Interesting, 3 people (one of them a doctor no less…almost as funny as if one had been an engineer), one with a noted ear wax buildup issue, and you say it doesn’t work? Hogwash. OK, so I have a noted ear wax buildup issue. Yeah, don’t laugh, the lord giveth, and sometimes he giveth more than you want. My father has the same issue, I can only assume it is a genetic defect. I’m a pragmatic guy. Ear coning works, end of story. I have had my ears irrigated by doctors on no less than 4 occasions(before I found out about coning and knowing when the blockages were likely to occur), and I can tell you that what came out was disturbing the first time, and very similar to what the cones draw out. Ear coning works in a very simple manner, reverse pressure caused by the flow of air upwards, from the heat generated by the burning cone. The tapered end, if placed snugly but gently into the ear canal, concentrates the pressure. This reverese pressure literally sucks the wax right out of your ears(no, the heat can’t really soften the wax…thermodynamics just don’t allow) and allows your upper sinuses the freedom to drain in turn. Based upon the extreme coloration of the wax which falls out of the end of the cone when finished(you use about half a cone on each ear), and the fact that I can immediately notice a significant improvement in hearing after the treatment is finished, I can say with the strongest of suspicions, that this works(either that or its magic, you make the call). I do it a week or so after any head cold, once the sinuses start draining, to save myself an aggressive and potentially damaging Murine treatment, and a probable short term loss of hearing in one or both ears. After the treatments, you should avoid getting any unsanitary water in your ears(don’t go swimming in that pond in your backyard) for about a week, so the appropriate level of wax can create a protective barrier against bacteria. If you don’t suffer from any blockage issues, then twice a year probably can’t hurt, but we all have our thresholds. The product is found at your local A-market. And the cost of about $7.00 for two cones is accurate. My suggestion to Cecil, try again, this time with someone who has actually done it before.
Bullshit is a never ending story.
Results talk, quackwatch walks. I’m 36, IQ in the lower MENSA range. God is a hoax(Descartes be damned), ear coning is not. I don’t care what some website says about some dope performing an “expiriment”. I have done it myself, and the hearing differential prior to, and after, is beyond anything that a psychosomatic response can explain. Look, I’m not saying it does anything else besides gently remove buildup, but for me it works. Q.E.D.
Your age and supposed IQ are completely irrelevant, unless your point is that even intelligent adults can be taken in by quackery.
I’ve heard if you rub an ear candle directly on your forehead, your headache will go away.
Some time, take one of those cones, and burn it not in your ear, and see what you get. It’ll be exactly the same as what you get with it in you ear.
First off, here’s a link to the column.
Welcome to the boards, StrongSuspicions. Unfortunately, personally I find Cecil’s anecdotal column and Quackwatch’s scientific explanation more convincing than your story.
I get so worked up about this! I registered as a guest just so I could say ear candling works!! If you have problem wax then you will KNOW that it works because of the disgusting bright orange wax that fills the candle at the end. If it was the melted candle wax it would not be this colour. Being able to equalise my ears when flying is the other proof.
I have to add that it was only when someone with quite a firm touch placed the candles that it worked for me. The other times I have tried with a different helper would have led me to believe it is quackery as we didn’t get any results.
This topic really gets to me because I am usually sceptical about new age health treatments but this definitely works if the practitioner knows what they are doing. I have heard it dismissed before and it drives me crazy :mad:
It was by far a better result than ear drops (WaxSol?) have ever achieved for me.
Okay, nice to meet you all.
bronisaurus
Ok, If Cecil will allow me lend a “Hand” (this bad pun will become clear later, literally), I will give you the testimony of someone who has actually done it before.
Yes, I have used ear candles.
Personally I do enjoy the effects.
However I must conceed that they are definately quackery. Dramatic and possibly dangerous, living on the edge quackery but quackery none the less. Allow me to elaborate.
After hearing about a “Healing” technique that involved placing a burning tube of wax and cotton muslin fabric into one’s head I had to try it. I purchased the ear candles at the lovely price of $4 each, $8 for both ears. Per the instructions I ate a pie (key lime if I remember correctly) and made a hole in the middle of the pie plate for the drippin’s. I placed the tapered end into my ear and fired that bad boy up. After about three minutes of listening to an ominous series of hissing and popping I removed the candle (it had burned half way as the instructions said) and extinguished it in a bowl of water.
Then comes the fun part, cutting it open to see what’s inside (what, you think I’m going to just examine what falls out? I assure you I am no wuss, I grabbed a scissors and dug right into the meat of the thing). What did I find inside? A lot of powdery, yellowish, somewhat waxy material; a few dribbles and chunky parts of a much darker, reddish brown, definately waxy material; and a rock. Don’t ask me where the rock came from, it was not there when I started and as far as I know it was not in my ear when we started but there it was, a shiny black pebble about the size of a .177" BB. This was kind of disturbing, especially when I noticed that the hole in the end of the cone was considerably smaller.
So, not wanting to be off balance and walk in circles all day, I did the other ear. Burned the candle correctly. Extinguished and dissected the tube the same way, and found the exact same stuff, minus the rock. Wow, this is pretty cool I thought so I convinced my wife to try it. Both ears, same procedure, same result (also minus the rock, how long had that thing been in my ear anyway?).
The after effects were a dry, almost scratchy feeling in the inner ear extending down the eustacion tube and ending in the throat. It definately felt as if something (or a large quantity of something) had been sucked out of our heads. We were clear and free of sinus trouble for quite some time. Eventually we tried it again, and again the exact same results.
But N8, that sounds as if you are agreeing with the OP and testifying that these things work? No, I’m saying I got results, not that they worked or worked as advertised. Curious about this vacuum power I decided to try one for my self without inserting it in my ear. As I held the candle and watched it burn I noticed smoke waifting out of the bottom of the cone. How can smoke be coming out of the bottom if a vacuum is sucking ever so gently upward? Must be a fluke. So I try another, holding the candle in my hand (remember me mentioning my hand earlier?) as if my fist were an ear canal. Guess what? Still no sucky sucky. So I cut them both open and was amazed at the amount of ear wax that I got out of my hand. Both candles were filled with the same yellowish powdery stuff, the same reddish brown waxy chunks and, in the one where I made a fist, there was another rock.
I thus came to the conclusion (granted, no more scientific than most demonstrations on Mythbusters but a conclusion none the less) that not a damn thing in those candles came out of my ears. Not the first time, not the last time, not ever. But I did feel an effect in my ears. My guess is that the smoke from the burning muslin fabric and wax went down into my ears and did some drying out of the moisture in the wax. Kind of like making earwax smoked meat sticks. The smoke also irritated my ear canal and eustasion tube so that it felt dry and scratchy. I believe (again no scientific proof or cite, just a personal opinion) that this irritation triggered a reaction in my body to start focusing on the irritated area which lead to clearer sinuses and fewer alergy problems.
So there you have it, someone who has tried it, liked it, will likely do it again and fully understands that there is no magic vacuum sucking anything out of my ear, just the soothing of my body reacting to the smoking out of my ear canal and connecting tubes.
I still can’t explain the rocks though.
One explanation does leap rather dramatically to mind.
What really works is wadding a paper towel in the bottom of a paper cup and adding a small amout of boiling water. Tilt your head and hold the cup tightly against your ear. The steamy heat is very pleasing and I can convonce myself that as the water cools it creates a small vacumn if I hold it tight enough. The latter is probably my imagination.
You can easily do this on an airplane flight as well.
Welcome to the Dope, where you can’t swing Schrodinger’s Cat without striking a Mensa member (or, more often, somebody who qualifies for Mensa but didn’t join Mensa because he doesn’t give a shit about Mensa). I hope you’ll feel at home.
No, not so easily proven. For instance, you haven’t proven it does “gently remove buildup”, let alone anything else.
It is amusingly reminiscent of some 18th century medical bullshit called cupping.
:dubious: That’s exactly what my wife said.
I suppose you both have a pretty good point.
What flow of air upwards? If the end of the cone is burning, then the air is coming from around the flame. By what mechanism is air rising up from the ear? And if there is air circulating within the cone, how is this enough energy to raise anything from the ear?
What pressure? If the flame from the end of the cone is what’s making things happen, how is it causing pressure in the ear?
Now it’s reverse pressure? Where does this reverse pressure come from?
Thermodynamics doesn’t allow earwax to be heated? Do you mean that the flame is too far away from the earwax to do affect it?
Ever looked at what’s in an ear candle? Ever burnt one without it being in your ear?
Ever spent the same amount of time with the candle in your ear without setting it on fire?
So shoving an object firmly into the ears can open the tubes up? Interesting.
I didn’t use the word shoving because I wouldn’t let anyone shove something in my ear. If you want the candle to work though, it would need to be lined up with the shape of your ear canal. Perhaps I was wrong to say firm, more like “placed confidently”. There is no way you could shove one of the candles far down your ear anyway, they are cone shaped and too wide.
Anyway, I have seen ear candles that have burnt down without working and they are the colour of beeswax i.e. the colour of the ear candle. I have also seen the candles that did work and they have the orange ear wax I mentioned in my first post. Not just a suggestion of orange ear wax, but rather a lot. Surely most people have earwax that is a different colour to the beeswax of the ear candle. This is why I am not a doubter, the evidence is easy to see.
Yeah, burning the ear candle until the wax melts couldn’t possibly change the color, could it? :dubious:
Shrug, if you don’t like shoving use whatever word you want, but the result is the same. How do you know it’s the candle itself and not the object in the ear that does it?
What’s in an ear candle? Ever seen it?
Um not sure what you mean by object in ear but if you mean putting the candle in the top of the ear canal I don’t see how that would clear the ear, or put orange earwax in the candle.
You and Fear Itself seem to have missed where I said that I have definitely seen a melted down ear candle that didn’t work (must have been placed wrongly) and ones that have worked. A melted down ear candle (and yes I have burnt one without it being in my ear- tried this with the 2nd candle when I realised it wasn’t working last time) looks like melted beeswax.
An ear candle is a rolled up piece of cloth in beeswax (it looks like to me) and there are no secrets hidden inside. If you look at one up close it is mainly hollow and transparent enough at the base to see that it is not hiding a special effects container of my own personal coloured earwax to impress me at the end.
Like I said I’ve tried it since with a different person and it didn’t work, so I’m not surprised that other people don’t think it works at all. My ex-boyfriend (a scientist, completely unaffiliated with the ear candling industry, knew nothing of ear candles until I showed them to him) must have just had a knack for doing it right.
Or a knack for pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible.