Ear wax could hold key to how glands work

Scientists in Japan have accidentally found the gene responsible for ear wax and say it may have links to some limb or gland conditions.

They were trying to help a woman with uncontrollable limb movements when they stumbled across the gene.

The gene responsible for the condition is on the same part of the chromosome as the ear wax gene.

The woman and a number of relatives with the same condition had a wet form of earwax which is rare among Asian people.

Scientists say the discovery could shed more light on how the body's apocrine glands work. The glands are found in the ear, armpit and breast.

The study was carried out by Hiroaki Tomita, formerly of the Nagasaki University School of Medicine, during his study into paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis.

He said the key is that there are two types of ear wax. One is wet and common in people of European and African descent while the other is dry and more common among Asian and native American peoples.

Well, I never thought I would see a story about ear wax on FR, but one never knows what may pop up here...

Now about ear wax...does anyone here have a problem with their ear wax not draining?

I had not been married for very long, when my husband said he was going to the doctor to have his ears cleaned out...now I laughed, because having someone else clean out your ear wax, was something I had associated only with my dogs....we cleaned their ears out...

But my husband said, that he had unusually dry ear wax, and it did not drain properly, and then would build up in his ear and actually impair his hearing

I honestly had never heard of this before, and I really thought the doctor would laugh at him...

But when he came home, he said that the doctor had this big high pressurized syringe, filled with warm water, and he shot it into my husbands ears, and big rock-hard pieces of wax fell out into a bowl...apparently the doctor knew just what to do...

So every once in a while, my husband goes to the doctor to have his ears cleaned out...

Now, sometimes the hubby seems not to hear me talking..and I have to wonder, do his ears need cleaing, or is he just ignoring me?

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