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What Are the Benefits of Ear Candling?If you've been looking for information of the benefits of ear candling, you've probably read many different claims about it - from the believable to the - well - not so believable. Some of the things I've read about the benefits of ear candling are true, in my opinion. But I question others. One thing I do have is my own experience. I had plugged up ears and now I don’t. The one thing I did to clear my ears was to ear candle. My experience tells me that ear candling works to unplug my ears and improve my hearing. One of the benefits of ear candling is - it works.
Swimmer’s EarThe first of the benefits of ear candling is one that is really important - if you have this problem - "swimmer's ear". If you have swimmer's ear, you don't want to wait a minute more until you get some relief! Oh the pain! And maybe it's Saturday night at the cottage, do you want the hour drive to the nearest emergency? Even just having water in your ear and having your ear really plugged because of it is very annoying. What happens is water gets trapped in your ear canal, and then the bacteria starts multiplying. Ear candling does not actually deal with the bacterial infection, but it can relieve some of the pressure in your ear canal, relieving some of the pain. And as you remove some of the wax, some of the bacteria goes with it. This allows you to heal more easily and you can get some sleep. Definitely one of the benefits of ear candling!
Ear InfectionsThe next one of the benefits of ear candling is concerning relief from the pain of ear infections. My son once had an infection under his thumb nail when he was around 10. It was swollen and very painful, so I took him to emergency. The doctor on call happened to be my own family doctor who got a little drill of sorts and drilled a few holes through my son’s thumbnail. This allowed the pressure to be released and some of the fluid from under his nail to escape. The doctor said to keep an eye on it and come back to see him if needed, but that this would likely take care of the problem. Which it did. My point is that drilling holes in my son’s thumbnail didn’t exactly “heal” the infection. But it helped get rid of some of the problem, and his immune system did the rest. It's the same with ear candling. Ear candling itself will not heal an ear infection, but sometimes it can relieve enough pressure and remove enough bacteria so that the pain is gone and the body can heal. When my grandson was having ear aches, my daughter got some ear candles and gave him a session, (I didn’t know this at the time.) She was at the doctor one time (the same doctor as I’ve mentioned above) and she told him that she had done ear candling for her son to help with the ear aches. The doctor said that ear candling wouldn’t help ear infections. And she said, “But it worked.” When she told me about this conversation, I said, “Well, I never said that you should ear candle for ear infections.” And she said, “But it worked.” (Maybe I should remind our doctor of the time he drilled through my son’s thumbnail . . .) It should be emphasized, however, that your hearing is nothing to be careless with, and if you have an ear infection, (in other words,
otitis media,
please go and get proper medical attention.
Plugged EarsThird in my list of benefits of ear candling is one that helps me the most. There was one time when I lived in an area where there were no stores around that sold ear candles, and my right ear was getting blocked. I put up with it for a while, but it didn’t go away. It was getting bad enough that when I slept on my right side, my ear plugged solid. We have an air cleaner in our room which we run during the night, (partly to drown out traffic sounds) and when I turned over on my left side after sleeping on my right, I couldn’t even hear it! Well, it was kind of nice, everything being so quiet but – Still not good. When I finally got hold of some ear candles, I needed to repeat the sessions a number of times. But, as my daughter said, “It worked!” I can now hear both the air cleaner and the traffic outside. (Sigh lol) And some ear candles have
organic essential oils
included in the candles. If you are unfamiliar with organic essential oils, I'm devoting another section to them; there are sooo many good things about them, so many other uses, and many benefits besides the benefits of ear candling. Don't miss
this section.
These are the main benefits of ear candling that I can personally vouch for. However- “Gets rid of fungus?” Apparently, as unpleasant as this sounds, it’s possible to have itchy ears because of fungus growing in your ears, particularly in the more humid southern states. But it seems that an effective solution for that is to swab your outer ear with alcohol, white vinegar or apple cider vinegar twice a day for a couple of days. “Provides cleansing of the sinus cavities and lymphatic system?” I would need to see more evidence of this before making this claim. Even though nasal and ear passages are connected, I can't see clearing your sinuses or a stuffy nose through ear candling. And your lymphatic system is a whole body system. And I'm going to cleanse my whole lymphatic system through my ears? I don't think so. “Relief from vertigo and Meniere’s disease?" Blocked ears can cause some dizziness, therefore it makes sense that if your dizziness is caused by blocked ear passages, then yes, this would be one of the benefits of ear candling. But there are other reasons for dizziness, in those cases, ear candling would not help. The causes of Meniere’s disease are not clearly understood. No harm would come of ear candling someone with Meniere's disease, however, I do not personally know of anyone with Meniere's who has been helped by ear candling. Read more about
Meniere's. “Headaches and migraines?” There are many different reasons for headaches and migraines. I’m quite sure that for example, if you have a migraine due to eating something with MSG in it, ear candling is not going to do a thing for you. As for headaches - perhaps if your headache is caused by increased pressure due to an infection or a cold, ear candling can give some relief. But it would be overly optimistic to think that ear candling is going to be a cure-all for headaches. But what if you do have reduced hearing and it's not because of wax, swimmer's ear or ear infections? There are
other possibilities
to consider and some preventative strategies. Sometimes a trip to the doctor is in order - (Click
here
for a humourous, true story of a “foreign body” that you really don’t want to have in your ear.)
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