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Earwax: Live With It · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you should know front House Stuff
0:04
Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:12
Speaker 1: Josh Clark, There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry Uh. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it's stuff you should know. He just shrugged, like, what
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Speaker 1: are we gonna do? That's what we are episode number
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Speaker 1: seven something. Yeah, I have no idea either. It's in
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Speaker 1: the seven hundreds of folks. If you think there's only
0:34
Speaker 1: three hundred because you're on iTunes, you're in for to
0:38
Speaker 1: be doubly surprised. Yeah. Well, somebody um tweeted recently, I've
0:42
Speaker 1: just found the How Stuff Works app and there's way
0:45
Speaker 1: more stuff you should notice than there is on iTunes.
0:48
Speaker 1: I hate you guys now. Wait, I was cool with
0:51
Speaker 1: three one, but that's it. I had someone asking it
0:55
Speaker 1: the other day if we feel like we're running out
0:57
Speaker 1: of things topics, clearly we are because we're recording on
1:01
Speaker 1: your way exactly. What did you tell him look for
1:04
Speaker 1: boogers in the near future? Um no, I said no
1:09
Speaker 1: that sometimes it feels a little like, oh my gosh,
1:11
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do? But there's gazillions of topics
1:15
Speaker 1: in the world at least, and gazillions of scientific that's right.
1:18
Speaker 1: What is that? How many zeros? Is that a real number?
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Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think it is. Let's say nine,
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Speaker 1: it's a real number if you're eight years old, but
1:28
Speaker 1: watch it probably is a real number. Yeah, I think, Um,
1:31
Speaker 1: a jillian is a real number. A bazillion jillian definitely is.
1:38
Speaker 1: I would guess gazillion is by now I might actually
1:41
Speaker 1: look that up. I mean, there's just like a handful
1:43
Speaker 1: of mathematicians who are in charge of naming that kind
1:46
Speaker 1: of stuff, you know. So, chuckers, while you're looking that up,
1:49
Speaker 1: do you have ear wax? Um? Do you have a
1:53
Speaker 1: problem you're wax? None? No, I don't either. No, I
1:59
Speaker 1: wouldn't say so. Um. It is a little distressing, though,
2:03
Speaker 1: even though we will find out it is awesome and
2:06
Speaker 1: exactly how it's supposed to work. When it just sort
2:09
Speaker 1: of falls out of your ear onto your shoulder. Yeah,
2:12
Speaker 1: that's that's ideal. Actually, yeah, because ear wax in your
2:16
Speaker 1: physiology in general doesn't care about what social group you're
2:21
Speaker 1: a part of. Nope, it's just like, here's some ear
2:24
Speaker 1: wax on your shoulder. Deal with it. Although and I
2:27
Speaker 1: didn't look up why this is true? Apparently in northeastern
2:30
Speaker 1: Asian countries like Korea and China, um they they're ear
2:34
Speaker 1: wax is a little different. They're more likely to have
2:36
Speaker 1: the dry ear wax UM, which can be hard and
2:39
Speaker 1: red to black in color, which sounds gross and flaky
2:44
Speaker 1: or pale yellow, whereas here we have that um, nasty,
2:49
Speaker 1: gooey orange e mess wet ear wax. That is what
2:52
Speaker 1: it's called. Yes, and the reason why actually is because
2:55
Speaker 1: of the ABC living gene. That why, Yeah, they isolated
2:59
Speaker 1: the gene that there was a reason causes the type
3:02
Speaker 1: of ear wax that you get. And it turns out
3:05
Speaker 1: that they say the w UM mutation is um or
3:11
Speaker 1: the D mutation dry ear wax is recessive. So the
3:15
Speaker 1: only way to get dry ear waxes if both of
3:18
Speaker 1: your parents have dry ear wax, both carry the D
3:22
Speaker 1: gene or D mutation of the ABC levan gene. Well,
3:25
Speaker 1: I have both. Most people have our w D sea.
3:29
Speaker 1: So you have to get to D alleles to dry
3:33
Speaker 1: ear wax alleles to have dry ear wax yourself. If
3:36
Speaker 1: you have a W in a D or two W
3:38
Speaker 1: you're gonna have wet And for some reason I have both.
3:42
Speaker 1: Can't you like one ear is dry and the other's wet. No,
3:46
Speaker 1: like sometimes you know, if I get the old cotton
3:48
Speaker 1: swab out, which now you're introducing something way beyond genetics.
3:53
Speaker 1: That's not even apo genetics, that's human intervention. The point is,
3:57
Speaker 1: if I get the cotton swab out, that's when I'll
3:59
Speaker 1: get out the orange wet stuff. But um, I'll also
4:02
Speaker 1: have the dry, flaky stuff that falls out sometimes probably,
4:04
Speaker 1: I would guess. And I'm no ceremon expert, I'm no seaminisd.
4:10
Speaker 1: Now what's the what's the word? Uh? Actually looked it
4:13
Speaker 1: up for someone who studies this. It has to have
4:16
Speaker 1: to do with ceremon m. I can't find it now.
4:21
Speaker 1: It's so Seamonius doesn't ringing a bell. No, it's wrong.
4:27
Speaker 1: I can't find what it is. Sorry, Okay, Well the
4:29
Speaker 1: person who said, I'm not a person who studies ear wax.
4:33
Speaker 1: But what I would guess is that when you're when
4:37
Speaker 1: you're digging in there, you're getting to the fresher ear wax,
4:40
Speaker 1: That's what I think. And then as it works itself
4:42
Speaker 1: further and further out your ear, which is the natural process,
4:47
Speaker 1: it's exposed to drier air, that ambient air, and it
4:51
Speaker 1: drives out and flakes off, which is what it's supposed
4:54
Speaker 1: to do. So I don't think you have both. I
4:56
Speaker 1: think if you have both, the stuff inside your ear
4:58
Speaker 1: would be dry, would be dry as well. Yeah, okay,
5:01
Speaker 1: all right, well that makes sense. Um, So what ear
5:04
Speaker 1: waxes or uh ceramon c E R U M E
5:08
Speaker 1: N is the scientific name, but I'm sure they call
5:12
Speaker 1: it wax. It's the third chubby angel. Now, that's cerebum um.
5:19
Speaker 1: It is made up of secretions of a couple of
5:23
Speaker 1: little specialized glands uh in the skin on the outer
5:27
Speaker 1: third of the ear canal. Yes, um, so you have
5:30
Speaker 1: your sebaceous glands and they're gonna secrete in these names
5:33
Speaker 1: all sounds so growth really, but they're perfect for describing
5:37
Speaker 1: what they are. Yeah, yeah, um, they secrete sebum as
5:42
Speaker 1: E V m uh. And then you have um an
5:45
Speaker 1: apocrene sweat gland that's modified that produces uh yeah, it combines,
5:52
Speaker 1: it combines with the sebum, and that's where you get
5:54
Speaker 1: your ceremony. And so see them in and of itself
5:58
Speaker 1: is fairly normal. If you like, take your fingertip and
6:01
Speaker 1: rub it alongside where your nose folds into your face.
6:05
Speaker 1: That's well if if your stuff is at all oily,
6:08
Speaker 1: the oil is see them. So apparently it mixes in
6:11
Speaker 1: in your ear with the the that kind of apicrene
6:16
Speaker 1: gland like you said, to form ceramon, which is its
6:19
Speaker 1: own thing. It's not just see them, but all of
6:22
Speaker 1: it is basically fatty, oily lipid e um compound that's
6:29
Speaker 1: secreted by these glands in the skin cells, specialized glands. Yeah,
6:35
Speaker 1: about six keratin, which is a protein. And then like
6:39
Speaker 1: you said, the fatty acids, you've got dead skin cells, um,
6:43
Speaker 1: hair follicles, dead bugs, little bugs. Yeah, lots of stuff
6:49
Speaker 1: that comes out in this and like you, like you
6:51
Speaker 1: said dust it probably dust mites then too. And like
6:56
Speaker 1: you said, um, it's produced in the inner third of
7:00
Speaker 1: the outer ear outer one third of the ear canal um.
7:05
Speaker 1: And when it's produced in there, it's migrates outward thanks
7:10
Speaker 1: to um the motion of the ocean. Right and you
7:15
Speaker 1: talking and chewing. Yeah, I couldn't figure out, like how
7:19
Speaker 1: does your ear wax move, But it's just from jaw movement.
7:22
Speaker 1: Normal jaw movement moves the old or the newer stuff
7:25
Speaker 1: outward and as it's coming out, all the gunk and
7:29
Speaker 1: stuff that's protected your ear from are moved out with it.
7:32
Speaker 1: So the stuff that flakes off and falls on your shoulder, Uh,
7:35
Speaker 1: that everybody points and laughs at at the at the party, Um,
7:40
Speaker 1: that is filled with all the stuff that your ear
7:42
Speaker 1: reax caught along the way. It's a it's a beautiful,
7:45
Speaker 1: elegant process. Probably was beautiful, um, aspect of the entire
7:50
Speaker 1: human experience. Well, I think you're making a joke, but
7:54
Speaker 1: I really do think that. Like it's the little things
7:57
Speaker 1: like that about Like I'm amazed about the function of
7:59
Speaker 1: the brain and of course the organs and all that,
8:01
Speaker 1: but just something as simple as that mechanical talking and
8:05
Speaker 1: chewing will work ear wax out of your ear. It's
8:08
Speaker 1: just so basic, and I think it's awesome and I
8:12
Speaker 1: think it's really cool. Actually, I know. To me, I
8:14
Speaker 1: agree with you. Um. So some people produce a lot
8:17
Speaker 1: of this. Um. I was gonna say gross stuff. But
8:21
Speaker 1: have you seen Paddington the movie? Yeah? No, I heard
8:25
Speaker 1: it was really good. It's very good, super super cute,
8:28
Speaker 1: really well done. Why did you see that? Just because
8:31
Speaker 1: it's a cute movie? Really yeah? Um, solid in theaters
8:33
Speaker 1: and everything. UM, please tell me you took you me yeah.
8:38
Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, it was just me
8:40
Speaker 1: and you, me and the whole theater. But if it's
8:41
Speaker 1: just you and no kids, then it's like somebody you
8:45
Speaker 1: might want to call that they did. I'm just a
8:48
Speaker 1: Paddington fan, um, but I am now So anyway, Um,
8:53
Speaker 1: there is a part where there's a part featuring ear
8:56
Speaker 1: wax in Paddington. It's it does not celebrate the beau
9:00
Speaker 1: of ear wax. It's the exact opposite. And actually you
9:03
Speaker 1: mean was like god or it was really gross but
9:07
Speaker 1: just awesome. So anyway, Gussie Gussie Paddington. Is that a spoiler? Okay,
9:14
Speaker 1: I don't think so, maybe for like a five year
9:16
Speaker 1: old you know. Um, So, like I said, some people
9:20
Speaker 1: produce a lot of the stuff. Um, some people don't
9:23
Speaker 1: produce as much, and they don't really know why, but
9:27
Speaker 1: they do know that sometimes stress and anxiety, um can
9:31
Speaker 1: increase production of your wax, which makes interesting hormones, hormones
9:36
Speaker 1: affected your glands go off. It also said that some
9:39
Speaker 1: drugs can increase your ear wax production. And I looked
9:43
Speaker 1: all over and can you find the drugs? But if
9:47
Speaker 1: stress and anxiety does hiahuasca, I imagine yeah, or cocaine
9:51
Speaker 1: would probably make you produce more ear wax or something.
9:54
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, when you put that stuff in your ear, yeah,
9:57
Speaker 1: or something that makes you like to your jaw lot.
9:59
Speaker 1: Oh sure, that could probably get more ear wax out. Yeah. Interesting,
10:04
Speaker 1: I never thought about that. I couldn't find any anything else.
10:08
Speaker 1: Um is gross, as you might think ear wax as
10:11
Speaker 1: though it actually is a great thing for your body.
10:14
Speaker 1: And there's a very good reason, uh why you have it,
10:17
Speaker 1: because there are four main functions that your ear wax
10:20
Speaker 1: is going to serve my friend. Uh. One of them
10:24
Speaker 1: is it creates an acidic environment. That's great, that kills
10:27
Speaker 1: helps kill bacteria and fun Guy. Oh even better, number two,
10:33
Speaker 1: Um it is, Well, that's that's a big deal too,
10:36
Speaker 1: because your ear, your inner ear, like that is really
10:39
Speaker 1: a place where fungus and bacteria would thrive because it's
10:41
Speaker 1: moist and dark, and you know what we always say
10:45
Speaker 1: about moist dark places, fun Guy thrives, that's right. Um.
10:49
Speaker 1: The thing is is, it doesn't seem like that be
10:52
Speaker 1: a big problem to have fun Guy in your ear,
10:55
Speaker 1: but it would because it would affect things like your balance, nausea,
11:00
Speaker 1: ear aches. Um, it just wouldn't be good so the
11:03
Speaker 1: fact that earwax produces in a cidic environment alone makes
11:07
Speaker 1: earwax a beautiful thing and to be celebrated. So if
11:09
Speaker 1: we did, we could just stop there. We could, but
11:11
Speaker 1: you can go on. Like you said, there's four and
11:13
Speaker 1: that was just one quarter of these these benefits that
11:17
Speaker 1: your ex pistos. Secondly, it is a lube. Um. It
11:21
Speaker 1: lubricates your ear can basically to keep it from drying out.
11:26
Speaker 1: And um, you know you don't want the inner ear
11:29
Speaker 1: becoming all like itchy and dry and craggedy, and you
11:34
Speaker 1: want to hear something weird that I've a new personal
11:38
Speaker 1: hygiene thing I have to do as of yesterday, starting yesterday,
11:42
Speaker 1: something I'll probably have to do my whole I have
11:44
Speaker 1: to moisturize not ears. Now. I thought you gonna say,
11:47
Speaker 1: heir inside the ear. I was like, I have been
11:49
Speaker 1: doing that for a while. It's getting I got a
11:51
Speaker 1: little fro inside ear fro yeah, but no, like taking
11:56
Speaker 1: moisturizer and like rubbing on my ears because I got
11:59
Speaker 1: a haircat yesterday and like my ears were exposed and
12:02
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm like, wait, why is like
12:04
Speaker 1: there a streak of white on my ear? And they're
12:06
Speaker 1: bright red, and I realized, like, my ears are chapped,
12:10
Speaker 1: and that is brand new or else. I just noticed it.
12:12
Speaker 1: So I'm an ear moisturizer. Now, yeah, you had that
12:16
Speaker 1: seventies uh ear muff hairstyle cut off of your ears
12:19
Speaker 1: so your ears were exposed. Yeah, it was pretty seventies,
12:21
Speaker 1: wasn't well. I was growing my hair out to to
12:24
Speaker 1: create like a blank slate of you know that could
12:27
Speaker 1: be worked with. It was kind of longish for you.
12:29
Speaker 1: It was really long and it it was that seventies
12:32
Speaker 1: like ear muff thing wasn't quite It was getting there.
12:35
Speaker 1: It looks good, very nice. Thanks. Did that make you uncomfortable? No,
12:40
Speaker 1: I was fishing for that the whole reason I brought
12:42
Speaker 1: that story. You looked either sheepish or really uncomfortable with
12:47
Speaker 1: a little bit both. Alright, gotcha? Alright. Number three on
12:51
Speaker 1: top four things that earwax does, Uh is your ceremon
12:55
Speaker 1: and your hair just like let him exactly. Um, it's
12:59
Speaker 1: gonna discover just uh everyone's worst nightmare, which is spider
13:04
Speaker 1: crawling in there, which I covered. Uh, you know that
13:07
Speaker 1: happened to Emily. I think I talked about that on
13:09
Speaker 1: one of the shows that was genuinely one of the
13:12
Speaker 1: most awesome things that I've ever experienced, because it did
13:16
Speaker 1: not happen to me. Wasn't there a picture? Didn't you
13:19
Speaker 1: post a picture of it or something like that? Um No,
13:23
Speaker 1: but there I think I I posted a picture of
13:26
Speaker 1: a happening to some woman in China. I think that
13:29
Speaker 1: was frightening, And it was a picture of a spider
13:32
Speaker 1: looking out of the woman's ear canal right, yeah? Yeah,
13:35
Speaker 1: but Emily's if people haven't heard this story, it was
13:39
Speaker 1: I think it was in the middle of the night
13:40
Speaker 1: or something. She was like, I got this weird fluttering
13:42
Speaker 1: in my ear and I don't know what's going on
13:44
Speaker 1: in there. And I was like, well, you know, I
13:46
Speaker 1: took in the bathroom and trying to light and I
13:48
Speaker 1: was like, holy crap. And the spider I think work.
13:52
Speaker 1: Didn't it with the flash flight? Remember like, if you
13:54
Speaker 1: look at your I don't know, did the did They're
13:57
Speaker 1: saying yes, yes, okay, so there you go. Well, all
14:00
Speaker 1: I remember thinking is only I don't want to have
14:03
Speaker 1: to break this to you, but you have a spider
14:05
Speaker 1: in your ear? You didn't like chloroformer first? I should have. Yeah,
14:10
Speaker 1: she was not excited about that. She was not pumped,
14:12
Speaker 1: but so, well, what was the process for getting it out? Well,
14:15
Speaker 1: I've looked on the internet super quickly, um to see
14:19
Speaker 1: how and they said to flush it out and um,
14:23
Speaker 1: just like a little warm. Oh my gosh, you did
14:26
Speaker 1: use tweezers. Yeah, And I put the water in there
14:28
Speaker 1: and it kind of um loosened it up, and went
14:30
Speaker 1: in there and got the tweezers and I was like,
14:32
Speaker 1: look at this. How big was it? Oh? I mean
14:34
Speaker 1: it wasn't huge, but it was It was enough spider
14:38
Speaker 1: for her taste. Yeah, more than enough, right, dude, it was.
14:42
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that some people like sleep with vesseline
14:45
Speaker 1: in their ears to keep bugs from crawling in. Yeah,
14:50
Speaker 1: like that is a thing. Yeah, I mean people don't
14:52
Speaker 1: want bugs in their ears. No, but that's taken. I
14:55
Speaker 1: mean that's just parents severe paranois. I think if you're
14:57
Speaker 1: sleeping that your muffs are vesselly in your ears, you know,
15:00
Speaker 1: your moss. I thought about that, you all right? And
15:04
Speaker 1: number four finally is um, your ear wax is gonna
15:08
Speaker 1: trap some dead skin and hair cells and basically all
15:12
Speaker 1: of that junk to carry it back out to keep
15:15
Speaker 1: it clean. So it sounds sort of counterintuitive to trap
15:18
Speaker 1: that stuff, but it's trapping it so it can carry
15:21
Speaker 1: it out. And if you didn't have your wax, it
15:23
Speaker 1: would just go in there, right, And if you chew
15:25
Speaker 1: things like celery and you talk, then that your wax
15:29
Speaker 1: is going to work its way out in a slow
15:32
Speaker 1: process where all this stuff is cleaned out and you
15:34
Speaker 1: don't ever have to do anything with it under ideal circumstances.
15:38
Speaker 1: Not always are circumstances ideal, And we'll talk about how
15:42
Speaker 1: things can go wrong after this, Okay, Chuck's so ideally
16:01
Speaker 1: you don't have to ever think about ear wax or
16:03
Speaker 1: anything like that to brush it off your shoulder, right.
16:06
Speaker 1: But um, for some people, ear wax can build up
16:10
Speaker 1: and become impacted, a lot of times it's because people
16:13
Speaker 1: mess with it, like with cotton swabs on a stick.
16:17
Speaker 1: You know, you may have seen the advertisement on the
16:20
Speaker 1: Big Game. You're just called cotton swabs, right, yeah, okay, Um,
16:24
Speaker 1: so when uh, if you use that, a lot of
16:28
Speaker 1: people use those to clear out their ear wax. Right,
16:31
Speaker 1: you're supposed to know it's doing the exact opposite, because
16:34
Speaker 1: your ear wax is um created and moves from the
16:40
Speaker 1: outside third of your inner ear um. When you rub
16:44
Speaker 1: cotton swab on it, you're actually pushing it in further
16:48
Speaker 1: than it's supposed to be and it it can't get
16:51
Speaker 1: out is easily there. So what you're going to do
16:53
Speaker 1: eventually is have ear wax build up. Yeah, And it's
16:57
Speaker 1: it's so hard to get people to not do that
16:59
Speaker 1: because is it's so um rewarding when you get out
17:03
Speaker 1: of the shower and use that swab and you get
17:05
Speaker 1: that orange kunk and you're like, oh man, I'm so
17:07
Speaker 1: glad that's out of my body. But it's it's got
17:10
Speaker 1: a purpose. Leave it there. You're supposed to leave it there.
17:13
Speaker 1: Plus there's I mean, using cotton swabs can lead to
17:16
Speaker 1: other kinds of dangers, like you can push too hard
17:19
Speaker 1: and prefer your ear drums. I think it really is true.
17:23
Speaker 1: You're not supposed to put anything larger than the end
17:25
Speaker 1: of a football in your ear um. You can also
17:30
Speaker 1: clean it too much. It can result in something called
17:34
Speaker 1: swimmers ear. We're basically for people who spend a lot
17:37
Speaker 1: of time in pool. Their ears are constantly irrigated and
17:43
Speaker 1: the canal becomes basically free of um of ear wax,
17:47
Speaker 1: and as a result, bad things can happen. Yeah, And
17:51
Speaker 1: they say, if you do have swimmers, ere um, put
17:54
Speaker 1: a few drops of an acidic slightly acidic, not acid
17:58
Speaker 1: like hydrochloricas. Let's put a gallon drome. What is a
18:04
Speaker 1: slightly acidic fluid? I wonder, Uh, lady, lemon juice, that's
18:08
Speaker 1: what I would guess, That's probably what I would do.
18:10
Speaker 1: I hope we're not advising something that's really nat. No.
18:12
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, maybe you should go look
18:14
Speaker 1: up what you should put in there or go to
18:17
Speaker 1: your doctor. Yes, but they advised some slightly acidic fluid
18:20
Speaker 1: in the ear after you swim, and that established re
18:23
Speaker 1: establishes what should be a normal acidic environment. Yeah, because
18:27
Speaker 1: you when you strip out that ear wax, you lose
18:29
Speaker 1: those big four benefits and all of a sudden, your
18:31
Speaker 1: ear is dry and cracky, and you've got fungus and
18:34
Speaker 1: bacteria growing in there, and you get ear infections and
18:37
Speaker 1: it's not fun. The big four um you and back
18:42
Speaker 1: to creating a build up of ear wax, you get
18:44
Speaker 1: what's called ceramon impaction, and that is when like you
18:48
Speaker 1: have a bunch of ear wax pressed against your ear
18:52
Speaker 1: drum and it can result in all sorts of stuff
18:55
Speaker 1: like headaches, nausea, ear aches, coughing for some reason. Um,
19:01
Speaker 1: and that can be from using Q tips. People who
19:05
Speaker 1: use hearing aids run into this a lot. Uh. And
19:08
Speaker 1: when your ceremony becomes impacted, you have to go to
19:11
Speaker 1: the doctor. That's right. Which my sweet wife had to
19:14
Speaker 1: go to the doctor when she was a little girl
19:16
Speaker 1: because ear wax impaction. Yeah, and uh she said it sucked. Well,
19:22
Speaker 1: when you go to the doctor if it comes to that, Um,
19:24
Speaker 1: they're gonna have quite a few techniques that could use. Um,
19:28
Speaker 1: you're syringing is one of them. And then comes painful.
19:32
Speaker 1: It does. I don't think it is, though. I bet
19:33
Speaker 1: it's actually quite a relief. Yeah, that's not how I
19:37
Speaker 1: hear it. Really is it painful? Yeah? Umi says it
19:40
Speaker 1: really is not fun. Well, I didn't know if that
19:42
Speaker 1: was like a five year old Umi or well yeah, yeah,
19:45
Speaker 1: but even as an adult she remembers it as not
19:47
Speaker 1: being very fun. Is Paddington Jumi? Maybe that's why she
19:51
Speaker 1: had such a reaction. Maybe, Um, they'll use other instruments.
19:55
Speaker 1: Sometimes you use a microphone or I'm sorry, a microscope.
19:58
Speaker 1: That'd be weird to magn to find the ear canal.
20:01
Speaker 1: They shout into it to shatter your ear ax. Um,
20:07
Speaker 1: and some people have a more narrow ear canal, or
20:11
Speaker 1: if you have a perforated ear drum or something that
20:13
Speaker 1: can be a problem. Um. Basically you want to go
20:17
Speaker 1: to a doctor. You could try some home methods like
20:20
Speaker 1: peroxide or maybe mineral oil. Yeah, apparently warm mineral oil
20:24
Speaker 1: kind of breaks it up a little bit. Yeah, I
20:26
Speaker 1: used to. That's one of my most pleasing memories as
20:28
Speaker 1: a kid when I had ear aches, as my mom
20:30
Speaker 1: would like heat up mineral oil and put in my arrows.
20:34
Speaker 1: But that was nice, felt really nice. It's very warm.
20:36
Speaker 1: And when for some reason, I like the feeling of
20:40
Speaker 1: water closing my ear, like when I get into a pool.
20:44
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'll but probably because of that. Yeah maybe,
20:47
Speaker 1: so I didn't think about that. Do you like that
20:49
Speaker 1: or what? I just you just like crawling into the field.
20:55
Speaker 1: Why is Chuck just floating in the pool like a baby? Um?
20:59
Speaker 1: I no, I've never had much of an affinity for
21:02
Speaker 1: water in my ears because some people hate it. I
21:04
Speaker 1: don't hate it. I don't like it. Yeah, And like
21:06
Speaker 1: you know, I'll bang on the side of my head
21:08
Speaker 1: if it feels like there's like a drop of water
21:10
Speaker 1: in there. Does that work? Uh? It can not always.
21:14
Speaker 1: I think normally the water just has to dry. Sometimes
21:18
Speaker 1: I get dizzy in my head, hurt. I used to
21:21
Speaker 1: see when I lifeguarded. I would see swim team members
21:23
Speaker 1: do that though, and I was always like, I don't
21:25
Speaker 1: know if that just doesn't seem right. Once in a
21:27
Speaker 1: while it does and it just goes and all of
21:30
Speaker 1: a sudden you can hear normally. Again. Interesting. I didn't
21:34
Speaker 1: see the reason for this though, but they did. Um
21:36
Speaker 1: in this one article I saw have caution people against
21:41
Speaker 1: ear irrigation if you had diabetes. What? Yeah? Why? I
21:47
Speaker 1: have no idea. I meant to follow up on that.
21:51
Speaker 1: So we don't know what drugs cause an increase in
21:53
Speaker 1: ear wax build up, and we don't know why if
21:56
Speaker 1: you have diabetes you shouldn't do ear can irrigation. I
22:00
Speaker 1: don't know. They said not to use irrigation if you
22:03
Speaker 1: have a perforated ear drum. Yeah, I get that tube
22:06
Speaker 1: in the ear drum A weekend immune system or diabetes. Huh,
22:12
Speaker 1: have no idea. I don't have to follow up on
22:14
Speaker 1: social media and let people know. Um, But they do
22:17
Speaker 1: say if you do want to clean your ear. It's
22:19
Speaker 1: not like you can't clean your ears, but just wash
22:22
Speaker 1: your external ear with a cloth. But you should never
22:25
Speaker 1: stick something into your ear canal right, it's just no good.
22:29
Speaker 1: But it's interesting that the cotton swab businesses huge. I mean,
22:34
Speaker 1: they've made a if you think about it, they made
22:37
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's they shouldn't be selling
22:41
Speaker 1: these things now, I know what you mean, though, you know. Yeah,
22:44
Speaker 1: apparently that I couldn't find out how much um people
22:48
Speaker 1: spend on cotton swabs every year or how many are produced.
22:50
Speaker 1: We couldn't find out that either. But for two thousand eleven,
22:54
Speaker 1: apparently Americans spent sixty three million dollars on ear cleaning stuff,
22:58
Speaker 1: home ear cleaning stuff, and I am doing a lot
23:01
Speaker 1: of that went to cotton swabs, but also like home
23:04
Speaker 1: irrigation kits and stuff like that. Yeah, because you can
23:07
Speaker 1: get those at the drug store, right, and those are fine?
23:10
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, I don't know. I mean, everything is
23:14
Speaker 1: upside down right now. Well, no, I think the irrigation
23:18
Speaker 1: is fine if you don't fall into one of those
23:19
Speaker 1: categories that I mentioned, because you're not sticking an object
23:23
Speaker 1: into your ear. That and then if you don't do
23:25
Speaker 1: it too frequently to where you're stripping the ear wax
23:28
Speaker 1: out of your ear right, because it's not like that
23:30
Speaker 1: thing just replenishes overnight. Guys, I know, and you know
23:33
Speaker 1: I used the cotton swabs, not a lot, but occasionally.
23:37
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna do it anymore. But it is,
23:39
Speaker 1: like I said, it's it feels so good to get
23:42
Speaker 1: a big hunk of that stuff out. Yeah, I've never
23:44
Speaker 1: been into those. Ye, I'm not gonna do it anymore.
23:47
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell the only two. I'm gonna burn all
23:48
Speaker 1: that stuff. All I do is I take some soap
23:51
Speaker 1: and lather at my hands, do the outside of my ears,
23:54
Speaker 1: and then, like I guess, I just kind of follow
23:57
Speaker 1: the contours the inside of my ears. And I'm trying
23:59
Speaker 1: to remember, like do I go into my ear canals?
24:01
Speaker 1: And I think I intuitively stop with your fingers, yeah,
24:05
Speaker 1: and about the outside, so I don't really go into
24:07
Speaker 1: the ear canal and then rinse it out and get
24:10
Speaker 1: off and get out of the shower. And then now I, um,
24:14
Speaker 1: I moisturized my ears afterward, is the last step. That's great. Um.
24:20
Speaker 1: The other thing too, that they of course you should
24:22
Speaker 1: never ever do. Like cotton swabs is one thing, but
24:25
Speaker 1: like a car key or bobby pin or like a toothpick,
24:29
Speaker 1: what is wrong with you? I don't know that you
24:31
Speaker 1: should never ever stick something like that in your ear
24:33
Speaker 1: because you're just asking for trouble, big trouble. Um. All right, Well,
24:36
Speaker 1: after this break we are going to talk about you're candling.
24:56
Speaker 1: All right, So Chuck, you teased everybody with ear candling.
24:59
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell everyone what that is? It's hokem okay,
25:04
Speaker 1: describe the hokem well ear candling. And a lot of
25:07
Speaker 1: people don't know this, I think. I think a lot
25:09
Speaker 1: of folks say, like, oh my gosh, it's the best
25:10
Speaker 1: thing ever. Um. It is also known as auricular candling
25:15
Speaker 1: or coning, and it is a procedure once you put
25:17
Speaker 1: a cone shaped um waxy cone shaped device in the
25:21
Speaker 1: ear canal um and it's got usually a plate underneath
25:25
Speaker 1: it between the cone in your ear, and you light
25:28
Speaker 1: it on fire. And supposedly what it does is that
25:32
Speaker 1: you stick the thing in your ear and then light
25:35
Speaker 1: it on fire. Yeah, supposedly what it does is it
25:38
Speaker 1: creates a vacuum to pull out um impurities. Right because
25:43
Speaker 1: the flame supposedly needs oxygen, while the flame definitely needs
25:48
Speaker 1: oxygen to burn, and it's getting its oxygen by sucking
25:51
Speaker 1: it out of the ear canal through the cone, hence
25:54
Speaker 1: creating a vacuum. And as it does, like you said,
25:56
Speaker 1: it sucks out impurities and ear wax and supposedly also
26:00
Speaker 1: clears your sinuses, um, clears the the plaque out of
26:04
Speaker 1: your um den drites and all sorts of stuff like that. Yeah.
26:08
Speaker 1: This one article by Lisa roe uh Rosen, m D.
26:13
Speaker 1: Said she went to and this was in the nineties,
26:15
Speaker 1: but she went to a Discovery expo in Atlanta and
26:17
Speaker 1: said that they had ear candle ers there and one
26:19
Speaker 1: of the exhibitions and the lady said that ran the
26:22
Speaker 1: booth quote it cleans the whole head, brains and all
26:25
Speaker 1: they're all connected, you know, Oh yeah end quote. UM.
26:31
Speaker 1: And of course it was in Atlanta. I'm like, oh great,
26:34
Speaker 1: although that doesn't necessarily mean that could be anyway. You're right,
26:37
Speaker 1: but um, there is there are a lot of people
26:39
Speaker 1: that think, you know, it's um, it's a cleanse for
26:43
Speaker 1: your ear, and it does connect to your brain and
26:46
Speaker 1: it clears your head, and it's a spiritual thing and
26:48
Speaker 1: you know, they don't know where exactly it came from,
26:50
Speaker 1: but uh, China and ancient Tibet and yeah, pre Columbian
26:55
Speaker 1: South America, Atlantis. Yeah, they all are cited as places
26:59
Speaker 1: where it might have happened. Yeah, no one has any
27:01
Speaker 1: idea where this stuff originated. Could have been created in
27:05
Speaker 1: the US and the seventies for all anybody knows. Should
27:08
Speaker 1: we read some of the things that supposedly helps. Yeah,
27:12
Speaker 1: we should probably also say if you haven't been able
27:14
Speaker 1: to tell by now, um, science is thoroughly debunked. Ear
27:17
Speaker 1: candling um. And this is from that article. There's something
27:21
Speaker 1: that Dr Rosen and some of her colleagues got together
27:24
Speaker 1: and kind of step by step took down the idea. Yeah,
27:28
Speaker 1: there's a list of like forty things. We won't go
27:31
Speaker 1: to them all, but release vertigo, clears the eyes, purifies
27:35
Speaker 1: the blood, um aids sinusitis, relieves ear aches, opens and
27:40
Speaker 1: aligns in your chakra, releases blocked energy, reduces stress, intention
27:46
Speaker 1: stabilizes your emotions. Um, it does none of that, because
27:51
Speaker 1: it is it is just been proven to be an
27:55
Speaker 1: outright not only fraud but dangerous right. So, and here's
28:00
Speaker 1: why so. Um. The first one is that you can't
28:04
Speaker 1: pass liquids and gases through an ear drum that isn't
28:07
Speaker 1: perforated or ruptured um. So it's not sucking anything out
28:12
Speaker 1: of your inner ear, or your um lymph system, or
28:18
Speaker 1: your sinuses or your brain. That's where your ears pop
28:21
Speaker 1: when you're in a plane. Right, If if you could
28:23
Speaker 1: pass air through there, that wouldn't happen. There would be
28:25
Speaker 1: no atmospheric pressure going on. Right, So that means that
28:29
Speaker 1: sticking an ear candle in your outer ears not going
28:32
Speaker 1: to suck anything out because it can't pass through. That's
28:35
Speaker 1: that's point one, right, that's point one. Point two is oxygen. Uh, well,
28:41
Speaker 1: it will create that vacuum and and suck out the impurities. Yeah,
28:45
Speaker 1: and that is just not true. Yeah apparently and it
28:49
Speaker 1: and Yeah, doing trials of ear candles, they weren't able
28:52
Speaker 1: to um create a vacuum in any of them, So
28:56
Speaker 1: there's no vacuum created, that's right. Uh. There's also uh
29:01
Speaker 1: the idea that if a vacuum were created, it would
29:04
Speaker 1: suck impurities out. Apparently after ear candling some of these,
29:09
Speaker 1: at least one of the same trials studied the stuff
29:13
Speaker 1: the residue that was found afterwards, like I guess in
29:16
Speaker 1: the stump of the ear candle. Well yeah, and that's
29:18
Speaker 1: what people point to because there's all this gunk and
29:21
Speaker 1: they're like, look at all this stuff that came out
29:23
Speaker 1: of my ear. Oh my god. Right, So what it
29:25
Speaker 1: turns out to be is ash from the ear candle
29:28
Speaker 1: and left over wax from the ear candle, but not
29:30
Speaker 1: just ear candle, not ear whax, just the candle residue. Yeah,
29:34
Speaker 1: like they tested the substance that is not cerebumay in
29:38
Speaker 1: any former fashion. Uh, the what about the idea that
29:41
Speaker 1: it's safe and effective. I think we took care of
29:44
Speaker 1: the effective part, but the safe thing, apparently there's a
29:48
Speaker 1: lot of injuries you can get from it. Um that
29:51
Speaker 1: you can be burned is one thing. Um, you can
29:55
Speaker 1: perforate your ear drum, you can get infections. Um, you
29:59
Speaker 1: can get built up of the candle wax to replace
30:03
Speaker 1: whatever wax you think you're getting out. Yeah, it could
30:05
Speaker 1: have the reverse effect exactly. And then um, one woman
30:08
Speaker 1: actually died from a fire that was caused in two
30:11
Speaker 1: thousand five from ear candling. I looked it up. She
30:14
Speaker 1: was doing it, I guess by herself on her bed
30:17
Speaker 1: and the ear candle fell out of her ear and
30:20
Speaker 1: caught her bed sheets on fire. And she made it
30:22
Speaker 1: out of her house fine, but she was asthmatic and
30:25
Speaker 1: had an asthmatic reaction to the smoke and died. How
30:29
Speaker 1: did happen that fast? I don't know. I guess she
30:32
Speaker 1: had some bunch of bed sheets or something of like
30:37
Speaker 1: some flammable material. Um, there is a company I won't
30:42
Speaker 1: name the company, but one company that made it. And
30:44
Speaker 1: if you it came with a seventy five page manual
30:48
Speaker 1: and a thirty minute video tape. I guess this is
30:51
Speaker 1: a while ago. It was a video tape and candles
30:54
Speaker 1: and plate guards and flame retarded cloths and oil and
30:57
Speaker 1: then uh otoscope. And if you read the flyer with
31:02
Speaker 1: this kit, it says, quote it supplies you with everything
31:05
Speaker 1: you need for a safe and effective session of entertainment
31:08
Speaker 1: right for entertainment purposes only because apparently, I think it
31:12
Speaker 1: says that Canada regulates those things. Are the US does
31:15
Speaker 1: those medical devices? If they make any health claims? Yeah,
31:18
Speaker 1: I think they're illegal in Canada outright. Um, or at
31:21
Speaker 1: least they were. I'm not sure if they still are,
31:23
Speaker 1: but um, yeah, the f d A won't even I mean,
31:28
Speaker 1: you can't make any kind of claim on the box
31:31
Speaker 1: if you if you get an ear candle at your
31:33
Speaker 1: little health food store, just read it carefully. They can't
31:37
Speaker 1: make any claims for entertainment purposes because it's a hoot
31:41
Speaker 1: to put a candle in your ear and light it
31:42
Speaker 1: on fire. There was one other thing I came across
31:45
Speaker 1: in the articles you sent me, Um, and I don't
31:48
Speaker 1: know if it's true, but it sounds fantastic that if
31:53
Speaker 1: if you could create a vacuum with an ear candle,
31:56
Speaker 1: the negative pressure created by the vacuum would rupture your
31:59
Speaker 1: ear drop them right, which sounds pretty awesome. Yeah. I
32:03
Speaker 1: don't know if it's true. It wasn't backed up with
32:04
Speaker 1: a source or anything like that. I couldn't find it
32:06
Speaker 1: anywhere else, but it's pretty hilarious. Yeah, So don't ear
32:09
Speaker 1: candle people. And if you write in and say no,
32:13
Speaker 1: you should see the stuff that comes out. It is
32:15
Speaker 1: not your ear wax. You should put that stuff beneath
32:19
Speaker 1: the gas chromatograph and see what you think. I mean,
32:22
Speaker 1: it's proven. This is like what was we talked about recently,
32:25
Speaker 1: the crop circles. Man, we got eat from that to
32:28
Speaker 1: people like no, it's not proven. What was it. I
32:33
Speaker 1: think it was that Oklowa's crop circles. When we're like, no,
32:36
Speaker 1: they've proven that. These guys came out and said we
32:39
Speaker 1: made it up. No, I know what they were saying though,
32:41
Speaker 1: like it. It's just like we were talking about with ESPs.
32:44
Speaker 1: Because you can disprove right, right, some of it doesn't
32:48
Speaker 1: mean that this proves all of it. Except with crop circles.
32:51
Speaker 1: We should come up with the stuff. You should have
32:53
Speaker 1: a T shirt. Friends don't let friends ear candle. Yeah, yeah,
32:56
Speaker 1: I just love your ear wax. Yeah, let it fall
32:59
Speaker 1: out on your shoulder and let someone point it out
33:01
Speaker 1: and you say that's nature baby, Yeah, it's because I
33:04
Speaker 1: eat celery. Uh. If you want to know more about
33:09
Speaker 1: your wax, you can type the word into the search
33:13
Speaker 1: bar at how stuff works dot com. I think we
33:15
Speaker 1: have it done as one word maybe uh yeah, uh
33:18
Speaker 1: and uh, I said search bar, which means it's time
33:20
Speaker 1: for listening to mail. I'm gonna call this ice cream
33:25
Speaker 1: follow up. We've got a lot of good stuff on
33:27
Speaker 1: ice cream. People really liked that episode. Hey guys, I'm
33:30
Speaker 1: a student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Started
33:35
Speaker 1: listening to your podcast just this week, and I'm officially hooked.
33:38
Speaker 1: I'm listening to your podcast on ice cream. That's really
33:40
Speaker 1: interesting because I've worked in an ice cream parlor for
33:42
Speaker 1: the last five summers. Wilson's opened in nineteen o six
33:46
Speaker 1: and it's still going strong today, one of the most
33:48
Speaker 1: famous restaurants in Wisconsin. Uh. There are definitely different types
33:51
Speaker 1: of vanilla ice cream. We use two types, French or
33:54
Speaker 1: deluxe vanilla and purple vanilla. The label on this other
33:59
Speaker 1: vanilla is purple. We use purple vanilla for shakes and
34:02
Speaker 1: malts because it's less rich allows for the flavor of
34:05
Speaker 1: the shaker malt to be more distinguished. He saw French
34:08
Speaker 1: vanilla and ice cream cone Sundays and floats, and you
34:10
Speaker 1: mentioned having root beer floats. Reminded me of an interesting
34:13
Speaker 1: thing that I've noticed. People often get offended when they
34:16
Speaker 1: order a black cow and we have to ask them
34:19
Speaker 1: what it is. That's because almost everyone has a different
34:22
Speaker 1: idea of what a black cow consists of. Some say
34:25
Speaker 1: that it's a root beer float. Some say that it's
34:28
Speaker 1: a root beer float with chocolate ice cream. Some say
34:31
Speaker 1: it's a coke float, some say it's a blended root
34:33
Speaker 1: beer float, etcetera, etcetera. Somehow they all got labeled as
34:36
Speaker 1: black cow. Thanks for giving them me more ice cream knowledge.
34:40
Speaker 1: I'll actually be able to answer customers now when they
34:43
Speaker 1: ask what the difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt is?
34:46
Speaker 1: And that is from Andrea Nelson and she says, ps,
34:50
Speaker 1: those nasty, cheap cones with the flat bottoms are known
34:52
Speaker 1: as cake cones. Yeah, I saw that afterwards. Don't order
34:56
Speaker 1: them ever there. I mean, if you had Jason's Delhi
34:59
Speaker 1: and that's all they got, oh, is they have the
35:03
Speaker 1: free ice cream? Right? Huh? Yeah? And that's how it was.
35:07
Speaker 1: Like the day that we recorded ice Cream and I
35:10
Speaker 1: couldn't remember the name of the count I think I
35:13
Speaker 1: ended up going that night and there was cake cone.
35:17
Speaker 1: I was like, yes, cake cone. Somebody else called it
35:19
Speaker 1: a wafer cone, but I think that's just wrong. I
35:22
Speaker 1: see where that would come from, because it's wafer esk. Yeah,
35:24
Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense, but I've never seen it
35:27
Speaker 1: called that before, and that's too close to waffle cone, right,
35:30
Speaker 1: you know, right? It makes people confused. So thanks to
35:33
Speaker 1: Andrea Nelson for that one. It Thanks Andrea. If you
35:36
Speaker 1: want to get in touch with us to say hi
35:38
Speaker 1: or to tell us about ice cream or anything like that.
35:41
Speaker 1: You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
35:43
Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
35:45
Speaker 1: you Should Know. You can send us an email the
35:47
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast at how Stuffworks dot com, and as always,
35:50
Speaker 1: you can join us at our home on the web.
35:52
Speaker 1: They'll look Curious Stuff you Should Know dot com. For
36:00
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
36:03
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. M