Lighting a candle and sticking it in your ear doesn't sound like the smartest thing to do, however many folks have been practicing Ear Candling.
Ear candles is just one more fad on the do it yourself healthcare scene and many people believe it to be a great way to benefit not just your ears, but your overall health.
Well, hold on a minute because this weekend the internet has been abuzz of the FDA saying this is a dangerous practice.
Are you kidding me? Of course this is a dangerous practice.
Even if you follow all of the directions, or have someone with experience administer the flaming pillar of wax to your ear, it is still dangerous.
I wrote about this topic a couple of years ago and it is almost humorous that the FDA took this long to issue a formal statement to the consuming public.
An ear candle is a hollow, cone-shaped candle that is supposed to be a natural way to clean the ear of wax in ten to 45 minutes.
The candle is usually inserted through a hole in a paper plate and gently placed into the ear.
Fans of this procedure claim a mild vacuum effect is created when the candle is lit and this draws the ear wax and other debris from the ear into the candle.
Most medical professionals will tell you that ear wax actually protects the ear canal from fungus and bacteria and that most people do not need assisted cleaning because the ear has a system that removes ear wax naturally.
I could not find any positive clinical studies regarding this popular procedure, but did read that it is associated with considerable risks such as burning of the hair or skin from the flame or the hot wax, and the possibility of the candle wax adhering to the ear drum which would require a minor surgical procedure to have the candle wax removed and potential hearing damage.
Still some believe that because of all the passages in the head are connected, ear candling removes toxins from all of these passages via the ear.
Yet other experiments have identified the debris found within the candle after an ear candling to be identical to debris found in the candle when burned away from the head in open air.
Professor Edzard Ernst, the first Professor of Complementary Medicine in the United Kingdom, has been published on the subject of ear candles and notes that, "There are no data to suggest that it is effective for any condition.
Furthermore, ear candles have been associated with ear injuries.
The inescapable conclusion is that ear candles do more harm than good.
Their use should be discouraged.
" I also found on Wikipedia, that there have been at least two house fires associated with the practice of ear candling, one of which resulted in death.