet
Speaker 1: it's actually quite a relief. Yeah, that's not how I
Speaker 1: hear it. Really is it painful? Yeah? Umi says it
Speaker 1: really is not fun. Well I didn't know if that
Speaker 1: was like a five year old Umi or well yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but even as an adult she remembers it as not
Speaker 1: being very fun. Is Paddington, Umi, Maybe that's why she
Speaker 1: had such a reaction. Um, they'll use other instruments. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you'll use a microphone or I'm sorry, a microscope would
Speaker 1: be weird. To magnify the ear canal, they shout into
Speaker 1: it to shatter your ear wax. Um, and some people
Speaker 1: have a more narrow ear canal. Or if you have
Speaker 1: a perforated ear drum or something that can be a problem. Um,
Speaker 1: basically you want to go to a doctor. You could
Speaker 1: try some home methods like peroxide or maybe mineral oil. Yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently warm mineral oil kind of breaks it up a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, I used to. That's one of my
Speaker 1: most pleasing memories as a kid, when I had ear aches.
Speaker 1: As my mom would like heat up mineral oil and
Speaker 1: put in my arrows. But that was nice, really nice.
Speaker 1: It's very warm and when for some reason, I like
Speaker 1: the feeling of water closing my ear, like when I
Speaker 1: get into a pool. Oh yeah, but probably because of that,
Speaker 1: yeah maybe, so I didn't think about that. Do you
Speaker 1: like that or is it what I just you just
Speaker 1: like crawling into the field. Why is chuck just floating
Speaker 1: in the pool like the baby? Um? I know, I've
Speaker 1: never had much of an affinity for water in my
Speaker 1: ears because some people hate it. I don't hate it.
Speaker 1: I don't like it, and like, you know, I'll bang
Speaker 1: on the side of my head if it feels like
Speaker 1: there's like a drop of water in there. Does that work? Uh?
Speaker 1: It can not always? I think normally the water just
Speaker 1: has to dry right. Sometimes I get dizzy in my head.
Speaker 1: I used to see when I lifeguarded. I would see
Speaker 1: swim team members do that, though, and I was always like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that just doesn't seem right. Once
Speaker 1: in a while it does and it just goes and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you can hear normally again. Interesting.
Speaker 1: I didn't see the reason for this though, But they
Speaker 1: did UM in this one article I saw have caution
Speaker 1: people against ear irrigation if you had diabetes. What? Yeah, why,
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I meant to follow up on that.
Speaker 1: So we don't know what drugs cause an increase in
Speaker 1: ear wax build up, and we don't know why if
Speaker 1: you have diabetes you shouldn't do your canal irrigation. I
Speaker 1: don't know. They said not to use irrigation if you
Speaker 1: have a perforated ear drum, get that tube in the
Speaker 1: ear drum a weekend immune system or diabetes. Huh. I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I don't have to follow up on
Speaker 1: social media and let people know UM. But they do
Speaker 1: say if you do want to clean your ear, it's
Speaker 1: not like you can't clean your ears, but just wash
Speaker 1: your external ear with a cloth. But you should never
Speaker 1: stick something into your ear canal Right, it's just good.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting that the cotton swab businesses huge. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've made a if you think about it, they made
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's they shouldn't be selling
Speaker 1: these things now, I know what you mean, though, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently that I couldn't find out how much UM people
Speaker 1: spend on cotton swabs every year or how many are produced.
Speaker 1: We couldn't find out that either, But for two thousand
Speaker 1: and eleven, apparently Americans spent sixty three million dollars on
Speaker 1: ear cleaning stuff, home ear cleaning stuff, and I imagine
Speaker 1: a lot of that went to cotton swabs, but also
Speaker 1: like home irrigation kits and stuff like that. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you can get those at the drug store, right, and
Speaker 1: those are fine, I guess, Yeah, I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: everything is upside down right now. Well, no, I think
Speaker 1: the irrigation is fine if you don't fall into one
Speaker 1: of those categories that I mentioned, because you're not sticking
Speaker 1: an object in your ear that and then if you
Speaker 1: don't do it too frequently to where you're stripping the
Speaker 1: ear wax out of your ear, because it's not like
Speaker 1: that thing just replenishes overnight. Guys, I know, and you know,
Speaker 1: I used the cotton swabs, not a lot, but occasionally.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna do it anymore. But it is,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's it feels so good to get
Speaker 1: a big hunk of that stuff out. Yeah, I've never
Speaker 1: been into those. Yeah, I'm not gonna do it anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell the only two. I'm gonna burn all
Speaker 1: that stuff. All I do is I take some soap
Speaker 1: and lather at my hands, do the outside of my ears,
Speaker 1: and then, like I guess, I just kind of follow
Speaker 1: the contours the inside of my ears. And I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember, like do I go into my ear canals?
Speaker 1: And I think I intuitively stop with your fingers, Yeah,
Speaker 1: at about the outside, so I don't really go into
Speaker 1: the ear canal. And then rinse it out and get
Speaker 1: off and get out of the shower. And then now I, um,
Speaker 1: I moisturized my ears afterward, is the last step. That's great. Um.
Speaker 1: The other thing too, that they, of course, you should
Speaker 1: never ever do like cotton swabs is one thing, but
Speaker 1: like a car key or bobby pin or like a toothpick,
Speaker 1: what is wrong with you? I don't know that you
Speaker 1: should never ever stick something like that in your ear,
Speaker 1: because you're just asking for trouble, big trouble. Um. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: after this break, we are going to talk about ear candling.
Speaker 1: All right, So, Chuck, you teased everybody with ear candling.
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell everyone with that is it's hokem okay,
Speaker 1: describe the HOKEM well ear candling, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know this. I think. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of folks say, like, oh my gosh, it's the best
Speaker 1: thing ever. Um. It is also known as auricular candling
Speaker 1: or coning, and it is a procedure when you put
Speaker 1: a cone shaped um waxy cone shaped device in the
Speaker 1: ear canal um and it's got usually a plate underneath
Speaker 1: it between the cone in your ear, and you light
Speaker 1: it on fire air. And supposedly what it does is
Speaker 1: that you stick the thing in your ear and then
Speaker 1: light it on fire. Yeah. Supposedly, what it does is
Speaker 1: it creates a vacuum to pull out um impurities, right
Speaker 1: because the flame supposedly needs oxygen while the flame definitely
Speaker 1: needs oxygen to burn, and it's getting its oxygen by
Speaker 1: sucking it out of the ear canal through the cone,
Speaker 1: hence creating a vacuum. And as it does, like you said,
Speaker 1: it sucks out impurities and ear wax and supposedly also
Speaker 1: clears your sinuses, UM, clears the the plaque out of
Speaker 1: your um dendrites and all sorts of stuff like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This one article by Lisa Roe uh Rosen, m D.
Speaker 1: Said that she went to and this was in the nineties,
Speaker 1: but she went to a Discovery expo in Atlanta and
Speaker 1: said that they had ear candlers there and one of
Speaker 1: the exhibitions and the lady said that ran the booth
Speaker 1: quote it cleans the whole head, brains and all they're
Speaker 1: all connected. You know is that quote in there? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: end quote? Um, And of course it was in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh great, Although that doesn't necessarily mean that
Speaker 1: could be anyway, but um, there is. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of people that think, you know, it's um, it's
Speaker 1: a cleanse for your ear, and it does connect to
Speaker 1: your brain, and it clears your head and it's a
Speaker 1: spiritual thing and that you know. They don't know where
Speaker 1: exactly it came from, but uh, China and ancient Tibet
Speaker 1: and yeah, pre Columbian South America, Atlantis. Yeah, they all
Speaker 1: are cited as places where it might have happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no one has any idea where this stuff originated. Could
Speaker 1: have been created in the US and the seventies for
Speaker 1: all anybody knows. Should we read some of the things
Speaker 1: that supposedly helps, Yeah, we should probably also say if
Speaker 1: you haven't been able to tell by now, um science
Speaker 1: is thoroughly debunked. Ear candling, that's right, um. And this
Speaker 1: is from that article. There's something that Dr Rosen and
Speaker 1: some of our colleagues got together and kind of step
Speaker 1: by step took down the idea. Yeah, there's a list
Speaker 1: of like forty things. We won't go to them all,
Speaker 1: but release vertigo, clears the eyes, purifies the blood, UM,
Speaker 1: aids sinusitis, relieves ear aches, opens and aligns your chakra,
Speaker 1: releases blocked energy, reduces stress, intention stabilizes your emotions. Um.
Speaker 1: It does none of that because it is it is
Speaker 1: just been proven to be an outright not only fraud
Speaker 1: but dangerous right. So, and here's why so. Um. The
Speaker 1: first one is that you can't pass liquids and gases
Speaker 1: through an ear drum that isn't perforated or ruptured. UM.
Speaker 1: So it's not sucking anything out of your inner ear,
Speaker 1: or your um lymph system, or your sinuses or your brain.
Speaker 1: That's where your ears pop when you're in a plane. Right,
Speaker 1: If if you could pass air through there, that wouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: There would be no atmospheric pressure going on. Right. So
Speaker 1: that means that thinking an ear candle in your outer
Speaker 1: ear is not going to suck anything out because it
Speaker 1: can't pass through. That's that's point one, right, that's point one.
Speaker 1: Point two is oxygen. Uh, well, it will create that
Speaker 1: vacuum and and suck out the impurities. Yeah, and that
Speaker 1: is just not true. Yeah, apparently and tested it and yeah,
Speaker 1: doing trials of ear candles, they weren't able to um
Speaker 1: create a vacuum in any of them. So there's no
Speaker 1: vacuum created, that's right. Uh, there's also the idea that
Speaker 1: if a vacuum were created, it would suck impurities out.
Speaker 1: Apparently after ear candling some of these at least one
Speaker 1: of the same trials studied the stuff the residue that
Speaker 1: was found afterwards, like I guess in the stump of
Speaker 1: the ear candle. Well, yeah, and that's what people point
Speaker 1: to because there's all this gunk and they're like, look
Speaker 1: at all this stuff that came out of my ear.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Right, So what it turns out to
Speaker 1: be is ash from the ear candle and left over
Speaker 1: wax him that you're candled, but not just the ear candle,
Speaker 1: not ear wax, just the candle residue. Yeah, Like they
Speaker 1: tested the substance. It is not cerebum in any former fashion. Uh.
Speaker 1: The what about the idea that it's safe and effective.
Speaker 1: I think we took care of the effective part, but
Speaker 1: the safe thing, apparently there's a lot of injuries you
Speaker 1: can get from it. Um that you can be burned
Speaker 1: is one thing. Um, you can perforate your ear drum,
Speaker 1: you can get infections. Um, you can get built up
Speaker 1: of the candle wax to replace whatever wax you think
Speaker 1: you're getting out. Yeah, it could have the reverse effect exactly.
Speaker 1: And then um, one woman actually died from a fire
Speaker 1: that was caused two thousand five from ear candling. I
Speaker 1: looked it up. She was doing it, I guess, by
Speaker 1: herself on her bed and the ear candle fell out
Speaker 1: of her ear and caught her bed sheets on fire.
Speaker 1: And she made it out of her house fine, but
Speaker 1: she was asthmatic and had an asthmatic reaction to the
Speaker 1: smoke and died. How that happened that fast, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess she had some bunch of bed sheets or something, right,
Speaker 1: they were made out of like some flammable material. Um.
Speaker 1: There is uh a company I won't name the company,
Speaker 1: but one company that made it. And if you it
Speaker 1: came with a seventy five page manual and a thirty
Speaker 1: minute videotape. I guess this is a while ago. It
Speaker 1: was a video tape and candles and plate guards and
Speaker 1: flame retardant cloths and oil and an uh otoscope. And
Speaker 1: if you read the flyer with this kit, it says, quote,
Speaker 1: it supplies you with everything you need for a safe
Speaker 1: and effective session of entertainment. Right for entertainment purposes only. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because apparently I think it says that Canada regulates those things.
Speaker 1: Are the US does those medical devices if they make
Speaker 1: any health claims? Yeah, I think they're illegal in Canada outright. Um,
Speaker 1: or at least they were. I'm not sure they still are,
Speaker 1: but um, yeah, the f d A won't even I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't make any kind of claim on the box
Speaker 1: if you if you get an ear candle at your
Speaker 1: little health food store, just read it carefully. They can't
Speaker 1: make any claims for entertainment purposes because it's a hoot
Speaker 1: to put a candle in your ear and light it
Speaker 1: on fire. There was one other thing I came across
Speaker 1: in the articles you sent me, um, And I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's true, but it sounds fantastic that if
Speaker 1: if you could create a vacuum with an ear candle,
Speaker 1: the negative pressure created by the vacuum would rupture your
Speaker 1: ear drum, right, which sounds pretty awesome. Yeah. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's true. It wasn't backed up with a
Speaker 1: source or anything like that. I couldn't find it anywhere else,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty hilarious. Yeah, so don't ear candle people.
Speaker 1: And if you write in and say no, you should
Speaker 1: see the stuff that comes out. It is not your
Speaker 1: ear wax. You should put that stuff beneath the gas
Speaker 1: chromatograph and see what you said. I mean, it's proven.
Speaker 1: This is like what was we talked about recently the
Speaker 1: drop circles. Oh man, we got heat from that. To
Speaker 1: people like, no, it's not proven. What was it. I
Speaker 1: think it was that o Glowa's crop circles. When we're like, no,
Speaker 1: they've proven that. These guys came out and said we
Speaker 1: made it up. No, I know what they were saying though,
Speaker 1: Like it it's just like we were talking about with ESPs.
Speaker 1: Because you can disprove right, right, some of it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that disproves all of it. Except with crop circles.
Speaker 1: We should come up with the stuff. You should know
Speaker 1: a T shirt. Friends, don't let friends at your candle.
Speaker 1: That's a good Yeah. Yeah, I just love your ear wax. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Let it fall out on your shoulder and let someone
Speaker 1: point it out and you say that's nature baby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's because I eat celery. Uh. If you want to
Speaker 1: know more about ear wax, you can type the word
Speaker 1: into the search bar at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: I think we have it done as one word maybe.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, uh and uh, I said search bar, which
Speaker 1: means it's time for listening to mail. I'm gonna call
Speaker 1: this ice cream follow up. We got a lot of
Speaker 1: good stuff on ice cream. People really like that at
Speaker 1: so Hey, guys, I'm a student at the University of
Speaker 1: Minnesota Twin Cities. Started listening to your podcast just this
Speaker 1: week and I'm officially hooked. I am listening to your
Speaker 1: podcast on ice cream. It's really interesting because I've worked
Speaker 1: in an ice cream parlor for the last five summers.
Speaker 1: Wilson's opened in nineteen o six and is still going
Speaker 1: strong today, one of the most famous restaurants in Wisconsin. Uh.
Speaker 1: There are definitely different types of vanilla ice cream. We
Speaker 1: use two types, French or deluxe vanilla and purple vanilla.
Speaker 1: The label on this other vanilla is purple. We use
Speaker 1: purple vanilla for shakes and malts because it's less rich
Speaker 1: allows for the flavor of the shaker malt to be
Speaker 1: more distinguished. You saw French vanilla and ice cream cone
Speaker 1: Sundays and floats, and you mentioned having root beer floats.
Speaker 1: Reminded me of an interesting thing that I've noticed. People
Speaker 1: often get offended when they order a black cow and
Speaker 1: we have to ask them what it is. That's because
Speaker 1: almost everyone has a different idea of what a black
Speaker 1: cow consists of. Some say that it's a root beer float.
Speaker 1: Some say that it's a root beer flow with chocolate
Speaker 1: ice cream. Some say it's a coke float, some say
Speaker 1: it's a blended root beer float, etcetera, etcetera. Somehow they
Speaker 1: all got labeled as black cow. Thanks for giving me
Speaker 1: more ice cream knowledge. I'll actually be able to answer
Speaker 1: customers now when they ask what the difference between ice
Speaker 1: cream and frozen yogurt is. And that is from Andrea
Speaker 1: Nelson and she says, ps. Those nasty cheap cones with
Speaker 1: the flat bottoms are known as cake cones. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: saw that afterwards, don't order them ever there. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you had Jason's Delhi and that's all they got.
Speaker 1: Oh they have the free ice cream, right huh yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's how it was. Like the day that we
Speaker 1: recorded ice cream and I couldn't remember the name of
Speaker 1: the cone. I think I ended up going that night
Speaker 1: and there was cake cone. I was like, yes, cake cone.
Speaker 1: Somebody else called it a wafer cone, but I think
Speaker 1: that's just wrong. I see where that would come from,
Speaker 1: because it's wafer esque. Yeah, I mean it makes sense,
Speaker 1: but I've never seen it called that before, and that's
Speaker 1: too close to waffle right, you know, right, it makes
Speaker 1: people confused. So thanks to Andrea Nelson for that one.
Speaker 1: It thanks Andrea. If you want to get in touch
Speaker 1: with us to say hi, or to tell us about
Speaker 1: ice cream or anything like that, you can tweet to
Speaker 1: us at s y s K podcast. You can join
Speaker 1: us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know.
Speaker 1: You can send us an email the Stuff podcast at
Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot com, and as always, you can join
Speaker 1: us at our home on the web they Luxurious Stuff
Speaker 1: you Should Know dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts. For
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.