Cleaning out your ears easily and safely

Cleaning out earwax can be a problem, especially if you're using an unsafe way like a Q-tip. These ways of cleaning your ears will save you the trip to the doctor as you flush them out at home.

In the United States, when they clean out a patient's ears, general practitioners get to bill an insurance company (or the patient) for a separate service, since cleaning out earwax is actually considered a surgical procedure.

• Maybe that's why US physicians clear impacted wax, or cerumen, from an estimated 150,000 ears each week!
• In Canada, the procedure is usually free, covered by government health insurance. But why go to any trouble when you can do it yourself?

1. Mix 15 millilitres (one tablespoon) hydrogen peroxide with 125 millilitres (1⁄2cup) warm water.
2. Fill an ear bulb syringe (like the blue things you use to clear an infant's nose) with the mixture, tilt your head sideways and release the solution at the opening to your ear (don't stick the dropper tip into the ear).
3. You'll hear and feel bubbling, but don't worry. Those bubbles help loosen the earwax so it can make its way to the surface for removal.
4. Then, after a few seconds or when the bubbling stops, turn your head the other way to drain the ear.

For extensive earwax, get the over-the-counter wax softener. Fill the canal of the ear with several drops and plug with a cotton ball before going to sleep. In the morning, remove the cotton, shower and wash your hair. This usually rinses out all but the most severe plugs.

If you have a doctor who recommends herbal supplements as part of a healthy life, good for you. But it's a rare doctor who's going to recommend ginkgo biloba for your hearing.

• Yet several European studies find that the herb improves hearing, even restoring hearing suddenly lost.
• One study compared it to the drug pentoxifylline, used to increase blood flow in cases of sudden hearing loss, and found the herb worked better than the drug!

Recommended doses vary, so check with your doctor first, especially about interactions with other meds you might be taking.

• Take between 12 and 120 milligrams twice a day, depending on the extent of your hearing loss.