
China’s peculiar ear-cleaning custom - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181029-in-china-chengdus-peculiar-ear-cleaning-custom
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mallomarmeasle
The article mentions that dry earwax is found in Asians, in comparison to the
sticky form in Westerners. It does not mention the fascinating detail that
this difference is determined by a single gene, which also influences underarm
odor.
[http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mythearwax.html](http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mythearwax.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCC11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCC11)

~~~
netheril96
Because of this gene more than 95% of Chinese have very little body odor.
Consequently, Chinese regard those with heavy body odor as ill, and name the
illness 狐臭 ("fox stink" by transliteration). Those with heavy body odor are
shamed by their peers. Few of Chinese know that almost everyone outside China,
Korea and Japan shares this "illness", and deals with it daily with
deodorants.

~~~
PakG1
I wonder what other factors can contribute to the matter. Korean guy here. I
swear that a decade ago, I would not get significantly stinky as I got sweaty.
These days, I am totally stinky after a basketball game. My feet are so stinky
after a day in shoes. My armpits are crazy stinky after a day of work, they
totally were not this stinky a few years ago.

Yes, I do not have conclusive data on the matter. It's all anecdotal and non-
scientific. But I swear it's true. I swear it.

~~~
DoctorOetker
up till now, reading about the dry vs wet earwax, I had always understood the
smell to be determined by the type of bacteria feeding on urea in the sweat.
The urea contains chemical energy, but is expelled nonetheless by the human
body to get rid of the nitrogen. I also clearly remember knowing about this
mechanism and reading on practically all the deodorant bottles (perhaps 5
years ago) brand or no brand that it contained perfume, other things and ...
urea! so basically pretty smell that evaporates over time, while feeding the
stinking bacteria so you'd spray again.

Then I noticed urea dissappearing from the deodorant bottles.

According to this theory the smell of sweat is really determined by the
breakdown products the bacteria release, so that would imply killing the
current colony and applying an odorless colony.

Perhaps people with smelly sweat are just alternating faster between colonies
by having periods of working out, and periods of not working out which causes
the occasional good colony to die and get replaced with a smelly one? Perhaps
people who smell less have a more regular colony feeding pattern?

~~~
mallomarmeasle
Underarm odor is largely determined by bacterial breakdown products of fatty
acids, steroids, and other aliphatics into odorous compounds such as smaller-
chain acids. Urea plays no role that I know of. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry_of_body_odor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry_of_body_odor)

~~~
DoctorOetker
I could perfectly be wrong about the odour being a breakdown product of the
urea itself, but I thought the urea was a major _energy source_ for the
bacteria... is that still correct or are the other species you mention more
energetic or available?

~~~
mallomarmeasle
I think urea will be in sweat mainly in the case of damaged kidneys, not under
normal conditions. Not sure about that though.

~~~
DoctorOetker
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12817713/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12817713/)

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PakG1
I live in China and used to love getting this done. It makes my ears feel
fantastic. But due to the worry of damage to the ears and so on, my wife
desires me to not do this anymore. So I don't. But I really miss it. So my
wife helps me out now and then to take earwax out, maybe twice a month. She
never goes in very deep, out of concern for my ears. But every now and then,
she'll see a really huge piece just sticking out and is able to grab it with
some specialty tweezers designed for ear use (she bought them off taobao).
It's not the same, but it's almost as nice. She sometimes takes out pieces
that are 1.5 square centimetres. Something is wrong with me.

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jrace
>>“There is no medical system in the world that would advocate sticking
foreign objects into the ear canal. People do it because they think it feels
good.”

And for good reason - we should not clean our ears, unless they are impacted
with cerumen (wax).

Our ears need the protective lining the wax provides and excessive removal
only causes the body to create more.

[https://www.audiologyonline.com/articles/issues-in-
cerumen-m...](https://www.audiologyonline.com/articles/issues-in-cerumen-
management-1298)

~~~
jobigoud
> People do it because they think it feels good.

What's the difference between "thinking it feels good" and it "feeling good"?

Many people have reported quasi-sexual pleasure while playing with a q-tip
inside their ear canal.

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sbradford26
This sounds like an improvement over q tips since they would actually be
removing the wax and not accidentally shoving it further in.

~~~
icebraining
Nowadays doctors in general strongly advise against using q-tips inside the
ear canal, as does the actual packaging (at least of some brands):
[http://www.greathillsent.com/images/qtips.jpg](http://www.greathillsent.com/images/qtips.jpg)

The treatment I've seen for out of the ordinary earwax accumulation was warm
water sprayed using a bulb syringe.

~~~
8bitsrule
Yep. Can be hard to find in drugstores, where they might be called
'aspirators' or 'bulb syringes'. Made of plastic (used to be rubber). Might be
in baby section. Use water near body temp (or you might get dizzy). -Squeeze
gently-.

[https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fi.ebayimg.co...](https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fi.ebayimg.com%2Fimages%2Fg%2FGtMAAOSwaB5XuBU4%2Fs-l300.jpg)

Same tool is a good substitute for use to irrigate the nose with _neti pot_
solutions. A doctor once whispered to me 'big pharma doesn't want you to know
about them'.

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throw7
As kids, my mom would do this to us. She'd use a hairpin. It is oddly
satisfying.

