Home Anti-swimmers Ear Brew?

[danwig]

Some info...

What the NAVY uses, and how:

DAN Divers Alert Network : Can You Prevent Otitis Externa, or Swimmers Ear?

What we can use, and how:

DAN Divers Alert Network : More On Swimmers Ear



For me 50/50 white wine vinegar / alcohol seems to work fine, but I have found the 5 minute thing is the key..

 

[Fred R.]

There are several commercial preparations that go by names like Aura-Dry and the like. All of the preparations have one thing in common; they are made up of slightly acidified dilute alcohol. Some of the drops are formulated of alcohol and acetic acid; some are alcohol and boric acid.

Any mild acid, mixed with any common alcohol will work. I make mine of Isopropyl alcohol, also called rubbing alcohol and boric acid which is sold as an eye wash. I use about a level teaspoon of boric acid powder in a pint bottle of rubbing alcohol. Vinegar and rubbing alcohol mixed half and half is also good. In a pinch, a squeeze of lemon into a shot of over-proof rum will do the trick. A soda straw with your thumb over one end will serve as a dropper, and I am pretty sure there is no place so remote for scuba that a diver can’t get a shot of rum (any non-sweet distilled spirit will do, vodka, gin, tequila, etc.) at the end of the day! Not only that, but you only need three or four drops for each ear, leaving a perfectly good shot right in front of you and available to drink. (If you don’t like straight shots, pour into a glass of orange juice…)

You should use these drops after every dive if possible, and if that is not possible, then at the end of every dive day. You should NOT use these drops if you have an ear infection already, or have squeezed your ear. This set of formulations is to prevent an infection, only.

The basic way this works is to rid the ear of water, dry the ear canal, and leave the ear canal with its natural slightly acid pH. The alcohol, either ethanol or isopropyl alcohol, will dry the ear, while the vinegar, boric acid or lemon juice, will lower the pH of the ear canal and inhibit the growth of bacteria.
Something similar to the solution the op was looking for is sold under the brand name;

"Bausch & Lomb Advanced Eye Relief Eye Wash"

If the op is still interested in the basic formula for the boric acid solution; one tablespoon of boric acid powder dissolved into one quart of clean boiling water. Remove the water from the heat source and add powder.
Boric acid powder used to be available at all pharmacies. I don’t think it is commonly on the shelves in US pharmacies any more. It might be a ‘behind the counter’ sort of thing.

 

[DandyDon]

For me 50/50 white wine vinegar / alcohol seems to work fine, but I have found the 5 minute thing is the key..

That is the preferred method. For impatient people like me, I use it early and often like Fred - after every dive and shower on a dive trip, even tho I do not all any soak time. For me, this has made all the difference: no more sitting in a doctor's waiting room, any doctor, whoever will see me soonest, fighting back tears of horrible pain. Been there a few times, but not since I became diligent with the preventative.

 

[sealskin98]

Any chance I could use some of this stuff to preserve my good looks ?? :cool2:

That may work...but if you can't find the clorine thing you may just have to soak in a bathtub full of Clorox. Either that, or use the slacked lime and water mixture that I use to preserve eggs without refigeration.

This has turned into a very informative thread. On a similar note...several years ago I used to have the "full ears" feeling after a couple of days of diving...made talking fun when I couldn't hear myself! I wondered if it was the allergy meds. I took before diving loosened up stuff and filled the tubes or what? And I had a M.D. as a dive buddy on several occasions but he couldn't figure it out. I posed the question to Doc Vikingo and his opinion was that the meds. could be loosing up stuff, or I was trying to equalize too hard. I paid attention to the advise and didn't try to equalize as hard on the next multi-day trip...and haven't had a problem since.

After looking into Thallasamania's experience, I have a lot of respect for him. I just wonder what recipe he has for a home brew that you can pick up at the pharmacy or wally world like the boric acid or alcohol and vineger brew (I hadn't heard of boric acid either, Thanks Ron!, but the alcohol/vinegar is probably the standard). I bet the recipe he provided is excellent, but it may be more trouble to concoct than the "average" diver wants to do for the problem. I have a few old professors at the local college in biology/chemistry that I may talk to.

Boric acid? That's a new one.

Some suggest 1/3 each of vinegar, alcohol and hydrogen peroxide - which should never be put in ears! It probly breaks down to water in that solution tho, making it a harmless waste - maybe. Just don't.

Don, that peroxide thing reminds me of a story my first dive instructor told me about a Coz. trip...stop me if you've heard this.

We'll call my instructor Mark. He said that back in the '70s he was on a Coz. trip and one of the people in the group had been a medic in Vietnam. Mark blew an ear on that trip and when they got back to Hotel Barracuda the medic poured some peroxide down his ear.

Once the peroxide got down below the rupture and started bubbling it hurt so bad that he crawled the wall all the way up to the ceiling...about 4 or 5 times. :shocked2:

He said he never went on another dive trip with that guy again.

 

[Thalassamania]

After looking into Thallasamania's experience, I have a lot of respect for him. I just wonder what recipe he has for a home brew that you can pick up at the pharmacy or wally world like the boric acid or alcohol and vineger brew (I hadn't heard of boric acid either, Thanks Ron!, but the alcohol/vinegar is probably the standard). I bet the recipe he provided is excellent, but it may be more trouble to concoct than the "average" diver wants to do for the problem. I have a few old professors at the local college in biology/chemistry that I may talk to.

Just get your Doc to write it out then call around till you find a "Compounding Pharmacy," they still exist.

 

[DandyDon]

Don, that peroxide thing reminds me of a story my first dive instructor told me about a Coz. trip...stop me if you've heard this.

We'll call my instructor Mark. He said that back in the '70s he was on a Coz. trip and one of the people in the group had been a medic in Vietnam. Mark blew an ear on that trip and when they got back to Hotel Barracuda the medic poured some peroxide down his ear.

Once the peroxide got down below the rupture and started bubbling it hurt so bad that he crawled the wall all the way up to the ceiling...about 4 or 5 times. :shocked2:

He said he never went on another dive trip with that guy again.

Amazing! :shocked2: One can find some websites suggesting that Peroxide can be used as an ear treatment, along with ear candles and Elvis sightings, but Peroxide is the more damaging of those. Ask any ENT or on our Medical forum. Peroxide breaks down quickly to water and Active Oxygen before the latter becoming more common dioxygen or O2 and in that free radical state it does disinfect, but can cause ear drum damages. Neither alcohol, vinegar or Peroxide should be added to an injured or infected ear tho; alcohol and vinegar are fine to prevent infection in a healthy ear, but once injured from baratrauma or infected - different meds are indicated, usually oral antibiotics and steroid drops, precription only in the US but not in Mexico. Any Mexican pharmacist should have been able to administer better treatment for the poor fellow.

Tequila and pickle juices have certainly been used to prevent ear infections in Mexico, but before injury or infection.