Ear bone's connected to the throat bone?
July 8, 2018 4:19 PM Subscribe
I've been having nightmarish hayfever and been super stopped up. I cleaned my ears using peroxide and olive oil and ended up with a terrible sore, scratchy, tickly throat and phlegmy cough! What gives?
I know my Eustachian tubes connect my ears and throat but I figured the cleaning wouldn't be deep enough to get in there. My ears are clean and don't hurt, and besides my ongoing hayfever symptoms (runny nose and eyes), I feel fine. I don't have a history of ear infections but I do have the thicker type of ear wax. I didn't do any q-tipping or introduce anything into the ear.
Might I have pushed some allergens from my ear into my throat, and that's triggered a bout of throat allergy/cough? Or perhaps I'm having an allergic response to the peroxide? Or I've just opened up another channel by which pollen can sneak into my hypersensitive body? I've cleaned my ears this way before and don't recall this reaction, but I've never done it when I had such bad hayfever. Seems far too immediate an effect to be coincidence. Any thoughts?
I know my Eustachian tubes connect my ears and throat but I figured the cleaning wouldn't be deep enough to get in there. My ears are clean and don't hurt, and besides my ongoing hayfever symptoms (runny nose and eyes), I feel fine. I don't have a history of ear infections but I do have the thicker type of ear wax. I didn't do any q-tipping or introduce anything into the ear.
Might I have pushed some allergens from my ear into my throat, and that's triggered a bout of throat allergy/cough? Or perhaps I'm having an allergic response to the peroxide? Or I've just opened up another channel by which pollen can sneak into my hypersensitive body? I've cleaned my ears this way before and don't recall this reaction, but I've never done it when I had such bad hayfever. Seems far too immediate an effect to be coincidence. Any thoughts?
I doubt it’s caused by the cleaning; rather I’d guess the sore throat and your wish to ear-clean are both caused by the same thing: bad hay fever.
Gargling with salt water, using a neti pot, and keeping up with your choice o antihistamine and decongestant will probably help with the sore throat too.
posted by nat at 4:40 PM on July 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Gargling with salt water, using a neti pot, and keeping up with your choice o antihistamine and decongestant will probably help with the sore throat too.
posted by nat at 4:40 PM on July 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I’m an audiologist but not yours.
So, it’s possible that some of the peroxide could have passed the ear drum and gone down your Eustachian tube and into your throat- the reverse of this is essentially what happens when people have fluid that comes out of their ears when you have an ear infection. It’s possible that there was bacteria or allergens there that then were taken to your throat.
That said, I think that’s really unlikey and I think the timing is a coincidence. It almost always happens in the reverse way, that a UTI is transferred to the middle ear via bacteria and phlegm moving into the middle ear space and resulting in an ear infection secondary to UTI. It would be unusual to have an ear infection that moved downward and a secondary UTI, particularly if you weren’t having ear infection symptoms.
For the record, olive oil and peroxide are not likely to be dangerous for your ears, though unless you have chronic occluding wax and have been directed to do so by your doctor, cleaning your ears is not really necessary or recommended.
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:41 PM on July 8, 2018 [7 favorites]
So, it’s possible that some of the peroxide could have passed the ear drum and gone down your Eustachian tube and into your throat- the reverse of this is essentially what happens when people have fluid that comes out of their ears when you have an ear infection. It’s possible that there was bacteria or allergens there that then were taken to your throat.
That said, I think that’s really unlikey and I think the timing is a coincidence. It almost always happens in the reverse way, that a UTI is transferred to the middle ear via bacteria and phlegm moving into the middle ear space and resulting in an ear infection secondary to UTI. It would be unusual to have an ear infection that moved downward and a secondary UTI, particularly if you weren’t having ear infection symptoms.
For the record, olive oil and peroxide are not likely to be dangerous for your ears, though unless you have chronic occluding wax and have been directed to do so by your doctor, cleaning your ears is not really necessary or recommended.
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:41 PM on July 8, 2018 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: Right! Definitely didn't perforate an ear drum or have tubes put in. But might some teeny pollen have weasled its way past the ear drum? Or the peroxide somehow osmosed? I believe I do have an allergic sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide, as the cleaning wipes we use at work are hydrogen peroxide and if I put my elbows on a freshly wiped surface, I get a bit of a rash.
posted by stillmoving at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2018
posted by stillmoving at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2018
Response by poster: Ah, typed that before seeing Lutoslawski's response! I have been directed by my GP to wash my ears in this way periodically. My wax gets quite impacted and affects my hearing.
posted by stillmoving at 4:43 PM on July 8, 2018
posted by stillmoving at 4:43 PM on July 8, 2018
Good, peroxide does beat the suction machine. You could ask your gp about this but I do think it was probably just funny timing!
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:49 PM on July 8, 2018
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:49 PM on July 8, 2018
Oh my god folks I wrote UTI above but obviously meant URI. It’s been a day. For the record I do not believe there is any evidence of connections between infections of the ear and the urinary tract.
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:51 PM on July 8, 2018 [51 favorites]
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:51 PM on July 8, 2018 [51 favorites]
I have weird sinuses and this seems to kind of describe what happens to me at times when I've been very stopped up and something--sometimes weird somethings--has caused my sinuses to suddenly re-open, and then suddenly I have drainage and the drainage makes for sore throats and coughing. I don't think it's ever been something to do with my ears exactly, but it wouldn't even surprise me if something you were doing as a part of this, like the tilting your head, changed something just enough.
posted by Sequence at 6:22 PM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Sequence at 6:22 PM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have some kind of permanent passage between my left middle ear and external ear canal.
But it's not wide open; a few weeks ago I tried to pop my ears and ended up forcing stuff from my nasal passages painfully up my left Eustachian tube, and it came out my ear the next day. That only happens once every few years, though.
I think you may have something similar, and I'd go so far as to speculate that your very heavy earwax could be acting as a kind of caulk for the hole.
The Wikipedia article I linked seems to imply that the middle ear can generate mucus of its own (as witness 'glue ear'), and mentions that Eustachian tubes are lined with cilia that can sweep such mucus down into the 'nasopharyngeal cavity', so I would guess the olive oil and peroxide got into your middle ear, the olive oil caused mucus to be generated, and the whole mess was swept down into your throat by the Eustachian tube cilia.
But it would be surprising if both ears had such holes unless it was congenital, so if one ear has significantly more earwax than the other, that's where I'd look for a hole.
posted by jamjam at 6:44 PM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
But it's not wide open; a few weeks ago I tried to pop my ears and ended up forcing stuff from my nasal passages painfully up my left Eustachian tube, and it came out my ear the next day. That only happens once every few years, though.
I think you may have something similar, and I'd go so far as to speculate that your very heavy earwax could be acting as a kind of caulk for the hole.
The Wikipedia article I linked seems to imply that the middle ear can generate mucus of its own (as witness 'glue ear'), and mentions that Eustachian tubes are lined with cilia that can sweep such mucus down into the 'nasopharyngeal cavity', so I would guess the olive oil and peroxide got into your middle ear, the olive oil caused mucus to be generated, and the whole mess was swept down into your throat by the Eustachian tube cilia.
But it would be surprising if both ears had such holes unless it was congenital, so if one ear has significantly more earwax than the other, that's where I'd look for a hole.
posted by jamjam at 6:44 PM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, Lutoslawski. I'm a midwife, so I figured you meant URI! No eustachian-ureter connections that I'm aware of, either :) But I suppose since discovering my potential topical hydrogen peroxide sensitivity, perhaps better to monitor future ear use!
posted by stillmoving at 11:14 PM on July 8, 2018
posted by stillmoving at 11:14 PM on July 8, 2018
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