Earwax Reveals Hidden Health Problems
Earwax already warns of Alzheimer’s and cancer, and scientists are now finding even more diseases
Usually, none of us want to see or talk about earwax, but it’s attracting more and more attention from scientists to uncover the secret warning signs for cancer, heart disease, and metabolic disorders such as diabetes.
How Earwax is Formed
The name earwax is more of a nickname for its true name of cerumen, which is produced from two different types of glands and mixed with hair, skin and more, to create the ‘wax’ we all know.
A biological conveyer belt helps it to reach the outside of the ear by clinging to skin cells as they move at the speed of a lethargic snail travelling one 20th of a millimetre each day.
The purpose of earwax has been debated between keeping the ear canal clean and lubricated, and ensuring bacteria, insects, etc. don’t enter our bodies.
It’s been relatively overlooked, until now, thanks to researchers allocating enough time to find a variety of discoveries, from merely interesting, to critical, and everything in between.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Earwax can be more useful than blood, urine, sweat, and tears because it moves so slowly; the ‘turnover’ is much slower.
This means there’s a higher concentration of dangerous substances to warn of major health conditions.
Earwax is also full of useful Lipids for diagnosing diseases, but they don’t like water, so there aren’t as many in blood. Meaning, you don’t get the full picture from a blood analysis like you would from earwax. And lipids change first, allowing for a much earlier diagnosis.
Colour, Consistency & Armpits
Most people know earwax to be yellow, orange or brown and reasonably sticky. However, more samples have shown that in East Asia, it’s more likely to be grey and dry.
This is thanks to a gene that also controls armpit odour, meaning those with the same gene are reaching for an antiperspirant far less often.
With the merely interesting fact out of the way, let’s talk about the more serious side of wax.
Breast Cancer
In 1971, a study found that Caucasian, African-American and German women with wet earwax were 4x more likely to die from breast cancer than Japanese and Taiwanese women with dry earwax.
Sure, that doesn’t sound particularly scientific, however, in 2010, researchers took blood samples from 270 women with breast cancer and 273 without. They found that 77% of the women with cancer were found to have genes that produce wet earwax.
This currently remains controversial as other studies have found no correlation at all between these genes and cancer, but they have struggled to find enough participants with dry earwax.
Maple Syrup Urine Disease
A rare genetic disorder can stop amino acids (from protein) being broken down from food, resulting in a build-up of harmful substances leading to sweet-smelling urine.
Earwax can also detect this disease usually found in babies, rather than adults. It can be life-threatening though, so tests take place just 5 days after birth.
It does mean that a sweet smell from earwax just 12 hours after birth can give it away more easily than a blood test, but this will be performed anyway.
Ménière’s Disease
We’ve spoken about Ménière’s disease in another article—Can Your Diet Affect Tinnitus?—where reducing salt could help symptoms, but it turns out that earwax can be very helpful to detect the disease in the first place.
Ménière’s disease can be fairly severe where sufferers experience nausea and vertigo to such an extent that they are unable to venture from their home on their own.
Frustratingly, diagnosis usually involves ruling everything else out first, which could take years. However, recent studies have reliably found lower levels of fatty acids in earwax, meaning that it could be used to diagnose the condition in the near future.
Other Illnesses
More research needs to take place for earwax to be a reliable source for the following illnesses, but strong evidence exists to suggest that there may be a correlation.
- Covid
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
The Amazing Future of Earwax
A new tool is being used to diagnose illnesses—called Cerumenogram—to initially help with he diagnosis of cancer.
Incredibly, the new tool can already detect cancer with 100% accuracy based on 27 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) commonly found in cancer patients.
Even better, out of those 27 VOCs, the tool successfully predicted the arrival of cancer when focused on a select few that are formed in the early stages. This is where disruptions are taking place before malignant cells are formed, effectively making it an early warning system.
The test was only performed on a small sample size of 102 patients, but the future is very bright.
The Amaral Carvalho Hospital in Brazil has already started using the Cerumenogram to diagnose cancer.
The device looks likely to also be used for diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other health conditions.
