Okay, my ear is plugged up. Has been for over a week now. Nothing’s working, and I won’t be able to get in to my doctor for still another week.
Saw the nurse at the clinic at work yesterday. She said “go to the health food store, and see what they recommend.” I said “Huh?” She said “well, I can’t officially recommend this particular remedy, because it’s not a medically approved treatment. Just ask them.”
The light bulb went on. I said “Oh! You’re talking about candling, aren’t you?” Being the good Doper that I am, I am quite familiar with Cecil’s column, his test, and his results. I’m also familiar with fellow Doper hajario’s personal debunking.
But, the nurse proceeded to tell me that it is a method that she AND her father both use exclusively now. She says it works for both of them, and hasn’t failed them yet.
So now I’m waffling. Here’s The Almighty Cecil telling me it’s hooey, and here’s this trained RN telling me that she has done it herself, on herself, and it has worked really, really well.
Anyone else got personal experience with this? I’ve spent the last half-hour or so searching the archives here, but I didn’t find as much as I thought there was.
Thanks! Oh, and no need to point & laugh at me yet, because I haven’t actually tried it yet. I’ll let you know if & when you can start calling me an idiot.
Just a bit of advice, I work at an alternative medicine school (and yes, we teach ear candling, except we call it auriculotherapy) and we get lots of nurses as students. However, I’m the bozo who pagesets the courses and exams and I can tell you that the stuff they put in there is mostly hearsay (no pun intended), WAGs and whatever is the fashionable idea at the time. There is no attempt whatsoever about critical thinking, in other words, if somebody would say that they used plutonium in an all-natural therapy, they would promote it. And the sorriest thing of them all, is that it is probably one of the best school in town (IOW, it is not a diploma mill, they have to work for theirs, unfortunately, they learn junk), I’ve seen students from other schools come here and say that they’ve learned so much more at our school than at the one where they got their degree. :eek:
In a standard distribution curve of the registered nursing profession it would be expected that some RN’s are very intelligent, analytical people and some are just your average, credulous get along, go along types that would be easily impressed with the empirically impressive (but false) results of ear candling.
Having an RN or a MD does not preclude one from believing all sorts of non-sensical things, it just makes it a tad less likely in the area of health care. Ear candling is complete nonsense from a health benefit point of view. Make a copy of the Cecil article and give it the nurse and the doctor when you see him.
This is serious business. If people with potentially dangerous ear problems that need medical treatment are being directed to quack cures by this dangerous but well meaning nurse, people could be hurt, the practice could be sued and she could possibly lose her license to practice nursing.
Well, she told me right up front that she couldn’t officially recommend it. She wouldn’t even say what the remedy was, until I specifically mentioned it by name.
And it’s not as if she hasn’t tried it on herself. If she had said “hey, I’ve heard of this method and it might work for you,” no way in hell I’d even consider it. No way.
It’s cheap, it’s unlikely to hurt you (unless you
drop the candle somehow and start your house on fire),
and most likely it has no effect what so ever.
What have you got to lose? This is like someone telling
me, “You can cure cancer by eating one chocolate chip
cookie a week.” I don’t believe it for a second, but
it’s a great excuse to do something I’d like to try
anyway.
-Ben
Waverly, I thank you for that link. I read the article by Lisa M. L. Dryer, and that made up my mind for me.
I thnk the injuries cause by this procedure may have been due to not performing it properly. I’m sure if it’s done carefully, you won’t sustain any physical damage to your ears. BUT, I am now convinced that even if it’s done properly, it’s not going to work for me.
One thing I don’t recall asking the nurse is whether or not her ears were actually as plugged as mine are right now. My right ear is fine, but my left ear is completely blocked. The Murine that has been so reliable in the past for me just isn’t doing it this time, and I started using it immediately after my ear plugged up.
Any other suggestions, besides the doctor (who won’t see me until I’ve used the Murine for 10 days, and I’m now on day 7–or eight, I don’t remember, it’s been so damn long now)?
In order for that to happen, the wax would have to melt first. If the candle really transferred enough heat to your ear to melt the wax, the risk of burns, or of melted wax pooling on your eardrum and then re-solidifying, would probably be unacceptable.
If that doesn’t work, try a Black and Decker 3/8-inch electric drill and a trusted assistant. I saw this work on the Learning Channel. Or was it the Discovery Channel?
No…wait…I saw it on MTV’s Jackass
Persephone: I’ve tried ear candles for a blocked ear, and it was an awful mess and didn’t clear it up. I also paid $125 to an MD previous to trying it, and that didn’t work either.
My problem was that a moth had crawled into my ear, and had sent me into a terror with it’s awful crawling noise. This was at night, it was driving me crazy, and I wasn’t relishing a midnight trip to the emergency room, so I poured olive oil in to suffocate it so it would STOP crawling. Went to the doctor the next morning, they tried flushing it out, and no luck. A friend assured me that the suction of ear candles would work. Nope, and a hassle to boot. What did work was a wee dropper of ear wax removal drops (carbamide peroxide) bought at the local drug store. It dissolved the bug bits (yuk!) and attending stuff and cleared it up quickly. It has an odd bubbly fizz action, but no problems afterward.
You could end up with a seriously nasty ear infection, from what I understand?
I say, see if the nurse herself can flush them? It’s a pain in the butt having your ear flushed, but it works. Actually, it’s mostly just incredibly messy. You have to hold this little container under your ear and I always end up with my shoulder and hair soaking wet, but it does the trick.
Oh come on… everybody knows plutonium is man-made and therefore not natural. But uranium, that’s natural. (And if it’s natural, it must be good for you…)
I hear if you take a little U-238 every day, it makes you a much more radiant person.
