Howzit Bill, Between the 2 of us we have done a good job of helping our brothers here on Sways when it comes to ear problems, You can be Dr. Bill and I will be Dr. Kokua. So easy and simple yet the mix cures such a bad ear problem. I also want to thank you RDM and just keep the mix around and use it for maintainence. Aloha,Kokua
I wear a hood and ear plugs always. Forget drill bits in my ear, I’ll take silicon any day. Quite a few guys around here have had their ears drilled and most of them still have problems. I used the alcohol+vinegar occasionally but since I started with the earplugs I have had zero ear problems. Glad to hear people having success with that remedy even at more advanced stages of exostosis.
Howzit Moss, I tried wearig ear plugs 1 time and after about 10 minutes I just yanked them out since I couldn't stand not hearing sounds lie they should be heard. For those that can wear them they will do wonders and they are a great alternative. Me I will stick with the mix. Aloha,Kokua
I just use those soft macks silicon ones and I do just as the package tells me not to and I break one in half and put a half inside each ear. Yeah they make you semi-deaf but up here in the cold they really do keep your ear canal warmer and once I got used to them I sort of started to enjoy the muted sounds. It’s almost like I can hear myself think better, if that makes any sense. When people start to talk to me in the line up all I have to do is smile and nod and they can carry on a conversation with themselves while I continue to exist in my own little world, not hearing a word of it.
Hi Kokua, about a month ago I took my 8 year old daughter to the doctors for a slightly infected ear. The doctor told me after the kids swim to squirt their ears with 50% methylated spirits and 50% white vinegar, she said get your aqua ear bottle and use it for the squirt, as its the same stuff inside. The metho [alchohol] evaporates, so now you have another source to back you and Bill up. Much better than getting them drilled as my brother has had that done twice and reckons they grow back faster. He also woke up during the 1st op with the drill drilling in his head, ouch, cheers H.
I been tryin the alcohol, vinegar thing for a while now. I use white vinegar and Old Grandad (Alcohol). put the alcohol in my ear useing one of those ear bottles. Then I take a couple of hits of the Old Grandad (alcohol) straight from the bottle !! Don't know yet how good it is workin but for sure I am getting pickeled !!!
Kokua's advice is sound.
I have used the vinegar-alcohol mix for years. You can buy it and pay a fortune for something you can easily make. Our family physician recommended it when we were kids. Believe we used 2:1 vinegar:alcohol -- 1:1 probably dries your ears out a little better. I think we use 1:1 now.
I use it after swimming 0.5 mi, 3x weekly -- every day if I feel like my ears are staying damp from showers etc. I've never bothered to try to get the wax out first -- but it is a good idea if you have some build up. I find the vinegar/alcohol mix dries things up enough to make the wax break loose anyway.
The vinegar helps prevent fungal infections, the alcohol for preventing infection and also for drying. I believe chronic moisture in the ear is the source of the problem made worse by minor infections, wax and boney growths. (I suspect crystalizing salt is a factor too.) Vinegar certainly softens bones (ever do the egg or bone in vinegar thing for junior high science?).
I studied in Med School for a couple of years. I'm no ENT Doc, but I do know vinegar and alcohol will not hurt and is definitely helpful if you are filling your ear canals with water frequently. Keep em dry.
Anyway, if you use the vinegar/alcohol mix regularly it should help stop things from getting worse. I just fill up my ears using an eyedropper, pull down and back on my lower earlobe, and let the mix sit for about 10 seconds then drain it out on a piece of wadded tissue.
Can't hurt and it is inexpensive. Do it every day for several months. Everytime you get water in your ears thereafter -- always after swimming or surfing.
Howzit BG, I like it w have another advocate for the mix and thanks for the positive comment. I use a bulb syringe to flush the wax out of my ears then use the mix to dry and treat the ear canals. I went from 80% plus canal closure to 0% closure and even my ENT now tells patients to use it since you can only have so many operations and then no more. I have a good friend on Kauai that can't have anymore ops on his ears and I would ask him if he was using the mix when ever I saw him and he would tell me he had it made but wasn't using it. All I could say was " It's your ears and you know it works so get with it or go deaf" I hope he is using now. Aloha,Kokua
Hi
I found this post, and as i have exostoses, this interests me a lot.
So I ask .
Using the alcohol/vinegar everyday , it will be necessary clean mi ears first with a bulb syringe also everyday ? , or only some days?
Perhaps everyday is agressive to ears because they need some wax for eardrum protection?
How do you do it kokua ?
Thank´s
THANK YOU for digging up this old stuff. I never heard about the vinegar part before. My ears have been giving me issues for a couple of years with the last month worse then ever with tinitus and the usual stuff. I’m gonna give vinegar and alcohol a good try.
It WILL change your surfing experience. I've NEVER had an ear infection after i began using the solution.
Howzit Bill, As one who also has been using the mixture for over 30 years I second your statement. Just ask Herb he saved his ears by using it. Aloha,Kokua
I got lost and posted in the wrong thread, if this remedy works half as good as people say all information on this topic is important enough to not get lost, ever. So for completeness and future reference here’s what was said:
I'm starting things out slow, 50/50 with 50% alcohol and 6% vinegar. It didn't burn my brains out so I'll go up in strength next time. I'll be back with a review in a couple of months.
There's one thing that has been bugging me lately, the tinitus and my general hearing I can deal with, it's my selective hearing. If I'm in a noisy enviroment I find it really hard to hear a normal conversation that others seem to have no problem with. For instance speaking to someone across the table in a lound and crowded reasturant gets annoying fast. Since doctors seem clueless I'll ask here, has any one else had the same problem from exostoses? I'm trying to figure out if I'm going deaf, getting old or just have exostoses.
Thanks everyone.
Great Thread - really important topic for so many of us. I want to comment but I don’t want anyone to get defensive and think I am going against their contribution. First, for the last poster - Frederik - not being able to differentiate conversation in a noisy environment is a sign of hearing loss - it could be age related, bone growth or from exposure to constant loud noise etc.
Regarding bone growth in the ear - that is a body defense mechanism in response to a threat to the body - specifically lowering the temperature of the inner ear and and nearby brain. There is only one safe answer - protect the area from cold water and wind (evaporation) by whatever means you can - a hood or ear plugs etc. When we rode long boards and knee paddled, our bodies built those knots on our knees and feet (calcium deposits) for protection. Those of us that went to short boards lost the knots - the body removed a no longer necessary defense. If we work real hard with our hands we get calluses, If we stop the hard work the calluses go away - no longer needed. If we stop exposing our ears to wind and cold water the growths in our ears will go away. Using alcohol and vineger is introducing chemicals into an environment (inner ear) that was not designed for these substances. These chemicals have ‘additional effects’ on the inner ear, besides removing calcium deposits. In addition, how do we know when enough of the build-up has been removed, and we run the risk of removing needed bone.
I realize some of us have difficult ear problems right now and want relief right now but to be putting foreign matter in the ear over an extended period of time is, I believe, asking for trouble. I believe prevention is the safest answer, and if you have to use alchol and vineger, stop as soon as you have relief and are back to normal, ears draining easily after a shower, and then use prevention. Gettin your ears drilled is not an acceptable answer as the growth does come back if you go back in cold water without protection. Wish none of us had to go through this but it’s reality - good luck.
I would like to see data from replicated scientific research that suggests cold causes ear canal bone growth. While I have not researched the topic, I have neither seen nor heard reports of non-surfing Eskimos having bone growth due to inner ear exposure to cold.
Chronic moisture with the associated fungi, bacteria and algae is the most likely etiology. As mentioned before, salt crystalizing in the ear canal cannot be good for living tissue – hyperosmotic environment.
Alcohol (ethanol) and vinegar have been ingested by humans for millennia. In modest quantities, there is no indication of ill effects.
If one is concerned with using isopropyl alcohol, use 190 proof grain alcohol/ethanol (Everclear) as a substitute with the appropriate dilution.
The human ear was not designed for daily or chronic moisture in the ear canals. Daily alcohol and vinegar exposure for drying is likely harmless and superior to chronically damp ear canals.
“The increased popularity of surfing has produced a marked augmentation
in the incidence of ear canal exostosis. When moderately severe, it is classified as hyperostosis. Cold water exposure is a significant causality factor in
hyperostosis, which can be significantly amplified by exposure to cold wind as well.” Straight from one of the research studies.
I started back in the early 60’s, having problems by early 70’s, started using a hood whenever cold or windy (Norcal), used the home made ear solutions called out on this thread and mostly held it at bay, with an occasional flair-up and a couple of infections.
Went to Proplugs as soon as they came out, never had another earache or infection again.
Handed out Proplugs to my son and a couple of his surf buddies when they started surfing 20 years ago, they’ve always worn them, none have had any sign of surfers ear.
Beats having to go through the ear solution ritual…
This is not an attack. Cold may be a factor. But I would like to see actual “data” from specific research studies. What you have reported appears be a “correlation” between surfing and exostosis. Many variables must be controlled before statistically valid conclusions can be drawn.
Correlation does not imply causation. Ice cream sales are highest during hot months. Malaria outbreaks are highest during hot months. Ice cream causes malaria.
However, my main concern was not with statements about cold. Rather, I have difficulty with the foreign substances comment about alcohol and vinegar.
Ear plugs would prevent ear canal moisture. I suspect hoods would minimize ear canal flushing.
If I am not mistaken, Kokua and others who surf in tropical waters suffer from exostosis/hyperostosis also – cold not an issue.
In all cases, ear canal moisture is present.
Ear plugs are a good solution. However, I like to be able to hear when somebody calls me off a wave. I also want somebody else to hear me call them off.
Alcohol and vinegar are a minor inconvenience after a session in the water.
Stoneburner - you may be right regarding causation or it could be a combination of cold plus bacteria, fungi etc. But re the eskimos, cold water causes considerably more heat loss than cold air, and man has not been injesting isopropyl alcohol for millenia. Also healthy ear canals drain after swimming and will be dry shortly after. It may be that calcium deposits due to cold cause closing of the canal and then block water from escaping, contributing to infection. As I understand the sequence in the early stages of existosis the problem is narrowing of the canal and later the stage of getting infections starts. A healthy ear doesn’t need to be ‘cleaned’ after swimming. Haven’t we seen enough of introducing chemicals into our body yet. My wife is a pharmacist and she has opened my eyes to all the ‘cures’ of modern chemistry.
A pharmacist is a far cry from a credible research scientist or physician. Science and microbiology have significantly increased human survival/life-span and reduced debilitating illness.
Humans have most certainly been drinking alcohol (ethanol) for millennia. Wine, beer, et.al. Wine becomes vinegar due to acetobacter (ethanol to acetic acid). All quite “organic and natural.”
Records/evidence have shown the Egyptians gave beer to the slaves who built the pyramids. I believe it was reported that Christ turned water into wine (2 millennia have passed since). Distillation of ethanol began roughly 900 years ago (roughly one millenium).
Seawater (etc.) is not sterile. Ethanol and vinegar are virtually free of pathogenic micro-organisms that could be harmful to the ear canal. They kill or inhibit fungi, bacteria, et. al.
Ethanol forms an azeotrope with water.
I am not interested in a debate of opinions.
Enough.
"
Abstract
Objective:** The study goal was to demonstrate the prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses (EAEs) in a population of surfers and to examine the relationship between these lesions and the length of time surfed as well as water temperature in which the swimmers surfed. It was hypothesized that subjects who predominantly surfed in colder waters had more frequent and more severe exostoses. Methods:** Two hundred two avid surfers (91% male and 9% female, median age 17 years) were included in the study. EAEs were graded based on the extent of external auditory canal patency; grades of normal (100% patency), mild (66% to 99% patency), and moderate-severe (<66% patency) were assigned. Otoscopic findings were correlated with data collected via questionnaires that detailed surfing habits. Results:** There was a 38% overall prevalence of EAEs, with 69% of lesions graded as mild and 31% graded as moderate-severe. Professional surfers (odds ratio 3.8) and those subjects who surfed predominantly in colder waters (odds ratio 5.8) were found to be at a significantly increased risk for the development of EAEs. The number of years surfed was also found to be significant, increasing one's risk for developing an exostosis by 12% per year and for developing more severe lesions by 10% per year. Individuals who had moderate-severe EAEs were significantly more likely to be willing to surf in colder waters than were those who had mild EAEs (odds ratio 4.3). Conclusions:** EAEs are more prevalent in cold water surfers, and additional years surfing increase one's risk not only for developing an EAE but also for developing more severe lesions. (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2002;126:499-504.)"**