Any tips on how to deal with ear infections?

[Cepzeu]

Please don't take medical advice from an online forum. It is likely that you just have a buildup of fluid in the middle ear because of your viral illness. antibiotics wont help it unless it gets infected with bacteria. Stop trying to pop it, it will resolve in time. 

Also who told you that you got influenza? You could have a myriad of other things. I don't think they routinely swab for it unless you live in the US.

 

[Cepzeu]

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Prescription antibiotics are awful. Avoid at all costs unless it's a last resort.

Always try natural antibiotics first.

This is dangerous advice and I would not be commenting on medical treatment prescribed by a doctor for someone you have not seen in person or examined Leo. If an antibiotic is indicated for use (whether it is in this case or not is unknown) it should be started promptly as bacterial infections can erode non-regenerating tissues and lead to irreversible damage or sepsis.  

I appreciate that you have your own medical history and also live in the US which makes you weary of traditional doctors but I would be careful using your position of authority on this forum as it may cause harm. 

Medical advice is never dispensed in an online context because to make a proper diagnosis a patient needs to be seen and examined in person, and a thorough medical history taken. 

[Carl-Richard]

39 minutes ago, Cepzeu said:

Please don't take medical advice from an online forum.

I'm more using it as a source of inspiration rather than a final authority.

 

40 minutes ago, Cepzeu said:

It is likely that you just have a buildup of fluid in the middle ear because of your viral illness. antibiotics wont help it unless it gets infected with bacteria. Stop trying to pop it, it will resolve in time. 

If I didn't pop my ears, I would still be taking pain meds. I didn't start oral antibiotics yet, only eye drops for my eye infection. 

[Leo Gura]

12 hours ago, Cepzeu said:

This is dangerous advice and I would not be commenting on medical treatment prescribed by a doctor for someone you have not seen in person or examined Leo. If an antibiotic is indicated for use (whether it is in this case or not is unknown) it should be started promptly

Antibiotics are way over-prescribed and harmful/dangerous.

I ain't no doctor. But doctors can also be dangerous morons.

Obviously decide for yourself how to handle your health.

[mmKay]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Antibiotics are way over-prescribed and harmful/dangerous.

I ain't no doctor. But doctors can also be dangerous morons.

Obviously decide for yourself how to handle your health.

are ointments as bad as pills?

[mostly harmless]

If you regularly get seriously ill, I would recommend:

Vitamin D3 (20,000 IE daily until you are better) in liquid form, no tablets with calcium (taking calcium is very unhealthy)

Vitamin C: 3 to 6 grams per day until you are better if you can handle that much acid. There's buffered C but that comes with calcium. 

Important: Vitamin C supplements need to be evenly spread over the entire day. Taking everything at once makes no sense because next time you go to the bathroom, it will all leave your body.

Also do not start with taking 3 grams. I started with 0.5 until my stomach got used to it and I didnt get a burning feeling. That took 1-2 days. So thats relatively quickly, but not immediate.

 

Once you are over it, you want to look into your diet. 

How am I competent? Last illness I had was an annoying cough 6 years ago. That's it. Before that, I had a virus infection 32 years ago. 

My diet has been mostly vegan since 18 years. I am drinking vegetable juice as often as I can and I take supplements but not artificial vitamins but from natural sources. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by mostly harmless

[mostly harmless]

On 7.5.2022 at 9:37 PM, Leo Gura said:

Antibiotics are way over-prescribed and harmful/dangerous.

I ain't no doctor. But doctors can also be dangerous morons.

Obviously decide for yourself how to handle your health.

Antibiotics are a simple way to 'solve' an issue. Likewise cortisol. 

Doctors (allopaths as in the Rockefeller doctrine) are typically convinced that what they learned is definitely 100% the way to go. And very often allopathy is actually helpful. But not always.

[Carl-Richard]

11 hours ago, mostly harmless said:

Likewise cortisol. 

I've been taking a steroid nasal spray for my sinuses, but I think I'll stop today. My ears are still clogged af, but it doesn't really hurt anymore. It is affecting me though. I can't really think straight and my energy is lower than usual. The hearing loss is so severe that I have to be careful when walking outside, and listening to music sucks because of the pitch change. I heard it takes weeks or months to see any improvements, and that's really not fun, especially right before exams.

[Asayake]

26 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

I've been taking a steroid nasal spray for my sinuses, but I think I'll stop today. My ears are still clogged af, but it doesn't really hurt anymore. It is affecting me though. I can't really think straight and my energy is lower than usual. The hearing loss is so severe that I have to be careful when walking outside, and listening to music sucks because of the pitch change. I heard it takes weeks or months to see any improvements, and that's really not fun, especially right before exams.

I had a rough ear infection in my left ear 2 years ago. I would try to avoid headphones if you're not doing that already, I think overuse of headphones(10 + hours per day) was what caused the infection in the first place for me, it caused a very damp climate in my ear. 

I see dislike in the thread for antibiotics. It might be the case that it comes with risks/downsides. But the risks can be reduced if you only take them for 2 weeks(no shorter, no longer) and that is probably what you will be prescribed if you go to the doctor(they will probably let a nurse look at your ear, she will see swelling in your ear canal, send you to the doctor and he will look at your ear too and then prescribe you antibiotics for 2 weeks, is my guess). You can also take a daily probiotic with your food to counteract the gut flora harming properties of antibiotics a bit. Personally my body didn't seem to react negatively to the antibiotics at all(as far as I can tell) and I took daily probiotics with it but I guess it can vary from person to person(I'm not a doctor). If you decide to go for antibiotics you can also make sure to eat proper amounts of fiber rich foods for a period afterwards to give your gut flora something to eat.  

I was really hesitant to take antibiotics and tried using garlic cloves(which only burned like hell) but it helped me nothing. But I have not tried garlic extract so I don't know how well that works. But when I started losing my hearing on the ear and liquid was leaking out of my ear at night I decided I had to give it a shot for the fear of permanently losing my hearing on the ear(which would be detrimental for me because I work with audio). I understand if you don't want to do antibiotics, but it might be worth a shot if it doesn't get better soon. However, it is possible you have a viral infection, in which case I don't think antibiotics will help. So it's tricky... It's a bit easier when you have infection on only one ear because then it is more likely to be a bacterial infection.

[mostly harmless]

@Carl-Richard Did you recently get an injection declared as vaccine, based on mRNA technology? It seems very likely that many people have inflammation and auto-immune disease after those. My understanding is that the protein that the mRNA makes them produce, causes immune cells to attack those body cells when they release these proteins.

In that case, people report that cortisol helps. 

Again, Omega 3, especially EPA I think, can dampen inflammatory processes. The best source is algae oil, second best fish oil. Capsules have the disadvantage that you only know if it is rancid, after you take them, or if you sacrifice one by opening it, could be messy. Linseed and chia oil have lot of Omega 3 but that is ALA. The conversion factor to EPA is low and the conversion factor to DHA is either 0% or at least much lower still than to EPA. Some algae oils have significantly more EPA, some have significantly more DHA.

I want to point out that I am neither a medical professional nor a pharmacologist. I share things that I researched to make decisions for family, friends and myself. Always DYOR (do your own research). If you think that something I mentioned might be helpful, definitely ask your doctor what she/he thinks.

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by mostly harmless

[mostly harmless]

I want to add something: Since you mentioned that you are currently studying from exams, I recommend that you do sports once your health permits.

Reason: Learning is neuro-plasticity and that is promoted/depends on BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) . Physical activity significantly increases the amount of BDNF in your body.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_factor

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60124-0

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363/full

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-88496-x

 

https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/L_Wideman_Effects_of_Acute_2016.pdf

 

 

 

youtube: 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+ratey

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bdnf+sports

 

more https://www.google.com/search?q=brain+derived+neurotropic+factor+%2B+learning+%2B+sports&sxsrf=ALiCzsa768cXwv9RaLzeVOlKFc-Bn-P0IQ%3A1652283859382&ei=09l7YujtFpmNxc8P08G5gA8&ved=0ahUKEwioo4aE5df3AhWZRvEDHdNgDvAQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=brain+derived+neurotropic+factor+%2B+learning+%2B+sports&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBwghEAoQoAE6BwgAEEcQsAM6BAgAEA06BwgAEAoQywE6BggAEA0QHjoGCAAQFhAeOgQIIRAVOggIIRAWEB0QHkoECEEYAEoECEYYAFCIBFiEImDgImgBcAF4AIABvwGIAfQQkgEENi4xM5gBAKABAcgBCMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by mostly harmless

[Carl-Richard]

@mostly harmless

I lift weights regularly.

[mostly harmless]

1 minute ago, Carl-Richard said:

@mostly harmless

I lift weights regularly.

Ideally, you would do that before learning sessions.

[Carl-Richard]

47 minutes ago, mostly harmless said:

Ideally, you would do that before learning sessions.

I do it first thing in the morning every other day.

[mostly harmless]

@Carl-Richard Does your personal experience seem to confirm the claims that you can learn better on these days?

[Carl-Richard]

24 minutes ago, mostly harmless said:

@Carl-Richard Does your personal experience seem to confirm the claims that you can learn better on these days?

I learn better on off-days, because I'm less exhausted, but if I skip one day of training, I definitely notice it.

[mostly harmless]

@Carl-Richard The advice says that prior to learning one would not do more than 20-30 minutes.

My sport was running in the forest for 2 to 4 hours. I don't think that would be conducive to learning, either.

[Carl-Richard]

Things are improving, but now I'm showing signs of "Patulous Eustachian Tube" in the right ear, where the tube sometimes doesn't close properly, and every sound that is coming from my mouth or nose (like breathing) goes through the tube and into my ear and makes it so I can hear myself double. It's reeeaaally annoying - my own breath sounds like if someone is blowing into my ears.

It might've been caused by a weird DIY breathing technique I used when I had problems relieving pressure (namely plugging the nose, popping my ears and unplugging the nose while steadily blowing in or out the nose or mouth while moving the jaw). I really hope it fixes itself by the time the fluid has fully drained from my middle ear, because this shit is not OK.