Medical herbalist Nicola Parker details how ear candles can help clear the body’s airways

Getting a summer cold this year can be a scary experience, as Nicola found out recently.
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Waking up one morning I found myself with an itchy, irritated nose. My eyes felt puffy and watery, but otherwise I was completely well. Unusual, I thought, given that I’m not usually prone to hayfever symptoms. So I went to bed with a runny nose, a box of tissues and some antihistamine herbs, assuming all would be well by the next day. How wrong I was!

The morning after, a drippy nose had turned into sinus congestion, an inability to smell anything and coloured mucous, indicating an infection. Naturally the first thing I did was organise a test for Covid-19. My clinic was reopening in a couple of days and there was no way I was leaving the house to put other people at risk! Fortunately, booking a test was easy and I was tested that very day with my negative result being confirmed in less than 24 hours. What a relief!

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Now that I could put that worry aside, I could get to work on managing what was a harmless, but quite aggressive sinus infection. As a herbalist, I come across so many of these, that I feel like an old hat when it comes to managing them.

Ear candles work by drawing wax from the earEar candles work by drawing wax from the ear
Ear candles work by drawing wax from the ear

Grabbing the ginger, I throw it in a mug with hot water, lemon and honey. The heat in ginger thins mucous to clear out the airways. It really helps with that suffocating feeling that occurs when you can’t breathe through your nose.

My other go-to herb is goldenseal, an antimicrobial to clear off infections but also heal and soothe the inflamed tissues. While ginger is great for that immediate relief needed for when you simply can’t breathe, goldenseal can helps long term. It’s a bitter-tasting herb that many find unpleasant to take but the powerful effects make the bitterness well worthwhile.

Using goldenseal, I was able to shorten the length of what turned out to be a very aggressive sinus infection, to less than five days. Prior to my herbal career, a sinus cold would have lingered for a good couple of weeks, so getting it down to five days felt like a blink of an eye.

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The problem I had this time, is that the symptoms were so intense. I was grateful to goldenseal for doing its work to speed up my recovery, but the ginger just wasn’t doing the trick. I tried upgrading my spices to something hotter, pulling out the chilli, hot sauce and cayenne pepper. While I did succeed in burning my mouth, the congestion was stubborn and any relief I found was fleeting.

Medical herbalist Nicola ParkerMedical herbalist Nicola Parker
Medical herbalist Nicola Parker

After a couple of days of feeling unable to breathe, I contacted a friend and asked them to bring me some ear candles. Ear candles work by drawing wax from the ear and are usually used for blocked ears rather than sinus congestion. Since the ear nose and sinus area are all connected and my usual spices weren’t working, I was willing to try anything.

I laid down, next to my box of tissues, feeling sorry for myself as tube of the candle was placed in my ear. It is a very gentle process and it can be really relaxing. I can hear soft crackles as the air works it’s way up the tube, drawing out soft wax . I can’t feel this happening, since the process is so gentle, but what I do notice is my airways suddenly clearing. First one nostril clears, then after another five minutes or so, the other one clears as well. I can breathe! At the risk of sounding dramatic, I could have swept with relief.

Nervous the relief would be short-lived, I enjoyed my clear airways to their fullest while I could, but once the ear candles were done, I stayed clear for the rest of the day. I still found myself blowing my nose and feeling snotty, but the suffocating feeling was gone.

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Hopefully, I won’t get another sinus infection for quite some time, but for when I do, I’ll have some ear candles in my medicine cabinet, alongside my trusty goldenseal.

For more information or to book a virtual appointment, contact Nicola on 01524 413733.

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