Proponents of ear candling claim that it cleans out excess wax and other impurities to resolve pain, infection and discomfort. Two simple home tests demonstrate the true and false about this popular holistic therapy.
Ear problems of all kinds seem to run rampant during cold/flu season and from spring allergies. My go-to for these issues has always been homemade garlic ear oil.
Other causes for ear discomfort include clogged sinuses from cold weather, dry heat from furnaces, and sensitivity to pet dander or dust.
Ear candles are a common approach for the holistic treatment of earaches and other ear discomforts at home via a simple process known as “candling”.
These inexpensive devices have become a popular natural remedy sold by the dozens at health food stores to combat seasonal and chronic ear issues. It’s now even a common upscale treatment at day spas!
Ear candling is touted as a way to clean out your ear to help prevent future problems. But, do ear candles really work as advertised?
Let’s put common sense and simple observation into play to determine the truth.
How Do Ear Candles Work?
Use of ear candles, called ear candling or ear coning, is usually performed by using an ear candle about 10′ long which is made of cloth rolled in beeswax or paraffin. The ear candle is pushed through the center of a small hole cut in a pie tin or sturdy paper plate.
The person to be candled then ideally lays comfortably on his/her side. The tapered end of the ear candle is gently placed in the ear canal with the paper plate just above the ear.
Hair should be tied back and a damp cloth placed around the shoulders should any ashes get loose and not be caught by the paper plate. The wide end of the ear candle is then lit and the candle allowed to burn for a few minutes until it is no closer than 4″ from the person being candled.
The ear candle is trimmed every couple of inches as it burns down to keep the flame and ashes low. Extinguishing the candle’s flame should be in a bowl of water rather than blown out to minimize smoke. The entire session for a single ear candle lasts about 15 minutes.
What Are the Benefits?
Proponents of ear candling claim that it removes earwax and toxins. This residue is supposedly drawn out of the ear painlessly via a gentle vacuum caused by the flame burning on the end of the hollow tube of the ear candle. The residue is indeed visible after the ear candling session is complete upon examination of the inside of the remaining part of the ear candle.
Do Candles Remove Wax and Dirt from the Ear?
While all of these claims sound very intriguing, the fact is that none of it is true. If you believe any of these claims to be accurate and want to do a quick test at home, simply take an ear candle and put it in a glass vase. Then, burn it down just like you would if it were used to candle someone’s ear.
When the flame is extinguished, you will find the exact same “residue” inside the candle as you would if it were being used therapeutically on an actual subject. The residue thought be earwax and toxins by candling proponents is actually nothing more than bits of paraffin or beeswax from the candle itself!
Another test you can do is light an ear candle over a sink and put the palm of your hand underneath the end that would go inside the ear canal. Notice there is no suction whatsoever! In fact, you can see a very light stream of smoke blowing OUT that end instead! Mmmm. How is the nonexistent suction from an ear candle supposed to remove anything from the ear canal particularly if it is sticky or gunky?
Is Candling Effective?
Before you come to the conclusion that ear candling is just a health scam and doesn’t provide any therapeutic value, consider this use.
Burning an ear candle with the tapered end inside someone’s ear as described above blows warm smoke into the ear which is indeed very relaxing and soothing for many. No wonder day spas have it on offer.
This warm smoke also has the effect of drying out the ear, so it could potentially be of benefit to those suffering from an ear infection. I actually used ear candling to dry out the fluid in my first child’s ears when he had a double ear infection as a toddler many years ago.
It worked like a charm although it was very much a challenge to accomplish on one so young. No meds required and the fluid in the ear dried up quickly and never returned.
Should You Try It?
I switched over to unprocessed dairy not long after that and eliminated pasteurized organic milk from our home. Turns out this was the cause of the ear problems in the first place.
My son never needed another ear candling session again! That was a long time ago as he is 22 years old today!
My second and third children never needed any ear candling sessions at all. Why? They never have consumed any pasteurized dairy and consequently never had ear infection issues.
In sum, ear candling may be a relaxing and somewhat helpful therapy for those with ear pain and other challenges. It is certainly an enjoyable experience.
However, fixing the diet and eliminating the underlying cause of ear problems in the first place is the best way to go for a long-term solution.
Don’t fall for the notion that ear candles somehow clean out your ears and rid them of excess earwax and toxins. If you perform the simple tests described above, you will realize very quickly that candling does nothing of the sort!
More Information
I did ear candling off and on for a few years but then the place I went to took it off their list of services (I would never dare try to do it to myself, LOL), so haven’t done it now in a long time. However, I did do the test you mentioned (burning it down on your own and looking for residue) and my results were different from your experience (I always test my “kooky” stuff, hahaha). When burning on it’s own I didn’t get much but when ear candling there were enormous chunks of bright orange “gunk”. I’m not convinced it doesn’t remove someTHING from the ear! 🙂
Ear candling is little more than a placebo – http://t.co/GxxT7kRR #fb
Sarah – Are you on FB? I never get your posts on my FB newsfeed. I sometimes miss your posts because I don’t check my email often (my regular email and facebook email are different.) I will get your posts if someone else (I have some nourishing freinds on my FB page) share your posts though. Is there a way for me to get all your posts via Facebook?
Thanks
Tina
I don’t always post on my FB page .. usually I do but sometimes I don’t if I’m out of town and my post goes up automatically, for example, because I scheduled it a day or two before. I don’t always have access to a computer to keep up with FB/emails. I do my best though but family always comes first 🙂
Thank you for this! I’m so sick of the modern medicine vs. alternative medicine crap. If I go to the dr, all they want to do is put me on prescriptions. If I go to a holistic or alternative dr they want to wave crystals over me or put me on a vegan “cleanse” or stick candles in my ears. I wish more people would realize that health is not based off mystical woo and is actually based off of the things that you put in your body. Good nutrition can solve almost any problem, you may need vitamin or mineral supplements or herbal supplements to overcome a deficiency, but it’s not magic. It’s just science. Sometimes I hate being a skeptic in the real food community. There is so much woo out there.
Hear, hear! I’ll take proven wellness practices with a side of rationalism and logic, please.
Many people who tire of conventional medicine simply board the alternative health hamster wheel and never get off. There is a lot of snake oil out there and one must be both rational and intuitive to navigate the way wisely.
Unfortunately Ki, viruses and infectious bugs are not the same as they were years ago. Not to mention that as Americans, our immune systems, and those of our kids are probably pretty compromised by the dwindling levels of nutrition in the foods we eat these days.
I think it’s fine to try natural cures, and I agree that we’ve come to rely much too heavily on antibiotics, but the fact is we have, and as a result, the bugs that cause these infections have gotten stronger and harder to overcome. I know from using it that garlic oil works very well in curing ear infections, and we treat naturally whenever we can, but I would also seek out the monitoring of a professional while I was treating with alternative means. My point is, once the infection gets to a point where the eardrum ruptures, deafness is a very real possibility, and I will NOT risk deafening my child. My parents both grew up before ear infections were treated regularly with antibiotics in very rural areas, and partially or completely deaf children were much more common.
I’m confused, I think I stated quite clearly I didn’t like prescriptions from doctors… *checks* yep, right there. I believe I also stated that I thought there was a need for herbal supplements sometimes… *checks* yep, right there. Were you reading my comment, or someone elses? I don’t have a problem with herbal supplements, or any other holistic treatment as long as it it isn’t ridiculous “woo” that has no basis in science or reality.
I’ve never used ear candling, but my massage lady provides the service and lots of people do it. I’ve never really had ear problems myself, neither does my DH and our kids never, ever had an ear infection. We used to take our kids to the doctor (not a pediatrician though) when they were younger, but only on rare occasions because 1) we don’t really believe/have faith in modern medicine and 2) we lived 75 miles from the nearest town. But when we did take them in, our doctor told me he has never seen a family with so few issues, and rarely has he seen an entire family with no ear infections in the kids.
My DH is a firefighter (and in this part of the country that also requires him to be an EMT) so it’s odd that we have no faith in the medical system (other than trauma, of course) but we feel it is a totally broken system, getting worse all the time, and won’t be easily fixed.
So, if people want to believe that ear candling works, who am I to say it doesn’t? When I was growing up I remember my Mom telling us that her father would blow smoke in their ears if they had ear pain. I guess it must have worked or she probably wouldn’t have mentioned it, but it’s not something our household ever had to test. I guess I’m a believer (sometimes) in what works for one person might not work for another person, and there doesn’t have to be “medical science” or “medical evidence” behind it. Most of that “science” is phony or has been hijacked anyhow.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention – I think chiropractic treatments are excellent for babies, not just for ear problems but for everything. Even if they have NO problems, a monthly adjustment is worth every cent you won’t spend at the M.D. doctor’s office.
I just got back from taking my almost 4 month old to the chiropractor. I had asked PA if she thought anything was wrong with the way baby held her head. She did not think there was a problem. We were not satisfied with that answer and pursued the chiropractor. One adjustment and we noticed a significant difference in the way she held her head and movement of it. I wish I would have followed my gut instinct 2 months ago!
I’m with Kristi. I’ve been using ear candles for almost 20 yrs (with family & clients), and the residue after the candle has burnt down varies wildly. Sometimes there is no wax or globs, other times there is powder varying from white to tan in color, I’ve even heard of the occasional bug. Hearing improves often. I like to candle my kids ears quarterly, as a type of cleanse. It has helped to reduce allergies. To start, use one candle per decade of life for each ear (so if you’re in your 30s, 3 per ear – 6 total). After that initial cleanse, use as you find necessary.
I’ve heard that a good chiropractor can also help by adjusting the jaw, if the issue for small children is that they aren’t draining correctly. A friend went this route instead of having tubes put in, and regular adjustments helped keep the problem at bay until her son developed further.
Never heard of ear candling before. It sounds rather alarming to hold a flaming candle above your delicate ear area, but I might understand why someone would want to try it. Watching and smelling fire burn can be a very soothing sight.
Sorry, but I don’t agree with your article at all. We have used ear candles for years, giving relief from ear infections, improving hearing when getting excessive earwax outs and so forth. My son developed an ear infection over a couple day period while staying with grandparents when he was young. By the time the picked him up, he had dark drainage from his ear. Brought him home and immediately candled his ears. He actually fell asleep while I candled his ears. Candling brought the earwax and infection out of his ears and it was over right then. I suspect that others would disagree with your claim that there are no proven benefits (unless you are saying that there are no medical studies – because there probably aren’t).
To remove earwax from the ear would require a pretty strong vacuum from the ear candle. Light one and place your hand under the tapered end. There is absolutely no suction whatsoever. While ear candling does have some benefits, there is no way it cleans out the ear.
I can’t make any absolute declarations, but there is an entire section in Bad Science explaining how ear candling doesn’t work (but seems to), including an experiment to verify it all for yourself. It might be worth checking out that book. The author’s name is Ben Goldacre.
I completely agree with Sarah that nothing is removed from the ear for the simple fact that the fluids caused by the infections are on the INSIDE of the eardrum, and even a vacuum could not remove those fluids without damaging the eardrum. Look up schematics of the inside of the ear and you will see what I mean. It simply isn’t physically possible the way the ear is made.
I suppose there could be a case where fluids could be removed if the infection had gone on long enough that the eardrum had become perforated from the infection, but I would also suspect that if things had progressed that far your child would be so ill that candling might even be impossible, not to mention that at that point, you’d better be seeking professional treatment for your child so that such a severe infection didn’t result in deafness.
I agree that the drying could be helpful, but again, without damaging the eardrum I’m fairly certain that drawing anything out of the ear is just not possible. I had heard once that it cleaned the ears of earwax, but when I asked a Naturopath about it I was told that they had never heard of a human ear having even close to that amount of wax at one time, not to mention a child’s ear!
Ear Candling: No Proven Benefits But You Still Might Like It http://t.co/ost4lBki