Three Squares a Day

The use of ear candles to clean supposed wax from the ear canal dates back possibly as early as 2500 BC.   Egypt, China, India, Tibet, and the Mayan and Aztec cultures all used similarly designed pottery cones to achieve desired ear wax removal.  The beeswax coated cotton cones (shown) plausibly date back almost as far, to when bees were first domesticated.  In a nutshell, the tapered end is placed into the ear, and the other end is lit on fire to create a vacuum.

What got me interested in the history of these suspiciously archaic devices was a dear friend’s contagious excitement when she saw some beeswax ear candles set out by the cash register at our local health food store. She started exclaiming how her and her grandma used to clean one another’s ears with these little wax sticks. She then announced, “We are going to do this!”

Oh, lucky day…  I think.

Well, they were an entertaining experience that made for a lot of laughter, but I after doing some research I strongly advise against their use.  They may be 100% natural, but so is snake venom!  

I followed a hunch and did a little experiment:  After my friend left I burned a cone in the mouth of a bottle.  I discovered that it ”vacuumed up” just as much supposed “ear wax” as when placed in a human ear!  The candles DO INDEED create the discolored wax found inside near the tip (no human ear wax needed).  The hoax would be harmless enough except it goes beyond just a joke:  I also confirmed very fine wax drippings in the bottom of the jar.   Best as I can tell this all adds up to wax going into the ear, not coming out, and that’s incredibly dangerous.  

In all fairness I must point out that I have no experience with the ancient pottery versions.   If you do, please leave a comment here.  If you know where to get one of ancient design, especially leave a comment here!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Reprinted from the LPH Newsletter, Carrie Franzwa.  Copyrights reserved.