People all over the world are doing one-to-one ear treatments in hopes of removing earwax and toxins from building up in the ears. Is this system really effective, or is it a huge hoax that has been around for centuries?
While some have never heard of its use, ear candling is nothing but new. Until 2000 B.C. Paper records have been found in the East, describing the use of such candles, even referring to the earring. Egyptian culture, among the Egyptians, refers to practice.
Ear candles are available at most local health food stores in the US, as well as some drugs. They are usually made of cotton or linen, which is wound in the shape of a cone or tube, soaked in wax and then allowed to harden. The final product measures nine to twelve inches in length.
To practice “ear candle” the candle is placed through a special hole in the plate just for the procedure. Each falling plate receives wax to help prevent burns and damage. A candle is placed in the ear external canal and then lit at the opposite end. It is left to burn for about ten minutes.
It is believed that ear candles create a vacuum as they burn, which draws fluid and wax from the ear canal. But some believers say that the smoke from a burning candle actually dries out the ear canal, which stimulates the body’s natural excretion of wax and other bodily debris.
When the process is brought to use, the person will certainly find a fair amount of what appears to be ear wax; drawn into the lower part of the wax of the ear.
However, the journal Laryngoscope published a study that looked at the value and safety of ear candles. Researchers have proven that ear candles do not create a vacuum. For in his studies, some of the subjects put wax candles into their ears.
The same journal article also revealed the results of a survey of 122 otolaryngologists. Within the group, 21 ear injuries were identified in patients due to the use of ear candles.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified ear candles as medical devices. They warn that the use of ear candles carries a serious risk of fire, burns, and damage to the ears, surrounding skin and hair. In 1998 the FDA issued strict advice to Natural Ways, or a company in West Columbia, South Carolina, that it was. It is wrong for them to continue marketing ear candles because they don’t like the devices that were being proposed as dangerous to use in their catalog.
Because of the risk, it is now illegal to sell ear candles in Canada and the country has issued regulations that prohibit their importation.
Five students from Creighton University completed their work on the ear of a candlestick. One candle burned when it was inserted into a volunteer’s ear. Another identical ear candle was burned with a dry flask in a clean and dry Erhlenmeyer. Both were extinguished at the same time and in the same way.
After the combustion was complete, both candles appeared to contain a certain amount of yellow-brown waxy substance. The students weighed the candles, which made no difference.
It is concluded that the waxy substance comes from the source of the candle itself, not from the volunteer’s ear.
While research on ear candles has been limited, these professional and amateur studies continue to show that ear candles are not effective. Because wax is such a sticky substance, the negative pressure required to actually pull the wax from the inner ear canal would be so powerful that the eardrum would rupture in the process.
So if the ear alternative medicine is the biggest problem, what can a person do about earwax?
First, remember that hearing loss is normal and important to the health of your ears. It is part of your body’s self-cleansing system. Only a very small minority of people actually produce earworms in such quantities that they become associated and require medical attention.
The rest of us Dr. Robert K. Jackler offers some basic advice. He is a professor of otolaryngology and neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and editor-in-chief of the Journal American Otology.
“Earwax slowly migrates to the opening of the ear canal and is cut off,” Jackler said. “If you want, you can hold the ear and, using your finger, gently wash your ear.”
no flame required.
Sources for this article:
http://altmed.creighton.edu/ear/experiment.htm
http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/govtregulation/a/EarCandle.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&list;_uids=8849790&cmd;=Retrieve&indexed;=google
http://www.colonhealth.net/ear_candling/candhist.htm
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/candling.html http://www.webmd.com/content/article/42/1685_50320
