So a couple of years back I heard of this awesome invention called ear candles. It was actually my good friend Kiki that first told me about them and from the start I loved them. With a history of ear issues I thought that a natural safe cleanse of ear wax would be good for me and feel awesome. So I went for it. Kiki, Priscilla and I all took turns watching the candles burn down to nothing and cutting them open to find out who had the most nastiness inside.
Ear candles are easy to use. They come in packages of two and are basically a thick wax sheet rolled into a tube that has a cone at the end. That end is placed into your ear and the other end is lit like a candle. It burns for about ten to fifteen minutes. It needs to be monitored by someone else so the ashes don’t fall on your head and light your hair on fire Michael Jackson style. It’s not hard but definitely takes patients. I have ADD so it’s not easy for me, but neither is getting my hair cut. haha. Anyway, when you are done you go to the sink and with some basic scissors you cut the rest of the tube open and examine the insides. They always include a collection of yellow and white stuff that is bunched up like ear wax. The reason that has the most wins a prize of the knowledge that they have the most ear wax in their head. I won most of the time. But later I would find out that our competition really meant very little.
About a year ago I was ready for my next ear candle experience and I went online to search for the best place in Atlanta to buy some. The health food store by my house had gone out of business so I was left with no place to go. Whole Foods does not carry them and Whole foods has basically wiped out all the “Mom and Pops” health food stores so my search was not easy. I resorted to Google and what I found was alarming.
The first article that came up was an article explaining how Ear Candles were not only ineffective, but extremely dangerous. I continued to read and found out tha ear candles have been around for centuries, but only recently has been considered a waste of time. The current Wikipedia stats:
“Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is an alternative medicine practice claimed to improve general health and well-being by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear canal. According to medical researchers, it is both dangerous and ineffective. [2]Claims that the practice removes earwax have been thoroughly debunked.”
It’s amazing just how many people I know personally still stand by ear candling and use them to this day. My own wife needed proof before she believed me and so that exactly what I got her. Priscilla, not believing my warnings, insisted we buy some ear candles. So I said that as long as we can burn one by itself, we can seek out and buy some for her to use. All I wanted to do was run a simple experiment to see if the contents of the candle after it is burned is truly only the residue left from the candle itself. And thats exactly what we found. After letting the candle burn for over fifteen minutes without an ear to accompany it, the inside looked identical to that of one that had it’s ear partner. Priscilla was convinced and so was I.
After realizing that the wax found inside was indeed from the candle it scares me to think that some of that wax could drop down inside the ear itself while candling. This is the main reason doctors are against them. So stay away and dont believe the believers. Tell them to do the experiment themselves and they too will believe.
(All these pictures are from our experiment. No Ears included.)
I’m so glad we did the experiment! I really wanted to believe in ear candling!!!!
Hmmmm…well, I have heard others that needed so-called “scientific proof” about ear candles. The only proof I needed was that my sinus infections were gone…my nose and ears cleared, and I could breathe again. That was 15+ years ago. I now make the candles you say don’t work, and have thousands of very happy customers like myself whose bronchitis, colds, sinus problems, allergy problems, hearing problems, etc. have either been eliminated or lessoned quite a bit. By the way, I worked in a 90 year old man a few years back with hearing aids. He did his own little experiment too. Before getting coned, he went and had a hearing test by his ENT. After 4 treatments, he went back in and had another hearing test. His doctor wanted to know what he had done, since his hearing had improved so much in about 1.5 months timespan. He did have to turn his hearing aide down, and I’ve even had a few people not need them any longer. I’ve also gotten bugs and lice out of people’s ears, so I KNOW this alternative modality works…no matter what the “scientific community” says. But I understand that some people have to “prove” they are right before experiencing something.
Salandra –
Our experiment was only to prove that the “toxins” left in a used ear candle was the wax from the candle itself. This proves that wax from the candle is actually dripping down towards your ear as you burn the candle. If any wax actually reach the ear, I doubt it would have healing effects. The wax left inside the candle is misleading and gives false hope that the candles are actually doing something productive.
Another easy experiment to disprove ear candles is to use an ear candle on a obviously dirty, wax filled ear and then use a Que-Tip when you are finished to see if there is any wax to be found. As the ear candle does not remove anything from the ear, the “dirty” ear will be full of wax and so called “toxins”.
No I don’t believe that the residue left in the candle is ear wax but ear candling does work. I have about a 30 or 40 % hearing loss in my left ear and after using 1 or 2 candles it returns to 100%.
A definite benefit to my hearing results from ear candling.
I would love to have an intelligent person that is not blinded by a preconceived conception that ear candling is hog wash do a study to find out how the beneficial therapeutic results occur.
Thanks, Carol
Haven’t earcandled since I was with you guys in the ATL!