How to take care of your ears with natural medicine

We can try to cover our ears and at the same time follow a conversation or contemplate a landscape, or we can watch TV for a while without sound… These small gestures will give us a quick understanding of the utility of our ear. Its importance is reflected with all its nakedness when contemplating a newborn who does not hear, or children affected by medical treatments who have lost their hearing.

Today we have adapted for them from forms of communication to cochlear implants. All of this helps us to solve problems, to understand them better and to give ear care the importance they deserve on a physical and emotional level, and in relation to our health and that of the family, since it is enough for someone to experience a low hearing so that others have to raise their voices.

Care for our ears

It is very important that we take care of the ear, and above all insist on aspects of prevention. From medicines that affect the ear of the fetus or child, exhaustive cleanings that remove wax, poorly cured colds, stress, bathing in swimming pools, headphone abuseair travel, ambient noise…

We are surrounded by elements that disturb the ears, organs protected by the bone mass of the skull, extremely delicate, fragile and complex. We realize its importance when pain, infections, buzzes, hearing impairmentloss of balance, etc.

But the promotion of their care tends to remain in the background: the cochlea transplants or hearing aids rather than warning about factors that cause deafness, such as the use of a ototoxic antibiotic or bad habits regarding noise.

In this article we will review a range of details to take care of the ear in the face of the most frequent problemsHoping that they will help us promote the health of this organ.

What is ear wax used for?

The fluid discharge from the outer ear produces wax, a very special substance with its associated bacteria that acts as a protective barrier. Excessive scratching or environments loaded with dust, contamination, dirt, flour, coal, etc. They contribute to the wax being altered and solidified.

90% of the Spanish adult population uses cotton buds to clean the external ear, despite the fact that this practice is not recommended by almost anyone. And it is that it has an effect contrary to the desired one: by pushing the wax towards the eardrum, its extraction is difficult and the wax is compacted when mixed with cotton filaments.

The better hygiene it consists of manipulating the ears as little as possible in order not to intervene in their natural cleaning process; as much, you can apply a little virgin olive oil and then use water to clean without completely removing the wax, which protects against dust, germs, etc.

Expel mucus to avoid ear infections

To avoid otitis medias it is important clean nose and throat. Many of them depend on the accumulation of mucus in the area of ​​the Eustachian tube and are more frequent in children, because as it is small, narrow and horizontal (it slopes over time), the mucus passes directly into the ears.

In addition, it closes when there is inflammation, which prevents fluid drainage. In fact, it is the disease most often diagnosed in children under five years of age. If we don’t help expel mucusin their search for a way out, the snot can cause a eardrum perforation.

It is also easy for them to occur recurrent otitis media, because the symptom is treated with antibiotics, but the area is rarely just clean. Blowing forward only manages to remove the mucus from the nostril, not the one that accumulates in the nasopharynx.

To remove mucus from the nasopharynx, one must blow back and garglein addition to performing nasal washes. And also swallow, because this activates the muscles that open and clear the Eustachian tube.

At the end of the article you will see other effective measures to prevent and cure otitis.

How to treat ear infections

Two thirds of otitis media heal on their own; of the rest, only a small percentage will require antibiotics.

In addition to blowing backwards, as we explained above, mucus can be expelled by performing a drainage with sea wateror with postural changesthat relieve pressure in the Eustachian tube.

It can also help you to resort to effective medicinal plants, changes in diet, reflex therapy or care for emotions.

1. Beneficial plants

Internally, the marshmallow infusions, mullein either chamomile.

Externally, applications of mullein extracts, plantain either calendula in olive oil, after ruling out perforation of the eardrum and perforated otitis media. In general, when the eardrum is perforated, the pain stops and nothing is used externally anymore.

For pain two drops of oregano essential oil or mint in 10 ml of olive oil.

2. Take care of the diet

It is important a good hydration (drink water, juices, broths, infusions…) and carry a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and the consumption of dairy products and refined flours is limited.

3. Reflexotherapy

An acute crisis can be calmed with a reflexology treatment focused on reflex points that are sensitive at the time. Also helps use acupuncture moxas on the sensitive points surrounding the auricle.

4. The emotional factor

The hospices were the places where there were more throat problems and otitis. Today it is the nurseries. Children block themselves from hearing what they don’t want to hear and how Defense mechanism so they live as a kind of abandonment of their mother.

To children who cry when leaving them in the nursery and they take refuge in a certain way in otitis Many things are prescribed to be at home, but often they only need a hug and a mother’s breast: the act of swallowing is ideal for decongesting the Eustachian tube.

The impact of noise

He noise It is one of the most intense attacks that the ear can receive. Between sound and noise there is a subjective border: when it goes from being pleasant to unpleasant. If we are not able to adapt, noise produces great fatigue and decreases vitality in general; it also reduces the quality of sleep.

A characteristic of noise is that it bothers less if it is produced by oneself than by others. Another is that young people have more capacity to bear it (especially the motorcycle one!). If you work in an environment saturated with noise, it is important to act in the field of prevention by improving the environment in the workplace, and in turn on a personal level.

It will be necessary to monitor the decibel level, but also the frequency and rhythm, and especially the exposure time to it. As noise does not affect everyone equally, before working in a noisy environment it is important that the doctor examine the cochlear resistance capacity and make a fatigue testin addition to practicing periodic examinations to see how the organism adapts.

He massageas well as balance acupuncture meridiansis often useful in ringing in the ears.

avoid vertigo

The nerve centers that control balance obtain information about our body’s position from the macules and acoustic ridges in the inner ear, whose nerve impulses inform the brain. If you feel unbalanced while still, you talk about Vertigo: an illusion of movement or turn of the environment or of oneself that is usually related to a alteration of the vestibular system.

Two other systems are involved in equilibrium: visual and proprioceptive. In these cases it will be necessary to hydrate well and yawn to unblock the ears and avoid barometric otitis.

A ringing in the ear

With headphones on at all times –even studying– and places that are pure noise, the hearing of young people is at risk. for now, 20% of Spanish adolescents have permanent ringing in their ears by listening to loud music. Of them, barely one in twenty take preventive measures.

Tinnitus often interferes with sleepconcentration and the ability to relax and may be a harbinger of future hearing loss.

The tinnitus They always warn us of something, so it is very important to look for its cause throughout the ear, but also outside of it. It can cause them a wax plug, loud noise, or a middle ear infection; other times they are of vascular origin cochlea involvement either endolymphatic hypertension.

Chinese medicine usually associates them with energetic dysfunctions in the kidney or liver. Whenever they appear, toxic foods and medications that affect the ear will be suppressed, opting for a vegetarian diet free of alcohol and heated fats.

Can be useful plants with vasodilator actionAs the White hawthorn or the ginkgo extract orally. Apply massage and neck care, as well as balance acupuncture meridians is usually helpful.

The ailment is explained to the patient and an attempt is made to make it less important. A few hours a day he can wear a kind of hearing aid that emits a monotonous sound (like a shower): it doesn’t mask the ringing but it is distracting.

jaw strain

Functional and inflammatory disorders of the temporomandibular joint and the chewing muscles and the stress They are closely related, especially with the bruxismwhich favors the ear muscles to tense and suffer tinnitus, pain, feeling of hearing less, vertigo…

When dealing with it, in addition to paying attention to the temporomandibular joints, the temporal bone will need to be assessed and the cranial mechanism in generalbalance and the degree of tension in the jaw.