Hearing Health : 5 Things you didn't know about ear wax

So what are the 5 things you didn't know about ear wax?

1. Earwax gets out through the movement of the ear cell. 

The cells inside the ear canal are unique in the human body - they migrate. "You could put an ink dot on the eardrum and watch it move over a few weeks and it would be 'carried out' by the movement of the cells." according to Prof Shakeel Saeed at London's Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear hospital. Read more.....

2.  Earwax has microbial properties

image: BBC Health

Ear wax contains waxy oils but much of it is made up of keratinocytes - dead skin cells. The rest of cerumen - to give it its technical name - is a mixture of substances.

 3. You can differentiate earwax to asian and non asian

Asian and non-Asian ears produce different types of earwax according to scientists at the Monell Institute in Philadelphia. Chromosome 16 is home to the "wet" or "dry" gene for earwax - with the wet variant dominating. READ MORE HERE...

4. A vaccumm is better than a syringed

Carrie Roberts is in her 40s and has an ear wax problem. She had her ears syringed at the GPs several times, tried hot oil with no success - and ended up with both ears blocked.Ms Roberts decided to pay for micro-suction treatment, where the ear canal is cleaned with an instrument like a tiny vacuum cleaner. Prof Saeed prefers this method to syringing. "With syringing you are going in 'blind' - not under direct vision. If you use water it has to get past the wax and come back, bringing the wax with it. Read MORE HERE

5.  Earwax can be a polluntant monitor

Earwax, like many other bodily secretions, can show traces of certain toxins in the body such as heavy metals. But it's an odd place to look and no more reliable than a simple blood test.

There are also some rare metabolic disorders that affect earwax. The most notable earwax scientific discovery of recent times is that of a 24cm wax earplug from a blue whale.

Unlike humans which shed their earwax and dead skin cells, filter-feeding whales retain their earwax, recording life events similar to the way tree rings reveal arid and wet seasons during its lifetime.

The earwax was analysed by Sascha Usenko, a environmental scientist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He and his team found that during the 12-year-old male whale's life it came into contact with 16 different pollutants such as pesticides.

There was a peak of exposure during the first year of life - suggesting that these were transferred from its mother either in the womb or through her milk.

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