the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Interloper wrote:Arg! Mushy vs. Crumbly. Takes me back to a grad school anthropology course where I learned that earwax texture is hereditary, and is a traceable trait to the world's various geographic regions. To wit: Asians and Caucasians are more likely to have sticky earwax, while Africans (Sub-Saharan) have a higher frequency of crumbly wax.

Things I did not need to know, but found myself forced to learn. Now I share with you.

Ack. That is so fucking foul. I would rather fall in a vat of shit than a vat of earwax. Grandma's special wax crumble, with extra scoops of creamy wax sauce.

[/quote]Now that would bother the hell out of me, someone else digging in my ear. So that said, what other types of profession do they have that I don't ever want to have to say leave me along please now. I mean don't want to sound rude, but heck it sounds like it calls for just that.[/quote]

In the west nurses do the same thing.

In China I used to get my ears cleaned by the ladies who give shoulder rubs when I'd get my haircut.

I thought it was kind of cool. Because otherwise I'd end up having a nurse do it in the long run.

I would only use shark mounted lasers personally.

My dad uses some kind of oil, tips his head to the side with some paper towel and lets it all run out.

I usually just use my pinkie. Then I put my finger up to my cats nose and he licks it all up (easy earwax disposal and my cat seems to really enjoy the taste). Only one of my cats will do that though, the others just seem disinterested.

how does earwax relate to tcm? been on my mind for a while

really? That's the kind of thing you ponder for long periods of time?

On a serious note: don't stick things in your ear. Using one of those fluids is probably a better idea, and definitely safer. As for cleaning the ears in the shower, be careful. Make sure to dry them well --some people use a blow dryer-- otherwise you'll leave yourself open to infection. fwiw.

On a less-serious note:

"Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Earwax (and its relation to body odor)"

There are two types of earwax, wet and dry. Wet earwax is common in Africa and Europe, while dry earwax is characteristic of East Asian populations. South and Central Asian populations are half wet and half dry. Native Americans tend to have dry earwax. Recently, the New York Times reports, Japanese researchers have isolated the gene responsible for earwax differentiation. The curious thing is that earwax doesn't seem to be terribly important to human survival:

Since it seems unlikely that having wet or dry earwax could have made much difference to an individual's fitness, the earwax gene may have some other, more important function. Dr. Yoshiura and his colleagues suggest that the gene would have been favored because of its role in sweating.

They write that earwax type and armpit odor are correlated, since populations with dry earwax, such as those of East Asia, tend to sweat less and have little or no body odor, while the wet earwax populations of Africa and Europe sweat more and so may have more body odor. Several Asian features, like small nostrils, are conjectured to be adaptations to the cold. Less sweating, the Japanese authors suggest, may be another adaptation to the cold in which the ancestors of East Asian peoples are thought to have lived.

January 31, 2006 at 06:24 PM | Permalink

Seems a bit fishy to me - Caucasians lived in colder regions than Asians (especially Asians who had rice, which grows in warm, wet places). And since when did Asians have little to no body odor or small nostrils? Are these researchers looking at the world through Japan-colored glasses? (Japanese publications have a tendency to talk about the "uniqueness" and specialness of the "Japanese race" (whatever that is).)

Note that your own race/group (in degrees) tends to seem to smell less to oneself, because of the similar odor... I.e. for me, Koreans smell like nothing, Chinese/Japanese smell somewhat, and white/black/Indian/etc. smell strongly. (Of course, taking a shower reduces the smell for any race/group.)

Even though wiki is not the most trustworthy source; at least it has references:

"There are two distinct genetically determined types of earwax: the wet type, which is dominant, and the dry type, which is recessive. Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type of cerumen (grey and flaky), whereas Caucasians and Africans are more likely to have the wet type (honey-brown to dark-brown and moist).[2] Cerumen type has been used by anthropologists to track human migratory patterns, such as those of the Inuit.[3]

The difference in cerumen type has been tracked to a single base change (a single nucleotide polymorphism) in a gene known as "ATP-binding cassette C11 gene."[4] In addition to affecting cerumen type, this mutation also reduces sweat production. The researchers conjecture that the reduction in sweat was beneficial to the ancestors of East Asians and Native Americans who are thought to have lived in cold climates.[5]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax

Well, I have no problems with that part (May I mention that my own earwax is of the dry type.) I thought the speculations after that were a bit fishy...

I had to have wax removed once by the doctor. The shower tip is interesting.

I love water but often when I dive I can get water in my ear that stays there for days. This sucks.

OK I haven't read this thread yet, but I wake up to a 2 page thread about ear wax?


















Awesome.

edededed wrote:Well, I have no problems with that part (May I mention that my own earwax is of the dry type.) I thought the speculations after that were a bit fishy...

Well, after practice, I have to smell some Asian armpits

It's true that the way the author puts it seems somewhat stereotypical. I seem to remember seeing Asians sweat; but, I've never thought about it. As for smells and earwax ... well, ya learn something new every day.

also, reverse felching works.

Thanks for the image.