Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Earaches

Episode Date: April 21, 2016

Last week on Sawbones, we moved into your ear. This week on Sawbones, we're staying put with an episoe about the dizzying number of ways we've profaned mice to fix earaches. Music: "Medicines" by The ...Taxpayers

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Saabones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. I love it. Hello everybody and welcome to Sal Bones, a metal tour of Miss Guy at Mid miss guy admitted to them your co-host Justin McAroy and I'm Sydney McAroy
Starting point is 00:01:09 Sydney the combo of the great combination of 2016 the combo of 2016 continues the combo of 2016 That sounds like a new flavor of combos. They're gonna have like eight combos flavors in 2016 though Like there's no way we could just pick one Buffalo blasted ranch buddies. I'm sure it will be one You think they're gonna have all these this year like they're don't they don't exist yet. No, I think they're our Buffalo blasted ranch buddies Now Buffalo branched ranch buddies came from my mind diet No, the common a combo of 2016 is that we have managed to swing Tarzan like from show theme to show theme, finding connective tissue through each of them.
Starting point is 00:01:50 If there's clues in each one to find out who the real killer is, but you... Oh, who got killed? So far we haven't dropped from the vines, stone like into the jungle. It started with hemophilia. Yep. And on hemophilia we mentioned hydrogen peroxide. Yes. Hydrogen peroxide we mentioned.
Starting point is 00:02:13 How do we get to ear wax from there? Because I said it. Oh, because people kept asking. But what about hydrogen peroxide? Isn't that good for ears? So now here we are. Talking about ears some more. Ears some more.
Starting point is 00:02:26 I, apparently ears gross people out. Yes, and people has problems with that, huh? Are ears gross? I don't know, it's hard for me to say. Sometimes I feel like a space alien asking you these questions, because I don't, like I don't think ears are gross. And I know what ears are and I know what gross is.
Starting point is 00:02:45 So I feel weird having to ask the question are ears gross? But aren't like missing that? They don't particularly gross me out. No, I mean, that's not a problem with it. Okay, well, we're gonna talk more about them. That's okay. You're the boss. I thought maybe we could talk about your aches.
Starting point is 00:03:02 Yeah, that's fine by me. I'll allow it. You'll okay, well thank goodness, because I don't have anything else prepared. Good. So, I mean unless you just want to hear about like my day, because you know you didn't ask. Oh, wow. So here it is. So how was your day? I mean it was fine.
Starting point is 00:03:19 It was okay. Glad I asked. So, what's the deal with the ear aches in? Well, first of all, thank you to Jennifer and Emily for both mentioning this topic. And when I say earaches, let me just clarify, I'm talking about anything that can cause ear pain. Okay. Because as you as with a lot of medical conditions, before we understood the anatomy of the ear and the different causes of ear pain, you know, what germ theory of disease and what infections are and why it matters
Starting point is 00:03:48 if there are different bugs in your body and all that stuff. Before we figured all that out, all we knew is that our ears hurt. Right. Right. When you're talking about ear pain, even I know that ear pain is really a symptom less than it is a disorder, right?
Starting point is 00:04:07 Well, yes, obviously yes, that is a symptom of a problem. Typically pain is a symptom of a problem. So when we say earache, we're talking about otalgia, which is just ear pain. It may recommend this by the way. I already said that. Oh, did you say I'm missing? I'm sorry. Jennifer and Emily.
Starting point is 00:04:25 Thank you, Jennifer. They get a double thing. Double things. Because of Justin's forgetfulness or probably not paying attention. I'm paying attention. So there are some different things that can cause your pain.
Starting point is 00:04:35 One is an infection of the middle ear, which we also call otitis media, which is what you think of with little kids getting ear infections. When you think about that, that's probably what you're talking about. Okay, so it's behind the ear drum, and the ear drum gets all red and bulgy, and you see pus back there, and you see that a lot, like I said, in kids. We could also be talking about an ear infection of the external ear, like the ear canal and beyond. That's called otitis external. Okay. And that's also what we're kind of talking about when you hear the term swimmer's ear.
Starting point is 00:05:07 See, I always thought swimmer's ear was like when your ears got waterlogged after you went swimming. Well, yes, getting the water in your ear is the kind of the precipitating event for the problem, but it's really like an infection and then inflammation and irritation of the ear canal that results from that. So it's not just the presence of the water. Okay. That's just water in your ear.
Starting point is 00:05:31 Got it. I don't have like a fancy name for that really. Okay. I could probably make one up and use Latin and you'd think I was impressive though. I already think you're impressive. Thanks, honey. And then there are lots of other things that may have caused ear pain in any given time that we would have treated in the same way.
Starting point is 00:05:45 I'm going to tell you about a lot of weird treatments for ear aches and probably all this stuff was lumped in together while these two that I've already named are the most common causes. You could also, again, you could have fluid in your ear that could be causing some ear pain or pressure. You could have referred tooth pain. Okay. So if you have a problem with specific teeth.
Starting point is 00:06:03 You're radiating up. Yes. Exactly. It's like referred through different nerve branches to your ears. Okay. So, if you have a problem with specific tea, Can I radiate it up? Yes, exactly. It's like referred through different nerve branches to your ears. Okay. So, it feels like your ear is the problem. But it's really not. But it's actually your tea. Like how hard it's acting sometimes, right?
Starting point is 00:06:14 It's your, like, arms. Sure. Yeah, like that. Yeah, absolutely. I'm killing it today. You're all over this. Yeah. And also, like, TMJ problems with the joint that the
Starting point is 00:06:25 upper your jaw. I don't think they're TMJ. Okay. Yeah, you're right. There's something else. TMZ. Why would say that's the one they are. That's the one. I didn't know. I was hoping you would fill it in. I knew it was something. I mean, I guess it's my fault. I don't get my news there. I get my news from Justin. That's true. And so like TMJ could for instance cost a mere paint too. So anyway, nobody ever knew really why these things were happening, why your ears hurt from time to time. It took us a long time to, you know, create smaller devices to look inside the ear and figure
Starting point is 00:06:59 out what was going on. So basically instead of that, we would just try to pour things in our ear and fix that. That way. There were a few theories when we talk about like the four humors and that theory of disease that you have four humors in your body that need to be kept in perfect balance in order for you to have perfect health. There was a thought that an ear ache or really any ear condition ringing in your ears, problems hearing, anything, could be caused by too much of your humors kind of pressing against your ear. So, if you just had a lot of humors up there, yeah, without causing earache, there were some
Starting point is 00:07:35 other theories that I actually found more current ideas that ear infections are caused by not breastfeeding, which... Like the mom's ear infections of the babies. Like a baby's gonna get an ear infection if you don't breastfeed the baby. Makes 4 cents. And that's probably linked to a misunderstanding of studies that have shown a decrease in certain kinds of infections in infants who are breastfed, including ear infections. But that reverse logic doesn't work.
Starting point is 00:08:07 If breastfeeding correlates with a decrease in ear infections, that doesn't mean that formula feeding causes ear infections. It's a correlation, not a surgery. Exactly. That's false logic. The prescription of antibiotics, I saw that a lot of places. If you took too many antibiotics, you'd get an ear infection.
Starting point is 00:08:28 That legit. Well, no, I think again, I think it harder to treat maybe. That's the next one. Well, I think that's what they're trying to use stuff that's real to create false conclusions. The idea that you're treated with a lot of antibiotics, and so you can have more resistant infections
Starting point is 00:08:46 certainly as a concern, but the idea that I would take an antibiotic and then get an infection in my ear from that's a I don't I don't understand what they're that's no. And then I saw a lot of people claiming that it's an inflammatory reaction to cow's milk. No, now I can tell you that one doesn't make sense. No, that doesn't make sense. Whatever the causes people believed or didn't believe, there were a lot of weird ideas for treatments throughout the years.
Starting point is 00:09:16 We're here to us modern folk. Not to them, they probably seem pretty normal of them, right? Yeah, well, okay, let's start with the first one. This is an example from ancient Egypt. This was a commonly used treatment for ear infections, actually several different infectious processes. So not, I mean, I say ear infections. They didn't know they were ear infections for ear pain. And you could use this for a lot of different painful conditions. You take a mouse. Okay.
Starting point is 00:09:46 If it's already dead, good, you're halfway there. If it's not, make it dead. Somehow. Somehow, that's up to you really. Mash it up. You want it to be a little decayed. It's better if it's a decaying dead mouse. No, it's not so much like a fresh dead mouse.
Starting point is 00:10:04 I took my headphones off, but it didn't help because you're right in front of me. And then you're gonna mash that into a paste of dead decaying mouth. No, no, no. And then you're gonna put it in your ear. Absolutely not. I'm not doing that at all. I thought you didn't have a problem with ears. You monster. Justin has a problem with mice. Justin has a big problem with mice. None of the stuff on the shed bothers me, except for the times when it's Super Super has.
Starting point is 00:10:32 This one, whoof, whoofsadaisy, okay. That was a really popular treatment for a lot of different pain complaints, but it's specifically, how bad that paste into your ear. Sydney, how bad does your ear hurt? Like the worst, right? Like the worst hurting.
Starting point is 00:10:52 A lot. A lot. Yeah. For a long time, because you're definitely not waiting for it to pass. Oh, that's so grody though. That's so grody. I've never had ear pain to that extent.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Personally, I've never had any pain to that extent. I am to take my leg and I still wouldn't put a dead mouse paste on it. Ugh. So see what I'm saying when I said this. That's what Pesto is though. Did you know that? A lot of people don't.
Starting point is 00:11:16 That's Pesto. Is dead mouse paste? That's what Pesto is. It's close from. A lot of people are like, that does it? Yeah, Pesto. That's what Pesto is.
Starting point is 00:11:23 No, you know what, though, you can use to make pesto as basil. Okay. Garlic. Okay. And strangely, the oil of basil and garlic can both, we're both used as treatments for earwax, throughout the street. Put some garlic oil in your ear, put some basil oil in your ear,
Starting point is 00:11:41 then put some pine nuts in your ear, and shake your head up. You got a pin A going. A really popular treatment, especially as we look to early American treatments, like in the 1800s, 1700s, you see warm urine being used for years. And actually that is something I have heard in my practice two day as like a folk remedy. Like just get some fresh pee and put it in your, I mean, preferably your own, I guess, just because like,
Starting point is 00:12:11 it's yours. It's easier to get fresh too. Well, I mean, I think everybody has. It's like farmed a table. It's like, it's like toilet to ear, you know, like, you know, you know where it's been. You don't want to get this like GMO stuff. Hey, this is SawBode's Just It It City here. We're launching the toilet to ear revolution.
Starting point is 00:12:33 We'd like you to start using local urine or your ear? Locally sourced shade grown urine. My shade grown, we mean, please remember to leave the toilet, cover down. For your range, urine. For people who pee outside. Yeah, I feel like it's on the bowl, I guess. So urine was a really popular treatment. Another thing, again, this is something I've still heard
Starting point is 00:12:56 is blowing tobacco smoke in your ear so like take a couple of cigarettes. I feel like maybe we talked about that in our tobacco episode, right? So it's so vaguely familiar. We did mention it. You could also just, if you didn't want to do our tobacco episode, right? We did. We did mention it. You could also just, if you didn't want to do the tobacco smoke, you wanted something more concentrated, you could stuff a lot of...
Starting point is 00:13:11 You could just vape right there. Even your ear. They're the healthier option. The healthier option. It smells like strawberries. No, you could stuff a lot of chewing tobacco in there. What if plenty is like, you old ear pain, eh? Well, just get some cotton in there,
Starting point is 00:13:26 vape lord, like, what are you talking? He's lost it. Get the hemlock, we're putting him down. Hold on, wait. Is vape lord a term for people who vape lord? It's kind of, it's something of a derogatory term for people who, who love the vape. Okay, not just something you made up. No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:13:47 I've never heard this term before. I might have, it's probably somebody I know. Can I call you Vape Lord now? I'd rather you didn't. Okay. So yeah, you could also just stuff a lot of chewing tobacco in there. Again, preferably, I guess that you were chewing on
Starting point is 00:14:02 and not someone else was chewing on. Yeah, I do. Although if you think about like these treatments were probably mainly enforced on children, it probably was something that like mom or dad or grandma or grandpa was nawn on and there was like air or stuff this in their ear. Why not?
Starting point is 00:14:19 I need to place the budget. Put them. I think we mentioned this on our episode about breastfeeding, but breast milk has been a popular treatment for ear infections. Which again, that's kind of weird logic. We know that babies who are breastfed maybe have slightly lower rates of ear infections,
Starting point is 00:14:34 but that doesn't necessarily mean you could squirt some breast milk in their ear. Yeah. And that it would fix things. These are all like, topically applied, right? Yeah, these are just things you're just squirting or blowing or stuffing in your ear. Again, like the next one, lightly toasted salt pork.
Starting point is 00:14:49 Yeah. Just take a wedge of it and shove it in there. Just get it in there, I guess. How big is your ear, dog? Mommy, you cut it. Like, you should cut this. More like a pork rind at that point. Stuff of pork rind in your ear.
Starting point is 00:15:02 Spare the pork rind in your ear. We'll be there later. I'd rather do that than eat a pork grind in your ear. Pork grind in your ears. At least it'll be there later. I'd rather do that than eat a pork grind, frankly. Chicarones. That's not Mexican, Spanish. It's Chicarones. I like that term better than pork grind. It sounds more appetizing.
Starting point is 00:15:15 So when I was on Adkins, I would have refer to the mischicarones, because it sounds better. It does sound fancyer than pork grind. Sounds fancyer, yeah, for sure. Either way, I don't know. Yeah. Vitamin C, of course course has been proposed. This is actually something you could just take vitamin C,
Starting point is 00:15:30 like by mouth. You don't have to stuff it in your ear, which it uses a treatment for everything, right? Cedar tar was one strange treatment I found that you would put inside your ear. That seems destructive. Yes, hemp juice. Likewise, cannabis in general, I found on one of the now now granted, while this was something that people have done throughout history, there are a lot
Starting point is 00:15:55 of people on like cannabis websites who are promoting like by our cannabis lotion or our cannabis ointment and put it in your ear. If you want. If you want, I guess, or whatever. If you want. Doves blood was one particularly gruesome. Yeah, like. I mean, you've got to obtain that. Sure, they're not going to put a little needle in there and get it pint. No, no, sir.
Starting point is 00:16:21 No. No, I mean, I guess that would be the nicer way if you could find a dove and like get it to agree to donate blood for your ear. Give it a little little little dabbing afterwards. I'm sure. I'm sure. I have some orange juice and cookies. It's a little thimble of orange juice.
Starting point is 00:16:35 Um, you could also try, this is something strange that I found. Take some warm, take some salt, warm it up, like in the microwave, whatever. Wrap it in a washcloth, and then just hold it near your ear for five minutes. Come on. That's what that one's not even worth putting. I want that to be lost to history.
Starting point is 00:16:54 I'm editing that out, because I want history to figure out that stupid care. I saw the same thing that was like an onion. Like you could take an onion, wrap it up on the onion. That's what happened. I saw it. You could wrap the onion in a cloth, you could put that in your ear or near your ear. Same thing or like a bottle of warm water that you could hold near your ear and it's going to absorb all these ideas or that they'll absorb the pain. The salt, the onion, the water, that it's going to somehow like suck the pain out of your ear and absorb it is the thought process.
Starting point is 00:17:23 Sure. Of course, vinegar. Of course. Netch. And of course, olive oil. Of course. Or vinegar and olive oil. I never understand these places where you'll see like, use some vinegar or use some olive oil
Starting point is 00:17:37 or use vinegar and olive oil. Why would you use both if one were? If you're not making a salad, I don't know. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. This will go great with the garlic and the basil that you already have in there. Do you want to, does it tomato work? Why not?
Starting point is 00:17:51 Let's say it does. Let's have some fruits. How about some cheese? Cheese, I mean, nice. And then, and then like I said, tea tree oil is recommended for a lot of different things, mustard oil, and then finally crushed mango leaves. Okay.
Starting point is 00:18:09 We're a remedy that I found. This is a wild, man, we're trying everything, huh? Yes. You know, I think we tend to get a little bit, a bit more woolly in a wild when the, when the thing we're trying to treat is external, or like basically external. I think we tend to be a little bit braver
Starting point is 00:18:30 when it's not like you're stomach. You know what I mean? You're gonna have to eat it. Like you're gonna have to swallow it. Like I think we'll get, we're a little bit more experimental with stuff that's like, you know, as you're...
Starting point is 00:18:43 You just kinda rub on you. You're baldness, there was like 100,000 things for that. I, you know, that's weird. You just kind of rub on you. You really, there was like a hundred thousand things for that, you know. I think you're right. You really see a lot more kind of caution thrown to the wind when it's something you're just gonna put on the outside of you because we think like, well, our skin will protect us
Starting point is 00:18:54 if it's dangerous. I've seen that actually people use like aspirin pastes that they put all over them for various complaints. This is unrelated to ears, but I've just seen that as if it's like, well, won't be dangerous if you just make a paste out of aspirin and kind of smear it all over you. Okay. That is dangerous. Do not do that. You do absorb that and you can get quite sick. Oh, good. But I think people don't know that because it's like, well, that's external.
Starting point is 00:19:17 Sure. Well, Justin, I want to tell you about some more crazy treatments for ear pain. I'm ready, city. But before I do that, why don't you come with me to the billing department? Let's go. The medicines, the medicines that I skilled in my car before the mouth. I said don't keep me in suspense. I know we've got some other cures for cures.
Starting point is 00:19:44 Those are my audio quotes. Have those work. Cures. So one thing that I thought was particularly disturbing. Again, this kind of dates back to early, early American days, early days of our country. One thing that people would try to do for an earache is find what was called a Bessie Bug. Also called a Bessie Bug, also called a Bessie Bug. I've never heard of this. It's a kind of beetle. It's basically one of those real big black beetles that have like the pinchers, the little
Starting point is 00:20:13 things on the end that can bite and they can fly and they're unpleasant looking. So if you can get over that, you just need to grab one when you see it. If you have an earache, I'm assuming don't do this for fun. This is just obviously for medical reference. Not for kicks. You pull it apart and that there is a some sort of yellow second side that can, or there's a second side that can taste like a yellow fluid.
Starting point is 00:20:35 I don't know if this is like a bladder or I have no idea. I don't know if this was anything about bug anatomy. So. If this is a role-playing game, it would be like a, a creta salad that you used to rub on your blade to give it lightning power or something. Well, it's similar. You just squeeze that fluid into your ear.
Starting point is 00:20:50 Same thing, basically. It's impertible. I don't think you get a lightning blade out of it. No. But your earache is supposed to go away. Sure. I would say it probably doesn't. I saw a lot of advertisements for chiropractic readjustment to cure your ear infections.
Starting point is 00:21:07 I don't know, I don't know that I have evidence necessarily for that. I'm not necessarily saying that chiropractic readjustment would be bad for you in that case, but I don't think it would help with your ear infection. It's very enough. And then of course, homeopathy has to weigh in on this. Sure.
Starting point is 00:21:24 Why not? So if you have an ear infection or an earache and you go to homeopathic practitioner, they might suggest that you take some potassium chloride, except they won't tell you that. They'll tell you it's callymuratechum. Muretichum. Muretichum.
Starting point is 00:21:42 OK, sure. And you can use that if you've got like not only a stuffy ear, like a stuffed up, like your ear feels like it's full of fluid or something and some hearing loss, but also if you've got like a runny nose and some big tonsils, they'll tell you like, oh, don't worry, we have some calli myriadicum for you, which really means we put a drop of potassium chloride in some water, which we put then in some water, which was then in some water and blah, blah, blah, blah, until we have like basically some water. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:10 Or you could use myrchurius dulcis, which is just mercury chloride, again, same kind of process, and that's if you have retracted your drum. So it's like the ear drum is like pulled in tight, as opposed to bulging out at you. It's like pushed back Sure So and both of these really are just water. Yeah, they just water yeah One of our favorite friends of the show Well one of our our recurring characters if you will It's plenty the elder sure. No, plenty now plenty
Starting point is 00:22:43 Always delivers when he shows up on softwoods. He always brings the goods with some sort of, I don't wanna say crazy, I'll just send him a door. Yes, definitely, definitely made up. When it comes to ears, Pliny cannot stop talking. Pliny the elder does not have enough to say about ear pain and ear infections and ear problems. He has like a cure for all of them, so let's just, let's really get into this, and this
Starting point is 00:23:12 isn't even all of them by the way. I got to a point where I was like, okay, this is enough. I could do an entire episode on Pliny the Elder and your ear. Yeah, he can't wait to get in there. So one of the things for just ear pain in general that Pliny would recommend is and should I clarify like Pliny was a naturalist from ancient Rome that we we talk about a lot on the show because he wrote about like the natural history of everything all plants and animals in life on earth.
Starting point is 00:23:39 Plus like a he's the only one who thought he probably has more narrary because he's the only one who thought like where all this stuff down. Her bell's just spouted out there but that's true and he wrote it all down It's all out there and he had a cure for everything every condition and Multiple cures for many and the only reason and people to keep asking like do a whole episode on him I don't think that it would be endless episodes It would be episode after episode because he wrote about everything plus we don't want to burn all our plenty of material Well, cuz it's come it's some good stuff.
Starting point is 00:24:05 For instance, for your earache, you could take some mice ash. Should we not? Which again, would involve you first, you know, burning a mouse. Sure, right. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I got it.
Starting point is 00:24:16 How's your day mouse? Pretty bad, huh? Sorry, buddy. I know. I feel really bad for, I am not, by the way, endorsing murdering Nanny mice. Please don't. I'm into it.
Starting point is 00:24:24 Well, Justin doesn't like mice. I am telling you don't kill anemise. These are just funny, like, ha ha, laugh about it, and then move on, don't kill mice. Mice ash with honey or rose oil, whatever you prefer. I mean, there's already mice ash there, so that's the important part.
Starting point is 00:24:39 You could also use a centipede that's pounded into a pomegranate rind. Okay. Sure. I mean sure. Fine. Plenty. Fine. You've got to find the centipede and capture it first though, and that would freak me out. I think some of this is just like, people are so bored. They just needed something to do. Catch a centipede and pound it into a pomegranate rind is what they came up with. That's like, listen, uh, Dar- Darryl, yes, Darryl, yes. I love to come over, but I've got a full day booked. I am hunting down at
Starting point is 00:25:15 bleak. Get this hunting down a centipede to grind it into a pomegranate rind. Or yeah, I read a bed's a new treat better read about that hot magazine stone tablets. And I'm just really excited to get out there and get on the hunt. So I can't come to your daughter's rock throwing residle. But it's endorsed by Plenty, so you know, it's got to be good. He's like, he's like, he's like the doctorals of our time.
Starting point is 00:25:42 Yes, the time before doctoral actually, actually a sucessaire named Drauz was the doctorals of our time. Yes. The time before Dr. Oz actually, actually a sucessaire named Drauz was the Dr. Oz of their time, but they're close. Plenty's close. He's a Dr. Phil of their time. Baby! I don't know. I think that's probably so great.
Starting point is 00:25:55 Oh, okay. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. So let's say you've got some water in your ear. Okay. That's happening before. Just put some goose grease and onion juice in there. Great.
Starting point is 00:26:06 Then you won't care so much about the water. Because now you got the goose grease and the onion juice in your ear. If you get a creature in your ear, as we mentioned last week that poor unfortunate woman on survivor got that worm in her ear, you could put some vinegar and mouse goll in there. Again, with the mice. or a hormonorear, you could put some vinegar and mouse gole in there. Again with the mice. For, yeah, the mice are popular ear treatments. I don't know what that association is. Maybe because of Mickey Mouse in the big ears.
Starting point is 00:26:35 Yeah, no, probably not. For ulcers in your ear, you could mash some earthworms or some red worms into some grease. That's right. If your ear is bruised, you put some salt into the mouth of a preserved lizard. So you like take a lizard, tie it by its tail from a like clothesline and hang it there to dry and then put salt in its mouth and then put that on your ear. Sure.
Starting point is 00:26:56 If your ear is broken, you need some snails with some frankincense or mer or honey. Okay. Do you know? If your ear is smelly, and it is. Sure. Serpent skin with rose oil. Puss in your ear, saffron or a dirty cricket. Not a clean one, a dirty one. Not one of those pre-med proper crickets. And in general, it's a good idea to keep a concoction of dormouse that you have skinned and disemboweled and boiled and honey on hand for any ear complaints. These are all of Plenty's recommendation.
Starting point is 00:27:28 These mice just can't get to break this week. One interesting, before I tell you what you actually need to do about your ears, one kind of interesting side note is something that you may come across called TechTite solution or actually there are some like over-the-counter products that are based on this TechTite solution. So where does this come from? This is something that you could put in your ear for swimmer's ear, is what you'll see it marketed for. TechTite was an underwater habitat
Starting point is 00:27:54 that was built off the coast of the Virgin Islands in 1969. It was like the first federally funded underwater place where people, divers, could go stay to study, obviously like the ecology of coral reefs, but also to study the effects of being underwater for a really long time on humans. So physiology and decompression sickness and that kind of stuff. By the way, this whole thing, this underwater habitat was built in a place called King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Starting point is 00:28:25 Oh, okay. Which is one of my favorite named. Plushies. There's a mall there. King of Prussia mall. Yes, it's like one of the largest malls. It's a big mall. It's still the largest mall, but it's one of the largest.
Starting point is 00:28:34 The largest malls. The largest malls. The largest malls. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the stats on hand. The Bloodhound gang is from King of Prussia.
Starting point is 00:28:44 Okay. So it was Joe Bryeth. There you go. Wow, that's true. Yeah. That's all the facts I know about King of Prussia. Thank you. And also the underwater habitat was built by GE there.
Starting point is 00:28:55 Anyway, the point is a lot of these divers got swimmers ear. And so they had to come up with something to do for all this external ear infection. And they created the solution of acetic acid, tannic acid, and alcohol. And what we've actually found is that acetic acid, I don't know if it's necessarily as good at treating an outer ear infection as antibiotic.
Starting point is 00:29:18 When I started looking until some of the studies, it might take a little longer, and if it's a really serious infection, you're not gonna wanna mess around with acetic acid. But if you put that in your ear, it might actually help prevent, like if you are going to be a diver, somebody who would be at higher risk to get swimmer's ear, it actually might help to prevent ear infections. And there are a lot of products that you can buy that help to keep your ear canals dry
Starting point is 00:29:41 to try to prevent that. And they're based on this text solution. So what do you actually do, Sid? That sounds kind of real, but what do you recommend? So first of all, if you think that you were your child, because you see this a lot of kids have a middle ear infection, and a tightest media, you just go see a doctor, you might need antibiotics.
Starting point is 00:30:02 Not necessarily, though, about 70% of children get better on their own within two or three days and about 80% are better within a week to 10 days. So you don't always need an antibiotic, but you should get checked out because sometimes you do. If you think you have the external ear infection or swimmer's ear, again, it's a good idea to get checked out because a lot of people do need your drops.
Starting point is 00:30:22 So that's when we would use those ear drops. Anabolic ear drops, sometimes steroid. Keep your ears dry. You can keep the water from collecting there like blow them out with a hair dryer after you get out of the pool and that kind of stuff. Keeping your ears dry helps prevent it. And maybe, maybe a seated gasset. Either way you want to talk to a doctor about this stuff and others, all that other stuff, if I haven't said it enough, just go see a doctor like if your ear hurts because they can look in there. Like we have special tools. They're called otoscopes. And we look in your ear and we tell you why hurts. And it's great. Go for it. Doctors, check it out. Thank you to Sydney, Macaroy,
Starting point is 00:30:56 for cohosting this program with me. Thank you, Justin. Thanks to taxpayers. Our daughter, Charlie's awake. So I'm going to go get her in just a second. Okay. Well, let me wrap this up by saying thanks to you for listening. There's a lot more great shows to maximum fun. It work. My name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. And as always don't drill a hole in your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone, Listener Supported.

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