Why is earwax wet?

If there is too much earwax in the ear canal and it is not cleaned in time, it will slowly affect our hearing and needs to be cleaned in time. If wet earwax appears and no water enters the ear canal, it may be due to genetic secretion. Friends with wet earwax should clean the ear canal regularly.

"Wet earwax" is often called "loose earwax" or "oily ears". Some people have very much secretion from the cerumen and sebaceous glands, and the secretion is a brown, oily and sticky substance that accumulates in the outer part of the eye before it dries. Some even flow out of the ear, and some condense into clumps. These are collectively called soft earwax, commonly known as "oily ears", and medically called oily cerumen.

1. For most people, ear canal secretions are dry and become scaly, slightly yellowish scabs, which are called "dry earwax". A few people have secretions that are always oily or paste-like, sticky, and dark brown in color. The occurrence of "oily ears" is related to race and ethnicity. The earwax of East Asians, including China, Japan and South Korea, is mostly dry. 97% of Africans, Europeans, and North Americans have wet earwax, while the same is true for half of South Asians. The Native Americans, like the East Asians, are probably migrating from East Asia across the Bailing Strait to America.

2. The study also found that people with wet earwax are more likely to sweat and tend to have body odor, especially under the armpits. This is also the main reason for the development of the perfume industry in Europe, which is determined by the earwax gene. East Asians may have been cold, and their bodies protected themselves by sweating less, even drying their earwax, and eventually their genes changed. On the other hand, it is not clear whether we can indirectly understand whether a person has body odor by looking at the wetness or dryness of his earwax.

3. There is also a saying that people with “oily ears” have body odor. So what is the relationship between “oily ears” and “body odor”? This is because most patients with bromhidrosis have oily ears. Although this is not absolute, if there is a family history of bromhidrosis, oily earwax appears at a young age, and other organic lesions in the ear canal can be ruled out, then you need to be alert to the possibility of bromhidrosis.