10 Crucial Things You Did Not Know About Your Ears

You use your ears every single day but how much do you know about them? Having ears to hear is something so natural that we never realize they are there unless they are hurting and we get to remember them. Let’s help you learn a few exciting things about your ear.

• Your ear canal grows – Yes! This is shocking but it’s true. Every year the skin of your ear canal grows 1.3 inches. Imagine if it did not drop off as dead skin, you would have a two-foot cord hanging out of your ear by age 20.

• It balances your body – Really? Your inner ears are full of fluid that moves around. This fluid is what signals your brains when in movement or while resting. Though a small organ, it is a complex system of parts that enables you to hear and makes it possible for your body to balance.

• You mean there is hair inside the ear? – Yes! There are tiny hairs deep inside your ear that facilitates hearing. If you lose these tiny hairs, you lose your sense of hearing.

• Hearing ability is vital to maintain – The smallest sound that every person who has good hearing can hear is 0 decibels. A jet engine clocks at 120 decibels while a gunshot clocks at 140. Exposing yourself to hours of 90 decibels or higher can cause damage to your hearing. Anything louder than 140 decibels can cause immediate damage to your ears. To necessitate proper hearing after your ears are damaged, you will require hearing aids.

• The ears are made up of tiny bones – Your ears are made up of 3 tiny bones that can be placed together on a penny. These three bones namely incus, malleus and stapes with stapes being the smallest of the three bones.

• Ears do not like high pressure – Do you know why you get those strange feelings in your ear or even go slightly deaf when you climb high mountains? It is because a part of your ear called a Eustachian tube fails to maintain the ear pressure, resulting in discomfort, ear ache or dizziness.

• Your ears never sleep – Funny? Weird? Human ears never sleep; they function even when you sleep. The ears will continue to pick up every sound but the brain blocks them out because you are sleeping.

• All people have different wax – How does that even happen? American Indians as well as Asians have flaky and dry ear wax. Africans and Caucasians on the other hand have moist brown wax.

• It is the most precious sense – Yes, out of all the five senses, your hearing is the most precious because once you lose it, you lose contact with the people you love and the world around you.

• Ears differ in size according to your gender – How? Is the ear not just an ear? Men have bigger ears than women. Maybe they just need to hear things better and clearer than the women! Or why do you think they have bigger ones?