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Most of you will have heard the expression: “never stick anything smaller than your elbow in your ears”, but not may of you will know that Europeans and black people have wet ear wax, whereas the Chinese and Japanese have dry ear wax!

Have you ever wondered what ear wax is, why we have it, and why you should not stick your elbow in your ear? Here are some answers.

Ear wax is not really wax, but a sticky liquid secreted by glands in the skin of our ear canals. It is produced to protect our inner ears from foreign materials such as dirt, tiny bits of plants, small insects and bacteria. It does this by trapping anything foreign that: flies, crawls, or is blown into the ear canals, in the wax itself.

Years ago, most of the foreign material that turned up in our ears came from the home or working environment: the coal mine, home, factory, school or farm, but these days most people live and work in a ‘clean’ environment and dust and debris has been replaced by other ‘objects’ that cause our ears to produce wax in an attempt to ‘trap’ and ‘expel’ them. These objects include: telephones, head-sets, ear phones, hearing aids and ear plugs. For example, if you use a telephone head-set at work or like listening to music on your mp3 player at home and on the way to school or work, you will probably notice that you produce more ear wax than normal.  This is just your ears trying to expel a ‘foreign object’.

Normally, wax comes out of the ear canal by itself and does not need any help, but when fingers, cotton buds, hair clips and car keys(!) are used to clean out the wax, it can be pushed further in to the ear and become compacted. This makes it more difficult to extract and, worse still, rough treatment when extracting the wax can damage the ear drum itself, or scratch the ear canal, causing infection.

Remember, wax protects the ear and ear drum; it’s a natural process and problems only arise when excessive ear wax builds-up, or you are too rough when removing wax, which causes deafness and pain.

Some people may have their ears syringed to remove excessive ear wax, while others may opt for a more natural alternative, such as ear drops and Hopi Ear Candles. I use a combination of wax dispersal drops and Hopi Ear Candles.

The wax dispersal drops are designed to relieve pain, unblock ears and eustachian tubes, soften ear wax and reduce inflammation while tackling any underlying ear infection. The drops include natural ingredients, such as: lavender, chamomile, marjoram, eucalyptus, tea tree and thyme. These ingredients help with excessive ear wax, alleviate the pressure from blocked sinuses, flying or diving, relieve itchy ears and reduce pain from toothache which has spread up to the ear! The drops have many uses!

I use ear drops in conjunction with Hopi Ear Candles, which draw out the softened ear wax, helping restore hearing and balancing the pressure in your inner ears. You should try it some time!