How To Do Just About Everything
By eHow Sports & Fitness Editor
Keep your ears clean so you don't develope swimmer's ear
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Has your daily backstroke left bacteria swimming in your ear? Swimmer's ear, a bacterial or fungal infection of the outer ear canal, causes painful, swollen or itchy ears or redness in the ear area. Other symptoms include mild hearing loss or a milky discharge.
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Comments
jimaird said
on 1/7/2007 Add the treatment with vinegar to the list, it is much more effective for treatment. Alcohol is the best daily preventative. Also the truest dianosis of "swimmer's ear" is the tug test. Pull gently on the ear lobe, if its painful, put the vinegar in 3-5 x/day until symptoms are gone (2-5 days).
Anonymous said
on 9/5/2006 Sometimes you can get headaches from getting too much sun. Go into the shade with a fan and lay down.
Anonymous said
on 8/1/2006 The key to not getting swimmer's ear is to know how to properly clear your ears each time you leave the water.
It's a 2 step process, that needs to be done in this order:
1) Bend your head and body forward, so that you are standing and you are facing your knees
2) Come up until your head is now facing the floor and turn you head to just one side, so that your ear is facing the floor. Pump your upper body a couple times up and down.
Before repeating for the other side, stand back completely erect. You may have to repeat this 2-3 times to get the water out.
If that doesn't work and you still feel water in there .. a couple drops of isopropyl alcohol will do the trick .. but do this right away before the ear canal gets irritated and inflamed.
Anonymous said
on 7/31/2006 Growing up in Arizona, we swam constantly. We used a mix of half white vinegar and half rubbing alcohol. The vinegar is a natural way to kill bacteria and the alcohol dries out the excess water. This works much better than alcohol alone or a water/alcohol combination. It is great for both treatment and prevention of swimmers ear. My doctor recently tried to prescribe anti-bacterial ear drops for treatment that would have cost almost $100.00! What a waste of money. This remedy costs less than $1.00 for a years supply.
Anonymous said
on 7/24/2006 I swim a lot, and I have found that whenever I do flips, I usually get water in my ears. I hate putting ear drops in my ears, so I found a different way to get them out. Either you can bend over and come back up until the water loosens and drips out, our you jump up in the pool and land hard on both heels or jump on the foot on the side that the water is in while tilting your head over.