Tips for dealing with Epsom salt in your ear – DSP 08

In this episode of the Daily Solutions Podcast, Graham and Ashkahn discuss what to do if you experience salt in your ear after your float. The Ol’ Salty Ear is common, uncomfortable, but ultimately avoidable by using things like vinegar and hydrogen peroxide mixed with water.

To learn more, take a listen (or read text from their conversation below).

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Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Alright, and today’s question is actually more of a question from the floater side of things, and if you’re a float center owner, then this is something you get all the time, which is, “I feel like I have salt water stuck in my ears.” “It’s a day after the float, how do I get it out?”

Ashkahn: So, first of all, one thing we have in our float rooms is just little bottles of distilled white vinegar. Usually do like a half-half mixture, half water, half distilled white vinegar. I’ve also seen places use alcohol.

Graham: Yeah, rubbing alcohol?

Ashkahn: Rubbing alcohol.

Graham: Not like green alcohol.

Ashkahn: Just pure vodka. But basically that is just a solution that you can put into your ears, kind of like those swimmer’s ears solutions that they make, that helps evaporate that salt water out, break it up, dissolve the salt, and flush the water out. So, that’s kind of a nice precautionary step. Having that in your rooms, available to people so that they can flush their ears out after their floats is going to reduce the number of times this happens to people in the first place.

Graham: I will say, I think they work better than just trying to rinse your ears out with water from the shower, for example, which I have tried doing just that and not using ear drops. Sometimes it’s fine, and then other times I do get that weird kind of crinkly, salty, the old salt ear.

Ashkahn: The old salty ear, yeah. It’s not very pleasant.

Graham: No it’s not. I guess for those of you who haven’t experienced it, first of all, you probably should just go into a float tank and don’t wash your ears out afterwards, and wait a day later.

Ashkahn: No don’t, you don’t want to have to live through that.

Graham: Okay, don’t do that, but if you did do it, what you would experience is kind of crunchiness, and I even find a squeakiness. Like, I’ll turn my neck and my ears squeak, which is a weird phenomenon, and it can actually be kind of painful as well.

Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s uncomfortable for sure.

Graham: Fortunately the exact same thing works as a precautionary measure, works for eliminating it too, so actually just putting some white vinegar, or alcohol into your ear afterwards will alleviate it, in my experience, in a matter of seconds. You get maybe 10 drops of white vinegar into your ear, and almost immediately that salty ear is kind of disappeared, and the crinkliness is gone, and you kind of drain it into a paper towel or whatever it is, and you’re set.

Ashkahn: I’ve also heard of, I’ve never tried this, using hydrogen peroxide. Like the 3% peroxide from the store. Have you tried that?

Graham: I haven’t, and this is where an actual scientist and myself probably diverge down different paths. But, I have heard that hydrogen peroxide is very good at eating away at organic material, and that in general, even for wounds and things like that, it’s probably better to use alcohol than hydrogen peroxide, just for it kind of going after your body a little bit more.

I personally would be a little nervous, and that is my completely uneducated non-medical opinion on that. But no, I haven’t tried it personally either.

Ashkahn: So, sometimes none of that stuff works for people, right? I’ve definitely gotten reports of that, like they tried all that stuff and it didn’t happen. Another of our co-founders just had crazy water in his ear for about a week.

Graham: For a week?

Ashkahn: After floating.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: I’m not sure what to do, other than wait it out, like it will go away, I mean I’ve had points where I’ve had it for a few days, and it will naturally end eventually, which is nice. But other than vigorously shaking your head, kind of like punching that side of your head with your ear, to kind of hammer it out of your ear, you know?

Graham: [inaudible 00:03:32] … is a medical professional, so that’s very apt medical advice right there.

Ashkahn: Yeah, the punching side of your head part is definitely what I would recommend to everybody.

Graham: Thank you Dr. Kahn.

Ashkahn: Why is there other techniques for this?

Graham: No, and I mean I think to be honest, that, that’s much more like actual swimmer’s ear, right?  At that point, it’s not the problem. The problem isn’t that there’s salt water, and salt crystallizing in the front of your ear, it’s that there’s actually water trapped somewhere a little bit deeper. So that’s much more common, and you’ll find it in regular swimming pools, not just float tanks as well.

Then, that will of course happen sometimes here. In Quinn’s case, it happened to be a lot of ear wax. I don’t know if I should say that on the air, I’m like, “Quinn has a lot of ear wax.” But it was, and eventually that ear wax just came loose and came out, and it was totally fine, and he was good again. So that’s how you deal with it.

Anything else to add?

Ashkahn: I don’t know, it just kind of sucks.

Graham: Get yourself some ice cream afterwards, you know?  Give yourself a treat.

Ashkahn: Every once in awhile, unfortunately it does kind of ruin people’s experience, I’ve had people tell me, they had a great float, but then this happened to them, and for like three or four days afterwards they were dealing with it, and they’re just not going to come back and float because of it. That part of it is unfortunate.

Graham: Yeah, putting things like that in your walkthrough speech are really good, just to prime people, “Hey, if you do have water in your ears afterwards, first of all, use these vinegar ear drops immediately after, and also if it happens, if it persists for days, that’s a cure for it.

Similarly, if you do have auto emails to go out right after someone’s float, putting in their, that this is a way to take care of salty ear, if they happen to experience it is great, and Ashkahn, we actually have some posts of literature. We call it our ongoing guide to floating, and that has a little mention of, if you have this kind of salt gathering in your ear, what to do about it afterwards.  That can again totally stop someone from having a completely miserable experience, just by letting them know how to deal with this problem swiftly rather than thinking it’s something they need to suffer through.

Ashkahn: Okay, well that’s been some Ear Tech, coming straight at you from the old Daily Solutions Podcast.

Graham: In your ears from our mouths.

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