What to do if you have an ear infection?

Many people often fail to clean out the water in their ears when taking a bath, or their ears become easily inflamed due to other reasons. In this case, you must avoid otitis media, make a timely diagnosis, strengthen ear cleaning, and pay attention to ear care at ordinary times.

Otitis media, commonly known as "rotten ears", is an inflammation of the tympanic cavity mucosa. When germs enter the tympanic cavity, inflammation occurs when the body's resistance is weakened or bacterial toxins increase. Its symptoms include ear pain (worse at night), fever, chills, bitter taste in the mouth, red or yellow urine, constipation, hearing loss, etc. If the eardrum is perforated, pus will flow out of the ear and the pain will be relieved, which often exists at the same time as chronic mastoiditis. If the acute stage is not treated thoroughly, it will turn into chronic otitis media. Depending on the physical condition and climate changes, pus will often flow out of the ear, sometimes more, sometimes less, and last for many years. Traditional Chinese medicine calls this disease "ear pus" or "ear scurvy", and believes that it is caused by the prevalence of damp-heat (fire) evil qi in the liver and gallbladder.

1. Key points of self-treatment

1. Actively treat nasopharyngeal diseases to prevent bacteria from entering the middle ear and causing inflammation.

2. Do not blow your nose forcefully or rinse your nasal cavity casually. Do not close both nostrils at the same time. Blow your nose crosswise.

3. When digging out the earwax at the bottom, you should be very careful and moisten it first before digging to avoid damaging the eardrum.

4. After swimming ashore, tilt your head and hop on one foot to let the water in your ears flow out. It is best to use a cotton swab to absorb the moisture.

5. Pay attention to rest during the acute phase and keep the nasal cavity open.

6. People with chronic otitis media should not swim.

7. Strengthen physical exercise, improve physical fitness and reduce colds.

8. Avoid spicy and irritating foods, such as ginger, pepper, wine, mutton, chili, etc.

9. Do not take hot tonic medicines, such as ginseng, cinnamon, aconite, deer antler, bullwhip, and tonic paste.

10. Eat more fresh vegetables that have the effect of clearing heat and reducing inflammation, such as celery, loofah, eggplant, shepherd's purse, basil, cucumber, bitter gourd, etc.

11. If a small insect enters the ear canal, do not be impatient and try to catch it forcefully. Instead, drop some cooking oil into the ear to kill the insect and then catch it.