Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Earwax

Episode Date: April 15, 2016

This week on Sawbones, we make earwax way, way worse before we remove all of it. Well, most of it. You gotta leave some you know, it's good for you. Eh, you should probably just listen. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saabones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's lost it out. We were sawed through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth. Wow! Hello, we're already in welcome to Saul to saw bones my little tour of Miss guided medicine. I'm your crush. Just a macaroni And I'm Sydney macaroni. Sydney quite a feat. We we've achieved with today's episode You mean like how late we are No, it is a little bit. That is that is a feat Well, it is a little bit late our daughter would not go to sleep for an hour and 45 minutes last night. And the night before she pulled a similar... She did that, but it was a midnight.

Yeah. We've been having some sleep issues. We've been having a few sleep issues. It's okay though, it's just a 20-month sleep regression. In case you don't have kids yet, let me tell you this. There's sleep regressions all the time. No matter what, you search for what age. There's sleep regressions of that.. No matter what, you search for what age. There's sleep regressions.

There's sleep regressions, that. Yeah, exactly. And they constantly do it. And basically what it means is at any age, your kid isn't going to sleep. So if you decide to have kids, just don't ever sleep again. Just sleep again. It's fine. It's fine.

No, the big achievement is that this is our first three combo. We've chained together. Daisy chained three episodes of Salvans. One inspired the other and inspired the other. So we start with Hemophilia. And that led us to. And now I had an all-fanned comment in that episode about how hydrogen peroxide doesn't really work.

Right. Which, of course, I had to then address in a whole episode. Right, and then that episode. Well, since I've mentioned all the things hydrogen peroxide doesn't really work for, because it doesn't, a lot of people have been asking the question, but what about ears? Because I didn't address, can you dump it in your ears?

You can dump anything in your ears, folks. I've been, I say it every time you can dump whatever you want in your ears. I guess that- Any liquid will go in your ears. Okay. Properly applied. Let me re let me re word that statement.

Should I dump it in my ears? If it will remain liquid when exposed to temperature generated by the human body, it can be dumped in your ears. Are you endorsing dumping anything in your ear that any thing that's liquid you can dump in your ears guys? Okay. Again, that's liquid, you can dump in your ears, guys. Again, let's rework this. Should I dump hydrogen peroxide in my ears?

That's been a common question. A lot of people with that, along with a lot of people insisting that it's great for cleaning up blood, which that's fine, guys. That's cool. I'm a little concerned how many people are adamantly insisting on the internet that they know the trick to

cleaning up blood and that they want to share that with everybody. Good. That's fine. That's fine. But a lot of people want to know about earwax and hydrogen peroxide and so that made me think, why don't we talk a little bit about earwax? Yeah. Because that's something I talk a lot about in my career as well. That's it. A lot of time to spend your life. Everybody's got it. Nobody knows how to sell it.

So, do you have a spreadsheet that you've worked out? Yeah, it's just a big goose egg. It's a big zero. It's not worth anything, it's ill-cho. So, thank you to people who've seen you. A young man in my prime, my ear wax, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say,

I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, I sag, it's a big zero, it's not worth anything, it's Elchio. So thank you to people who say, I'm a young man in my prime,

my era actually or something. Thank you. Everybody who asked me the question on Twitter, lots of people, I'm sorry, I don't have all your names, but Tamara and Josh and Ashley, you emailed me, so do have your names and you're searchable easily quickly. Thank you for suggesting this topic. First of all, can I say something that I'm gonna wanna reiterate several times,

but I wanna get this out in front? Please everyone, stop sticking Q tips in your ears, please. I'm not even putting Q tips on blast. Or cotton swabs, I mean, I should need to brand name. Any cotton tipped swab, please stop sticking them in your ears. They're great for other things, I'm sure, but, please stop sticking them in your ears. They're great for other things, I'm sure, but just don't stick them in your ears.

You're good for putting rubbing alcohol and cleaning your Nintendo tapes. That's one thing. Is that a good thing? Yeah, you can do that with Qtips. Get right in there. Lots of great things. I'm sure you can do with Qtips.

Like you could, like crafting. Right, you could build things out of them. You could build fun out of them. Build fun bridges, bad bridges, just not in your ears. Just don't stick them in your ears. Just stop. Okay. Okay, and we'll talk more about why.

But I ask you a question. Yeah. That nobody knows the answer to a carma scientific mystery. Good. What? It set me up that way on our podcast. A question no one knows the answer to. No one knows the answer to what is air wax?

Okay. Well, actually, I do know the answer to no one knows the answer to what is air wax okay well actually I do know the answer that good really ear wax or serumen is the other name you can use for it that's worse than ear wax and probably really gross

okay ear wax then how is ear wax not worse it's it's like wax from your ears. Earwax, I don't know. Serumin is like so worse. Okay, I would put forth the theory that earwax is worse because it's not accurate. Earwax is not wax. Oh. No. It is a natural substance that you're supposed to have in your ears. That's an important thing to know. It is supposed to be there. It's not wax at all. It's a bunch of, there are glands in the outer part of your ear canal that secrete different substances that are sort of made of a kind of a mixture of things. Carotene and fatty acids and alcohols and cholesterol and it's all mixed together with dead skin and hair from inside your ear and it collects into that thick substance that seems waxy and so we call it earwax. Okay, you have made earwax in 30 seconds, like

eight times grosser than it was when we started. How is that gross? It was wax. Where does earwax come from? Nobody knows. That's weird. Probably earwax gnomes or something. Like they're playing waxing to your ear. Why are you doing that? Earbees. Earbees. Oh god. Earbees. Yeah, maybe earbees. And then it's, but it turns out it's like dead skin

and alcohol and cholesterol and junk. And it's called seramen. Ugh. It's a good thing, though. Thinking a human. It is, it is an important thing for your ear. So it's okay. So if somebody, I look at a lot of ears,

and I'll say there's a little wax. That is not a critique. I'm not offering you something that you need to be concerned about. There should be some wax in your ear. That's fine. It's okay. So first of all, everyone stop worrying so much about your wax.

It is, lubricates inside of your ear canal. Help keeps it from drying out. If you didn't have ear wax, your ears would get really dry and itchy. So it's important to be there. Plus, it also helps to protect us somewhat from infections, as well as very practically from bugs and things that like, might want to crawl inside your ear. Things do that.

Remember that growl and survivor who had that worm that crawled inside her ear? I do remember Sydney. Yeah, I think that was awful to watch. Yeah, so this has been Survivor Recap. So wax is important and I don't think that it's gross at all. Gross at all. I mean, it didn't bother me. Yeah, and notice you put that in your notes to remind yourself that you don't find ear wax grids. It's good. I think it's an important point to make. I wanted to make that statement that ear wax is not gross. In the case you got stomp, trying to remember when you thought it was gross, you got

it very helpful in the notes. When I'm writing the notes, I kind of just think out loud. So it's like, I just want them thinking. Now, let me say this. Well, I have already made the case for earwax that it's okay, that it's there. Yes, of course, like anything else in the human body too much is a bad idea. So if you have too much earwax, if your ears are kind of crammed full of the stuff and it starts to block off the ear canal, then it can cause some problems.

Mainly, you know, you don't hear as well if your ears are clogged with earwax. So, you know, there is a situation in which you may need to get some of the wax removed, but as a general rule, you don't need to just clean your ears out just because there's earwax in there. So, you got that? Got it. Did I make that point? I imagine that hasn't stopped people from trying to get it about. No, people have been trying to get earwax out of their ears with various substances

for as long as we've, I don't know, figured out that it was in there to begin with. A lot of the stuff that people talk about today doing it, these aren't really like ancient treatments. They're just kind of folk remedies, home remedies that have just persisted in who knows which culture, which country, which year they started in. But they're the same things that people would probably recommend to you at home today. One of them being hydrogen peroxide that you just take a little bit of hydrogen peroxide, dump it in your ear and it will dissolve the waxes, I thought. And you know it's working, it's the same thing with on a cut.

You know it's working because it bubbles and fizzes and pops and whatever. People have recommended in addition to that vinegar, I see that a lot. Dumps and vinegar in your ear. Oil has always been, I've heard people say like sweet oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, any kind of cooking oil, you'll see someone saying you should dump it in your ear. Most recently coconut oil, but I think that's just because coconut oil is so hot right now. It's very hot. You know, anything coconut related, people are really into, which I mean, I get that coconut smells really good.

My coconut oil is great for cooking. I enjoy like the scent of coconut. I like a piniacolata. Yeah, that's not like coconut oil, but no, but like coconut. I think people just like coconut. It makes you feel beachy. I know. I've got a very beachy beachy oil. So you want you get your coconut oil, you turn on your Jamie Buffett music. Do any of these work on your Hawaiian shirt? So here's the thing. Okay. Any of these, oh, the other two, the other things to mention are water. A lot of people just say dump water in your ear and then some people say rubbing alcohol. I've heard that a lot. And like rubbing alcohol mixed with vinegar was one combo,

I saw a lot. I don't know why that. Rubbing alcohol seems kind of savage. The thing is about all these substances. One, you're right in the sense that if you dump anything that is somewhat irritating to the skin inside your ear canal, you run the risk of irritating the inside of the canal.

Because the canal is very delicate, it's delicate skin. Like it wasn't made to be, you know, exposed to the elements in your ear canal, right? It's not like your hands. So one thing it could irritate the inside of your ear. That being said, a lot of these substances will soften wax. That doesn't mean that it dissolves it.

That doesn't mean that just dumping it in your ears is going to fix the problem, but these substances will soften it, which would make it easier to flush out with water, which is ultimately what we end up doing a lot of the time. So like if you came to the doctor's office and you wanted to get your ears cleaned out, we have earwax softening drops in our office. Don't write aid too. You can get them at right aid too. It's not, we don't have any different.

We drive the story really. Yeah, not just right aid. We're not endorsing right aid. But you get some earwax softening drops or one of these substances, if you prefer, you put it in your ear and then you can flush it out with some water. We use something different in the doctor's office, but at home it's like with a bulb syringe like you use in a baby's nose.

Right. You just squirt some water and then flush it back out. You can do the same kind of thing if you just tilt your head to the side in the shower. Yeah. And kind of let the water run in and out. And then you just get in there with the Q-tip and... No. That's the important thing. Do not water run in and out. And then you just get in there with the Q-tip and... No, that's the important thing.

Do not stick things in your ears. So Q-tips and Bobby pins are the most frequent thing. Bobby pins are great. You know what I like a nice pin cap. Pin cap, like a big pin cap, has that long prong thing at the end of it. It's just like get in there, straighten out. Here's the thing about that.

You should not stick these things in your ears for a couple good reasons. One, very practically speaking, I'm assuming you're attempting to get the thing about that. You should not stick these things in your ears for a couple good reasons. One, very practically speaking, I'm assuming you're attempting to get the earwax out. You're much more likely to just shove it further back in when you do that. Earwax is not supposed to be up against the ear drum. That's not where it belongs. But I find it there a lot. It is because people have stuck things in their ears and shoved the earwax all the way

up against their ear drum. So that's number one, number two, you might rupture your timpanic membrane, your ear drum. You might accidentally stick something through it. That's bad. It sounds bad. It sounds very bad. So that's another good reason.

Don't do it. Number three, again, the ear canal is very sensitive. And I have seen ear canals that have been cut and scraped and damaged from people sticking things like bobby pins, pin caps, I've seen toothpicks, I've seen all kinds of like just little plastic sharp things that people find. Two picks is rough, I don't know who's doing toothpicks. I've seen lots of different plastic implements that people will say they have stuck in their ears and they scrape the inside of their ear canal And then they get an infection in their outer ear and your ear. It's all red and swollen and that's a bad scene

So if you had been intended to dig that stuff out there your finger would be smaller or your ears holes would be bigger I will tell my patients don't stick anything in your ear that is smaller than your elbow That doesn't make any sense. Well, there's gotta be some other remedy here, Sid. The one that I want to talk about the most as far as like crazy medical things that have persisted through time is ear-candling. We're coning. Yeah.

Now, Justin, are you familiar at all with ear-candling? Yeah. Yeah. You are? Yeah, I know the basic idea. Okay. Well, okay, I'm gonna explain it though. That's good.

I'm not good. Do you want to? No, it's fine. Do you want to try to explain it? No, I don't think I actually understand it that well. I have sort of a vague idea of what it is, but I don't really. So people will find-

Although I used to think it was just lighting a candle near your ear. I never really understood how that would be helpful. Like you got the wax hot or something. I don't know. You may as well do that. Okay. Well, good.

But we'll get into that. All right. So proponents of earcandling will claim that it dates back to basically every ancient civilization. All the old folks would do. I mean, you'll see some people who will claim that it's the Greeks did it. Some say it started with the Egyptians, others the Romans, ancient Chinese culture, early Native Americans. The largest manufacturer of these things claims that it's a Hopi cure.

The Hopi Native Americans, they were the ones who came up with it initially, but there is no, not only is there no evidence that that's true, but like, spokespeople for the Hopi Nation have come out and said like, no, this is not a thing that we, we didn't come up with. Don't put this on up. Please stop associating us with this, that's not our thing.

So what is it? Okay, so the procedure is really simple, but this sounds totally bonkers when you describe what you're going to do. You take either a hollow candle, so a candle, just like a tube of wax, or most of the time you won't have that. So you're going to take a piece of paper that has been coated in some sort of wax, beeswax, usually, or you'll see paraffin, although that's like a big point of contention among

the people who do this is they'll say, well, paraffhen calls us cancer though, if you stick it in your mouth. So don't just so use natural beeswax and sometimes they put things like rose oil in the beeswax and stuff like that. But you it's paper coated with that and you roll it into a cone. Okay. You're going to stick one end of that cone, that tube into your ear. Okay. And then the other end, you're going to light on fire. Okay. Got it. So I just said that on fire ear. Okay. And then the other end, you're gonna lie down fire. Okay, got it.

So I just said that on fire then. Right. This is all of a sudden become a dangerous situation. It is. It's from a suspense thriller. It is absolutely a dangerous situation because the other end of that is in your ear. Right, let's get it all in there.

Whatever's happening up there, let's get it all in. So you're gonna lay down to do this. You can either lay down on like the unaffected ear so that it's straight up in the ear, sticking out of your ear. And if you're going to lay down in that position, they recommend that you take a paper plate with a hole in it or a pie tin or something like that to put around the tube or the candle to catch bits of wax or ash or senders or things that fall. Kind of like if they give you a candle

like on holidays and stuff. Sure, yeah, the little paper circle. Same idea. Or they could also say if you don't have something like that, you could lay on your back and then just kind of hold the ear candle out to the side over something else that'll catch the dripping stuff. Okay.

The match ends until you let it burn until it's about four to six inches above your ear. You'll hear some of them say it needs to be a little closer than that, but like four to six inches. So they say like stop before it gets your ear. Don't let the fire burn all the way to your head. That's instinctually where I was going. I'm glad I know I'm backed up by. You never know with these things, really.

The magic at that point is that you're done. So you've extinguished the flame. You take the, the tube out of your ear and you unroll it. And then you see wax. What? It's because the wax is in the paper now. Like it came out. It didn't because first off, it wasn't wax. It was serum and... The thing is that what they'll tell you is yes, of course, because the obvious answer is why I mean there was wax in the paper. Right.

So like if you see some melted wax on the paper, that's what's up. Like it was. I mean, you burned it. It was wax. And I've seen wax in lightening your candle like without putting it in an ear and it will still be full of gung at the end. So what they will tell you is that your ear wax is now mingled with that ear wax.

And you can tell this by the color change that exists in the wax. It looks different than it did before. And it's because of the presence of all the stuff from your ear that is now there too. And it's cleaned out all these toxins. And the colors tell them different things about like how much they got out or how dirty your ear was.

So the general goal, and what most people will say this does is remove ear wax from your ear, and their reasoning is that it creates a vacuum, like negative pressure, that sucks the ear wax out as it's burning. That is the thought behind it. In addition to cleaning out your ears, though, there are people who claim that it does a lot more, that it will clean out residue from your lymphatic system. Their statement is that your ear connects to your U-station tube, which connects to your lymphatic system, which carries lymph fluid throughout your body.

Yeah, a lot of systems in the body are connected. It's an organism, right? Well, well, no, this is all wrong. Oh, cool. But let me tell you what there's telling you that's gonna happen. So basically, since it's connected to your lymphatic system, they say that your lymphatic system has all this ash or toxins, some sort of lymphatic ash that is in it

that's because of all the junk in our dirty, industrialized world that you're exposed to, and all of the terrible things you eat, and all the terrible things you breathe and so you can suck it all out through this connection in your ear by ear-candling and so by doing this not only will you remove wax and improve your hearing But you'll clean out your sinuses you'll fix your allergies. They believe that it realigns the bones in your cranium

Oh cool bones will get back in order that it realigns the bones in your cranium, that your skull bones will get back in order. Finally, hey you guys, you're assholes. Get back in order. Get back where you belong, skull bones. All your senses will be heightened afterwards. Colors will look more vibrant. If you were telepathic before,

you'll get more telepathic after. We're not guaranteeing, if you weren't telepathic before, we're not guaranteeing if you weren't telepathic before we're not guaranteeing that you'll become telepathic This way professor accident where get air canaling is like too much you would be too much too or while we have just so telepathic right now Be careful though because if you may actually hear so well after you do ear can deline that like sounds are too much for you Your neighbors talking crap about you exactly. Hey, I can hear you. I'm only three houses away. I can hear them all.

Boop boop boop boop boop. Bionic. So then you have to take some organic cotton and put it in your ear so you don't freak out. Oh cool. I'll be back for that later with more candles, I guess. You do it like every three days or so, or maybe every week, or maybe less than that. You basically just like use your intuition. You know, whatever feels right for this thing.

Whatever feels right for your ears. To get the ear candles at home, you can buy them, they're like two or three bucks a piece. To do it at home, it's not that expensive. But if you want a professional session, which you can go for, there are people who will do this as like that's their job I guess yeah It cannot but it can be up to a hundred and twenty dollars a session

Listen I Get it I do I get it to relaxing probably when you say it's part of relaxing if you get fast feeling like a sure A little silly I get maybe it might be relaxing. No, there get past feeling like a... Sure. A little silly. Yeah, I get it. Maybe it might be relaxing. Oh no, there's fire offly close to your head for it to be relaxing. Yeah, it's like right there, but I don't like fire close to my head.

Well, that makes tuba-sidney. That's true. Okay, I don't actually have, I don't actually get it in, I guess. So, Jess, and you're probably wondering if this works. I have a suspicion, but you go first. Before I tell you if this works, why don't we go to the billing department? Let's go! So, Sydney, I've been waiting on pins and metaphorical pins and needles.

That I hope you weren't sticking in your ear. No, nothing in there. Okay, good. All right, so you probably want to know at this point, does ear handling work? If you couldn't tell by my attitude towards it. Right. Okay, so it doesn't. It's been studied. There is evidence. This isn't even something that we just, I mean, it's not like the medical community has

disregarded this off hand. It doesn't work on several levels. The science doesn't make sense. They've actually tried to measure the pressure differential to see, is it creating negative pressure inside the ear? A good suction. Yes, is it creating a vacuum inside the ear cone or candle? No, it's not.

There is no pressure difference. So it's impossible for this to work first of all because it's not creating any suction power. Plus, the suction power, let's say theoretically it did, the amount of suction that you'd have to create inside that ear candle that you've just lit on fire would be so strong to actually suck airwax out of your ear that you'd probably rupture your ear during the day. Yeah, I was gonna say that sounds terrible, yeah.

Yeah, so you can't, I mean, it doesn't, the science isn't there. It doesn't work. Also, if we go on past the ear wax claims to the whole thing about your lymphatic ash and whatnot, your ear canal ends in the eardrum. It like you can't go all the way into your brain got, you know that, right? Yeah, I do. Okay, like it stops where your eardrum, your tempanic membrane is. Got it.

That's the end of it. It's like a closed system. Now there's stuff past that, yes, but there's a wall there. It's called your eardrum. You need it. Curly Q, right? What?

It's a little curly Q in your canal. It's semi circular canal, yes. It's like a snail. Yeah, there you go. You're getting into some of your... I mean, probably a toddler understands where cereal is kept in their home. That's good though. It's just codes and symbols.

But the important thing is that... Majors, mages! Do you mean milk? Yes. You can't suck something out of your ear canal and also expect to suck something out of the space beyond it, unless there's also a hole in your eardrum, in which case, what that's not good, there shouldn't be.

I mean, you know, ideally, you shouldn't have one. And two, they actually recommend against it. Like if you have a hole in your eardrum, they tell you don't do ear-candling. So, this is dumb. This is dumb. This is dumb. One study, they've done studies to see if it worked, and not only does it not work, but they've all actually shown that in one study, participants had more wax and blockage in their ears at the end of it because of the wax that was melting

and dripping into their ear from the ear candle. So it might actually make things worse. Also there have been many cases of people burning themselves with ear candles and cones and that's bad. You don't want to burn your ear drum. There's somebody who burned a hole in their tmp membrane. So, you know, it's recommended against by the FDA and basically every medical society. We have another podcast on the maximum fun network, which we're a part of called Oh, No,

Ross and Kerry, where they try things like this out there. They do have an ear-candling episode where they go and get ear-candling. If you're curious what the first hand experience of getting ear-candling is like, check that out. So, I wanted to talk a little bit about it. I was researching waste to remove ear wax. Like I said, it kind of all boiled down to the remedies we've talked about. And there is so much information about ear handling on the internet.

Oh my gosh, it's overwhelming. You look for ear wax and you're just going to have thousands of hits about ear handling. Okay, so I've already told you that I am kind of a fan of earwax on the flip side since I've already talked about the ways I don't want you to remove the earwax. Some people were in my camp

and actually thought that not only was earwax a good thing, but that it could be used as medicine. So for a while it was advised that you put earw wax on cold sores, just dig it out of your ear. Yeah, would that be the best, like, most convenient, like body thing? Or like, God's like, oh, cold sores, no big-ish,

check your ears. Just dig some wax out of there. I've made a dispenser for you. They're for hearing and also dispensing balm. Which I also like the idea that, you know, you have a cold sore and let's say it is one that's on the outside of your mouth. So it's like your little exhibit was an angel. That's what he would do to human bodies to pimp their rides. Like, yo, I heard you get cold sore sometimes and check it out in your ears.

But I like the idea that if you're a little self conscious about it, source sometimes and check it out in your ears. But I like the idea that if you're a little self-conscious about it, because some people get cold sores don't like the way they look and so they might get a little self-conscious, like they don't, you know, they're trying to cover it up or, you know, whatever, I love the idea that the way to do that would be to put your wax on it, because then like that's not... No, it's no problem. That's definitely more that's something more pleasing to the eye, right? Yeah, everyone wants to see that.

Yeah, the Epicals are either... It's kind of like a snare, yeah. Over top of it. I also found a recipe from 1832 for a lip balm that used ear wax. Kind of a home thing? Oh, recipe. I'm assuming. Is your eyes apply?

Yeah, I don't think it was sold widely. Like, here, check out my earwax put it on your lips Good for cold stores and just for chap lips perfect So my actual advice about earwax Don't I mean I'm not telling you to put it on cold source or use it for chapstick. That's just kind of odd For the most part don't mess with it Okay, earwax is gonna be hard to do. I really wanted to mess with it So for most of the time if it's not causing problem, if you're just aware of that it's

there, you know, if you just like, thug some out with your fingernail or whatever, it's probably not causing any problems. So just leave it alone. It's going to migrate out of your ear slowly over time. Did you know that? I know. That's what it's made to do. It's produced by those glands in your ear canal.

And then it slowly works its way out. Mainly as you like to and move your jaw, that's supposed to help slowly move the ear wax along. Okay. And then it gets drier on the outside and it kind of flakes off and falls out. That's what ear wax is supposed to do. Okay. And that's why you don't want to remove all of it because some of it is good

or your ears will be all dry and itchy if you remove all your ear wax. If it is bothering you, if you do think it's interfering with your hearing or causing you some other problem, or if you think it looks weird or different and you're worried that something is going on, don't stick stuff in your ear.

But very clear about this, absolutely. You can always, if you're concerned if something weird or new is going on, you should probably go talk to your doctor about it. If it is just that you need some ear wax or move, sometimes your primary care doctor can do it for you. I do it. Sometimes you might need to go to a specialist like an ear nose and throat doctor or an otolaryngologist and they can do it for you.

We have ways of removing your earwax. And sometimes I'll just tell patients about there are over the counterkits that are safe to use. That mainly just have earwax, softening drops and a little bulbs of range. And you can use just room temperature water or you can move your head to the side in the shower, let it rinse out. And if you wanna use all those other things that I mentioned, the vinegar in the shower, let it rinse out. If you want to use all those other things

that I mentioned, like the vinegar and the hydrogen peroxide and all that, you'll find this is interesting. I found multiple ENT otolaryngologist specialists in this area. Websites where they give patients advice to do that. Hmm, any of those substances. Basically, the idea is they're just naming different things that might soften the earwax. I would be really careful about it just because I do worry about the irritation of the inside of the ear canal. I'd say you're better off just with water. And again, if there's any problem, just go let your doctor check it out. They may tell you to leave your earwax alone.

They probably will. Doctors love it apparently. Doctors are crazy about it. It may just be me. Thank you all so much for listening. I want to say a big, big thank you to the taxpayers for letting us use your song Medicines is the intro and outro of our program. Make sure to go buy all their tunes. And thanks again to the maximum fun network for letting us be a part of their extended family. Go listen to that, no, no, lesson carry episode about ear canaling. It's sure to be gross.

But you're not there. Sorry. What'd you do? No, I just kicked something around. You're destroying my office, my home, way from home inside my home. I thought this was our podcasting studio. It is a podcasting studio.

Drive a podcasting studio. Anything else, hidden? Thank you at home for listening. Yes. Oh, oh, oh, that's right you at home for listening. Yes. Oh, oh, oh, that's right. I have a list. We have a PO box, PO Boxer 24, Honey's Must for Gini 257 Noisix.

And some folks have been kind of to send us things. Thank you to Penny and Lydia for the old newspaper. Thanks to Trillian for the notes. We got some Switchal from Vermont Switchal, after talking about that during our... Vine or bigger episode. It was actually delicious. It was really good.

I know, we were skeptical about vinegar-based drinks, but I don't know. I'm bored. By the way, it came from Vermont Switchal. There was no note. If you sent that to us, please let us know, because I don't know. Edbury sent a huge peppermint patty.

You remember that patty, size of a dinner plate, as requested, Kristen Delicious dairy milk that we found at Candy Bar, so we just finally finished last night from Colin, Kristen, Sia and Millie. Which we thank you for. I'm a little, I'm a little, I'm a little bit angry because we ate them all,

but they were delicious. We also got a really beautiful handmade pillow made by Lauren for Charlie. She has lots of pillows at pillow pillow P L L O twice.com I mean, I Charlie loves that Yeah, she carries it around and she's really cute with it and also Finally, I graduation announced that we got from David who sent it to several maximum fun or Macroi family hosted shows

Macroi fun Macroi fun Macroi family shows and so congratulations. That's gonna do it for us We're done So don't stick stuff in your ear don't stick stuff in your ear and don't draw on your head. Music Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone Listener Supported Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artists Don't Listen or Support It