the procedure at all. With claims like a 144 person survey, come on
who does a 144 person survey? Did 6 people get sick prior? Were the
Read the article again. It wasn't a 144 PATIENT survey, it was a survey
of 144 PHYSICIANS -- ear, nose, and throat specialists. The author's
source (cited in the article) is a published study by three other medical
doctors titled "Ear candles--efficacy and safety." The study came to the
conclusion that "ear candles have no benefit in the management of cerumen
[earwax] and may result in serious injury."
Here's a link to the cited study on the National Institutes of Health
website:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8849790&dopt=Abstract
Another link -- Health Canada's "Ear Candling" page, which also cites the
study, and warns of "No Medical Benefits - but Lots of Risks":
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/med/ear-oreille_e.html
Not surprisingly, ear candles are illegal in Canada.
Then the article continues with "at least 14 hurt". What does that
mean-- oh wait a minute the following sentence explains it: "13 cases
of external burns, 7cases of ear canal obstruction with candle wax,
and 1 perforated eardrum." I'm no mathematician, but I thought 13+7+1
equaled 21? Or do they not count ear obstruction as hurt? At least
No. Dr. Dryer's article, quoted again:
"A 1996 survey of 144 ear, nose, and throat physicians, found that 14 had
seen patients who had been harmed by ear candling, including at least 13
cases of external burns, 7 cases of ear canal obstruction with candle wax,
and 1 perforated eardrum [3]."
14 PHYSICIANS had seen these injuries in one or more of their PATIENTS.
People who have been hurt by quack "technicians" mishandling fragile parts
of the body.
It's sounds like that quackwatch article was someone (albeit a doctor)
who is a quack himself. It doesn't even sound like the doctor even had
Herself. The writer is a female physician. I trust her advice -- and the
advice of other medical doctors -- on medical issues. Much more than
shady websites selling "colonic cleansing," or inexplicably angry masseurs
wildly cutting-and-pasting attacks against dentists (?) in place of real
debate.
To the power of the scientific method,
Mark
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