Australian Medical Activists Call Upon Pharmacists to Stop Selling Ear Candles

by Gopalan on  March 11, 2009 at 10:53 AM Alternative Medicine News
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 Australian Medical Activists Call Upon Pharmacists to Stop Selling Ear Candles
Australian medical activists have called upon pharmacists to stop selling ear candles and other products of dubious therapeutic value.

Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is an alternative medicine practice claimed to improve general health and well-being by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear canal. According to medical researchers, it is both dangerous and ineffective. Claims that the practice removes earwax have been thoroughly debunked.

Ear candles don't and can never work in removing wax, studies have shown. Besides they can be dangerous too.

Experts say that for most people, the wax in their ears is not a problem. A good ear is like a good oven -- and performs its own self-cleaning. So the best advice for most people is to just leave your ears alone. All the same ear candles are popular.

In an open letter to pharmacists, the Australian Skeptics have said, “There are reports of serious injuries from them including temporary hearing loss, burns, ear canals blocked by dripping wax and punctured ear drums.1 Health Canada has banned them in Canada.2

The Australian Skeptics is a non-profit organisation that investigates paranormal and pseudoscientific claims using scientific methodologies.

Even the first professor of alternative and complementary medicine at Exeter University, Edzard Ernst, called for them to be banned.3 Despite this, many Australian pharmacies are selling them, their letter states.

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