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Best way to clean earwax?
- Thread starter Pearljam5000
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Killingbeans
Major Contributor
Get a doctor's appointment. They can do a thorough and safe cleaning, or they can refer you to a specialist who will do it for you. They will also teach you how to keep the ear canal healthy (meaning that it will hopefully become self cleaning).
My moto usually is that if it is something that our ancestors didn't do then it's probably harmful to do it. (With the exception of tooth paste and Sun screen because we fucked up our diet and planet too much for us not to use them).
So yes cleaning your ear wax when it's not the time for it to naturally exit the ear canal will increase ear wax production as the ear will think it's not producing enough. If you're one of those 1/1000 that have abnormal build up then visit a doctor.
So yes cleaning your ear wax when it's not the time for it to naturally exit the ear canal will increase ear wax production as the ear will think it's not producing enough. If you're one of those 1/1000 that have abnormal build up then visit a doctor.
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Which could be contributing to the pandemic of vitamin D deficiency (in turn likely worsening the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic), a deficiency our scantily-clad ancestors (and their traditionally-living modern descendants) not afflicted with solar-phobia never suffered from.
If you deny the hole in the Ozone layer, you shouldn’t be in this forum.
Skin Damage caused by Sun exposure on one side of the face of a truck driver
Think about this next time you think Sun Damage is a hoax.
If you pull that conclusion out of somewhere the sun don't shine about a comment concerning where and how much the sun does shine (on and getting through to our skin), how this affects vitamin D deficiency and in turn worldwide health (including the COVID-19 pandemic), neither should you.
Yes Vitamin D deficiency has nothing to do with your life style, it’s all because people use sun screen
Derek Hughes
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Had mine dewaxed some time ago. Ear guy then recommended mineral oil every few months. Just pour in a few drops, let it sit for a couple of minutes with head on one side. Turn head over and let it drain. Works for me.
No idea how you have so much room back there to pull all this out.
Never said sun damage is a hoax.
You seem to have a severe problem with distinguishing between absolute and qualified statements. If you read the article by an MD I linked to, you'll see it refers to a study on traditionally-living tribes (who have a lifestyle likely close to our ancestors) showing them to have vitamin D levels much higher than the average population, due to their regular, but careful sun exposure (without sun cream).
Here's a fairly balanced take (if you can understand such a concept) with sources on the risks/rewards of sun cream use:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190722-sunscreen-safe-or-toxic
As it concludes and I tend to agree:
It's about getting the balance right between the risks of strong sun exposure, and the benefits of medium sun exposure, not only linked to sunlight increasing vitamin D levels, but also releasing nitric oxide which lowers blood pressure and so is beneficial for cardiovascular health (which kills far far more people than skin cancer), as well as energizing T cells, which, like vitamin D, could be beneficial for our immune system, including against COVID-19 infection.
Never said sun damage is a hoax.
Yes Vitamin D deficiency has nothing to do with your life style, it’s all because people use sun screen
You seem to have a severe problem with distinguishing between absolute and qualified statements. If you read the article by an MD I linked to, you'll see it refers to a study on traditionally-living tribes (who have a lifestyle likely close to our ancestors) showing them to have vitamin D levels much higher than the average population, due to their regular, but careful sun exposure (without sun cream).
Here's a fairly balanced take (if you can understand such a concept) with sources on the risks/rewards of sun cream use:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190722-sunscreen-safe-or-toxic
As it concludes and I tend to agree:
It's about getting the balance right between the risks of strong sun exposure, and the benefits of medium sun exposure, not only linked to sunlight increasing vitamin D levels, but also releasing nitric oxide which lowers blood pressure and so is beneficial for cardiovascular health (which kills far far more people than skin cancer), as well as energizing T cells, which, like vitamin D, could be beneficial for our immune system, including against COVID-19 infection.
Thank you for the thorough response. I responded in a stingy way because i thought you're explaining from a biased position. However, I still think we're being exposed to much more UV in 2020 than 100 years ago due to our fucked up influence on the Ozone layer.
Have a good day.
Most sun screens have the wrong frequency response. It turns out we need UV-B to make vitamin D and sunscreen blocks that.
It lets through UV-A which is what increases the frequency of fatal melanomas. UV-B causes excisable squamous and basal cell carcinomas.
The best vitamin D forming sun is between 10 am and 2 pm the times the tell us to stay out of the sun. Much conventional wisdom (like never stick anything sharper than your elbow in your ear , one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. How could you stick your elbow into your ear?) is just plain wrong.
For the same reason I keep my ears clean I do not use sunscreen ever. (I have used it one single time on my honeymoon in tropical Mexico).
My dentist whom I have known since the fourth grade teases me about doing my own dental work with a Dremel Moto Tool. Although I actually have an Emesco belt drive dental engine too.
The Ozone layer changes mainly affect polar regions.
People have wide variations in their bodies and minds. Ear wax is related to sebum production in the skin.
Some people want to run to the doctor for every little thing. This is much easier in countries that have socialized medicine and easy access to dr.s offices, healthcare insurance and emergency rooms. Here in the USA just going to the ER could give you $1000 in bills before they have done anything to you. So it's advantageous to learn to clean your own ears, unstick your own farts and poop , and lance your own boils. Before Q tips got invented people used to do the job with sticks. There are still places on earth where folks brush their teeth with sticks.
It lets through UV-A which is what increases the frequency of fatal melanomas. UV-B causes excisable squamous and basal cell carcinomas.
The best vitamin D forming sun is between 10 am and 2 pm the times the tell us to stay out of the sun. Much conventional wisdom (like never stick anything sharper than your elbow in your ear , one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. How could you stick your elbow into your ear?) is just plain wrong.
For the same reason I keep my ears clean I do not use sunscreen ever. (I have used it one single time on my honeymoon in tropical Mexico).
My dentist whom I have known since the fourth grade teases me about doing my own dental work with a Dremel Moto Tool. Although I actually have an Emesco belt drive dental engine too.
The Ozone layer changes mainly affect polar regions.
People have wide variations in their bodies and minds. Ear wax is related to sebum production in the skin.
Some people want to run to the doctor for every little thing. This is much easier in countries that have socialized medicine and easy access to dr.s offices, healthcare insurance and emergency rooms. Here in the USA just going to the ER could give you $1000 in bills before they have done anything to you. So it's advantageous to learn to clean your own ears, unstick your own farts and poop , and lance your own boils. Before Q tips got invented people used to do the job with sticks. There are still places on earth where folks brush their teeth with sticks.
Killingbeans
Major Contributor
Even though it's not quite Highlander 2 out there
Yeah, I was gonna mention that too. The only people who really get exposed to the ozone hole are the ones doing research in the antarctic.
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That's not true, in the polars the hole is so big it can even kill plants when it migrates around, it's that bad. but there are still leaks and holes all around the atmosphere
And the majority of the Audio industry is a scam, that doesn't make the good products redundant.
True, some argue that one of the causes of increasing rates of skin cancer could actually be more people using sun cream, which gives them a false sense of security to go out in strong sun for longer thinking they're fully protected when they're not. Depending on the time of year and where you live midday sun could be unnecessarily dangerous, at more extreme latitudes it's safer of course. A combination of a healthy but not excessive amount of sun exposure and daily vitamin D supplements is the way to go in my opinion, due to our predominantly clothed, indoor modern lifestyle just not enabling us to get enough of it naturally through regular sun exposure as our ancestors had and our bodies evolved for.
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Also true, but thankfully the Montreal Protocol introduced in 1987 has slowed this and the hole now even shows signs of recovery, which just goes to show if there's a global, concerted effort to tackle climate change, real progress can be made. Sticking with (and building on) the Paris Climate Agreement would be a good start.
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You might want to double-check that one...
UVB is the conventional "melanoma driver" and has been for a while, for example, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15374941/
To address this issue, we have used specialized optical sources, emitting isolated or combined UVB or UVA wavebands or solar simulating radiation, together with our hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor-transgenic mouse model of UV-induced melanoma that uniquely recapitulates human disease. Only UVB-containing sources initiated melanoma. These were the isolated UVB waveband (>96% 280-320 nm), the unfiltered F40 sunlamp (250-800 nm) and the solar simulator (290-800 nm). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that the isolated UVB waveband was more effective in initiating melanoma than either the F40 sunlamp or the solar simulator (modified log rank P < 0.02). The latter two sources showed similar melanoma effectiveness (P = 0.38). In contrast, transgenic mice irradiated with either the isolated UVA waveband (>99.9% 320-400 nm, 150 kJ/m2), or an F40 sunlamp filtered to remove > 96% of the UVB, responded like unirradiated control animals. We conclude that, within the constraints of this animal model, UVB is responsible for the induction of mammalian cutaneous malignant melanoma whereas UVA is ineffective even at doses considered physiologically relevant.
As far as UVA are concerned, they can also be a melanoma driver, but the link has mostly been observed with tanning beds and psoriasis UVA therapy.
(edit: the idea that tanning beds were "safe" initially came from that UVB UVA distinction)
For a recent, but not specific overview, with a bunch of references, see this https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7589099/
BTW, one of the most promising recent melanoma therapy has been immunotherapy, through "oncolytic viruses" that are used to train the immune system to attack the tumor and there is a connexion with the issue that is on everybody's mind these days: mRNA, which could do the oncolytic virus job without the virus... or vaccine.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/biontech-regeneron-join-forces-i-o-battle-against-melanoma
PS: q-tips aren't especially dangerous, the practical (minor) risk is simply to push stuff down the ear canal and clog it even more...
Bamyasi
Senior Member
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For your information only, DO NOT TRY IT AT HOME:
MRC01
Major Contributor
Q-tips are not only dangerous (don't slip when using them!), but ineffective. As often as not, they make it worse by cramming the earwax further up the ear canal than make it better by cleaning it out.
Instead, I use an ear flush. I find it both safer and more effective. Fill the flush container with isopropyl alcohol, hold the nozzle up to the entry to the ear canal (it doesn't go far up in it like a Q-tip), hold your head sideways over a sink with that ear facing downward, then squeeze the bottle which sends a stream all the way up the ear canal swirling around and coming out. It's surprising how much gunk and earwax it removes. And it also has the benefit of disinfecting and drying the ear.
Instead, I use an ear flush. I find it both safer and more effective. Fill the flush container with isopropyl alcohol, hold the nozzle up to the entry to the ear canal (it doesn't go far up in it like a Q-tip), hold your head sideways over a sink with that ear facing downward, then squeeze the bottle which sends a stream all the way up the ear canal swirling around and coming out. It's surprising how much gunk and earwax it removes. And it also has the benefit of disinfecting and drying the ear.
