Surfer's Ear What is it? How to prevent it?
We've been talking a lot of late about Surfers Ear in the cold winter waters of Cornwall.
Then co-incidently we were contacted by local Doctor Toby Bateson (Truro, Cornwall) who has launched a surfers ear plug brand called ZenPlugs, and he has conducted some pretty interesting research on this topic.
If you are a regular surfer then the chances are high that you've heard of surfer's ear. This condition can lead to deafness in those who have been surfing for years without protecting themselves. The ears form small bony lumps around the entrance to the ear canal. As these get bigger they close the opening, stopping the sound waves in their tracks. This leads to deafness.
Nobody really understands why the body makes these tiny lumps but we do know that it is caused by the effect of the cold on the membrane which covers the bone.
ZenPlugs wanted to find out what people need to do to protect themselves from this problem - so they sent out a detailed survey and had 203 replies from surfers, mostly from Cornwall.
They found that surfers wearing a surfing hood and surfing ear plugs are 17 times less likely to develop surfer's ear than those who don't. They showed that surfer's need to wear them at least 90% of the time to be free of the condition.
It is also interesting to note that a small number of surfers never developed the ear problem. This was despite surfing for many years and not taking any precautions. Clearly their ears are not reacting to the cold in the same way as those who do develop the problem. It is possible that they are different anatomically; nobody knows?
The average number of hours surfed by the whole group was 2880.
This was from averages of 2 hours per session, 8 surfs a month and 15 years of surfing. Clearly they were a dedicated group of surfers.
ZenPlugs found that the more often people wore their surfing ear plugs and hat, the longer they were free of the condition.
This may seem to be common sense but this has not been proven before in research. They showed that, on average, people who wore them forty percent of the time surfed for about 11 years before developing the problem.
Those who wore them for 80% of the time got to 16 years. To be safe for more than 20 years they needed to wear their cap and plugs for more than 90% of their time in the sea.
Summary. If you want to be 17 times less likely to go deaf from surfer's ear you need to wear your surfing ear plugs and cap more than 90% of the time you are in the water.
Dr Toby currently makes moulded sufers ear plugs, but in a few weeks his company ZenPlugs are bringing out a new improved version of the ear plugs, they are molded but people make them at home.
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