Ear infection or Otitis can be painful and disruptive, affecting people of all ages. Understanding the causes and implementing preventive measures can significantly reduce the risk of developing ear infections. This article explores various strategies to help you avoid frequently occurring ear infections and maintain optimal ear health.
Understanding Ear Infections - Otitis
The ear is one of the most complex parts of our body, and infections can occur in different parts of the ear. Based on the location of the ear infection, we can divide otitis into three types:
Otitis Externa
These infections can spread from one part to another, showing various symptoms, which increases the complexity of the disease.
How to avoid ear infections?
Although there are many types of ear infections, each one could have multiple causes. In this article, we explain how to avoid major causes of ear infections.
Treat Your Common Cold
The common cold is a frequent trigger for middle ear infections (Otitis Media). Addressing a cold promptly can reduce the risk of it leading to ear infections. Here’s how:
Steam Inhalations: Inhaling steam helps clear nasal passages. Note that excessive or intense steam inhalation can do more harm than good. Read our article on steam inhalation to learn how to implement it properly.
Use Nasal Spray: Keeps nasal passages moist and clears the congestion.
Consult a Doctor: Seek medical advice if the infection does not subside within 5 days. If the common cold doesn’t subside within a week, it may indicate that the viral infection is turning into a bacterial infection or triggering sinusitis.
Don’t blow your nose
Never blow your nose when you have a nasal infection like a cold and especially when one nostril is blocked. Blowing your nose in such scenarios creates pressure in your nasopharynx (the back of your nose). This pressure can push infected fluids from the nose into the eustachian tube (auditory tube), which leads to the middle ear.
Thick Fluid Scenario: Thick fluids can block the middle ear, cutting off air supply and resulting in an ear infection.
Thin Fluid Scenario: Thin fluids can enter the middle ear, causing an infection directly.
In both cases, this can lead to Otitis Media, characterized by ear blockage and ear pain.
Managing Sinusitis
Otitis Media, a middle ear infection, is one of the most common side effects of chronic sinusitis. Treating sinusitis can fix the issue and even prevent the complications of sinusitis.
Consult an ENT: Follow professional guidelines to eliminate chronic sinusitis.
Home Remedies: Include steam inhalations, short exercises, a balanced diet, staying hydrated, rinsing using a jal neti pot, and getting adequate sleep.
Allergy Management
Allergies can affect the ears in various ways:
Partially Blocked Eustachian Tubes: Allergies can cause swelling of the mucosa lining in the auditory or eustachian tube, leading to partial blockage. This makes individuals more prone to ear infections or blocked ears, especially during activities involving rapid air pressure changes, such as flying, using high-speed elevators, or diving.
Root Cause of Sinusitis: Allergies can contribute to sinusitis, and chronic untreated sinusitis can lead to Otitis Media, a middle ear infection.
Runny Nose Leading to Middle Ear Infection: Allergies cause the body to overreact, resulting in a runny nose. This mucus can travel from the nasopharynx through the eustachian tube into the middle ear, potentially causing a middle ear infection.
Regular use of allergy medication can help prevent ear infections by managing allergy symptoms effectively.
Avoid Smoking
Smoking damages the respiratory system, including the mucosa lining and cilia, leading to multiple issues. The mucosa lining also runs through the eustachian tube, so inflammation here can cause partial blockage, which can worsen with nasal or throat infections.
Damage to the cilia and mucosa lining in the nose and sinuses can worsen infections, leading to middle ear infections. While smoking doesn’t directly affect the ears, it can contribute to ear infections by worsening respiratory infections.
Avoiding both passive and active smoking can improve your overall health and reduce the risk of ear infections.
Eat candy while on a flight to avoid blocked ears
Over a decade ago, flight attendants would hand out candies after boarding and before takeoff. This practice had an important medical reason behind it.
During takeoff and landing, sudden altitude changes result in quick air pressure changes. Our middle ear needs to maintain equal air pressure with the external environment. If the eustachian tube is partially blocked, you might experience blocked ears and an increased risk of middle ear infection.
To help equalize air pressure, follow these tips:
Gulp your saliva
Keep drinking some drink or water
Suck on a lollipop or candy
Use earbuds, no need to go for fancy ones, just cotton balls dipped in petroleum jelly will do.
Blocked ear can occur when:
Flights
Traveling on high-speed elevators
Bungee jumping
Skydiving
Diving into water
All these activities cause rapid changes in air pressure due to quick altitude changes.
If the eardrum is thin, it can even burst, especially if there is a perforation that is healing. For such people, it is better to avoid the above-mentioned activities altogether.
Treat your child’s adenoids
Enlarged adenoids are a common cause of ear infections in kids. When adenoids become enlarged, they can block the eustachian tube opening, leading to middle ear infections.
If your children have issues with enlarged adenoids, it's important to get them treated to prevent frequent ear infections.
Maintain your immunity
Maintain your immunity by getting adequate sleep, eating a balanced diet, and staying hydrated. A weakened immune system makes you susceptible to infections, not just ear infections, but any type of infection.
Avoid water from entering ear
Prevent water from entering your ears by using earplugs while swimming and avoiding submerging your head in water.
While swimming, the chemicals in the water can cause an ear infection called swimmer’s ear.
Water in the ear can make the external skin fragile, and any physical trauma to it can trigger otitis externa.
Never put oil in your ear
Never put oil into your ear. Oil can act as food for fungus and cause fungal ear infection in external ear called Otomycosis or Fungal Otitis Externa.
Avoid cleaning your ear canal
Do not clean your ear canal with external objects like cotton ear buds can cause trauma or a scar on the skin of the ear canal. The trauma will bring down the local immunity of the ear canal down and makes it easy for bacterial and fungal ear infections to start.
The trauma is even worse if the skin is wet, so never use earbuds to clean your ear canal after a shower.
Conclusion
Maintaining good ear health is essential to prevent infections. By following these tips, you can keep your ears safe and avoid common causes of ear infections.
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