Ear Candles
You wouldn’t think there would be any need to warn people against shoving lighted candles down their loved ones’ ears to flush out earwax, even in edgy L.A. But people do it, even purchasing special “ear candles” to do so more easily. If you’re thinking about doing it yourself, you should reconsider, advises Dr. Dan Seely.
The remedy surely sounds scientific. First, insert a wax-soaked, cone-shaped piece of cloth up your ear. Next, light the outside end. As the “candle” burns, it creates a vacuum that sucks air--and earwax, supposedly--out of the ear. It’s physics!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, says Seely, of the Bellevue Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic in Washington state. He and his colleagues built a model ear and used high-tech sensors to test whether ear candles created vacuums in it. They didn’t.
What’s more, chemical analysis of the brown wax deposited in the stub of the candle when it’s used in real ears (which users assume is their earwax) revealed that it’s nothing but candle wax.
Since ear-candling can even add wax to the ear, and sometimes burn it, the practice is best avoided, says Seely.
Napping for Success
Bosses ahoy: Here’s the perfect yuletide gift for your hard-working peons: an Executive Napping Kit. The kit comes with a down “productivity pillow,” a pillowcase available in such tasteful hues as “alpine” and “hydrangea,” and a book titled “The Art of Napping.”
The Company Store, a mail-order business that is marketing the kit, reckons that this is an idea whose time has come. David Pipkorn, company spokesman, points to surveys that suggest that a staggering 60 million Americans may be getting less sleep than they need. Sleepy workers are less productive, he notes, and more likely to cause accidents. While a few companies have endorsed the idea of “controlled naps” on the job, what will your boss say? With that in mind, the kit comes with a smart, business-like attache case, into which pillow, pillowcase and book fit snugly. “Your boss,” whispers Pipkorn, “will never know.”
Holiday Stats
From the November/December issue of Health magazine come the following cheering stats for us as the festive season draws near:
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the average American stands to gain 6 pounds. And no wonder. Once you’ve chomped your way through a typical festive platter--pie with cream, turkey and all the trimmings--you’ve packed away 1,530 calories. Pretty impressive since the average woman needs only 2,000 calories daily to sustain her weight.
Weight isn’t the only thing spiraling upward. So is stress. In 1967, women rated the stress of Christmas as 12, out of a maximum score of 100. Today, they give it a score of 56. More, even, than foreclosure on a loan.