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02-01-2008, 12:42 PM
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Everything about your Ears
Do your ears hang low? The words of the fanciful children's song draw attention to a part of our bodies that we tend to take for granted. Do they wobble to and fro?  Stuck out on the sides of our heads, our ears aren't particularly glamorous, and certainly don't have the kind of romantic verse written about them that eyes and even lips seem to attract. In fact they're more often the butt of gentle ribbing, especially when they're somewhat pronounced, as in the case of Prince Charles or Star Trek's Dr Spock! But without them you'd be ... well maybe not lost, but certainly a little disorientated. You're no doubt aware that your ears' primary function is to pick up noises from the outside world and convey them to your brain, but did you know they're also responsible for balance? So ear problems can make you feel dizzy or nauseous. Let's discover how our amazing ears work and what to do if something goes wrong. How you hear sounds Your ears are made up of three parts – the outer ear, which receives the sound, the middle ear, which amplifies it, and the inner ear, which changes it into an electrical signal and transmits it to the brain. You'll already be familiar with your outer ear, which includes the flappy bit you see in the mirror every day (it's called the pinna), plus the part of your ear canal that leads to your eardrum (a thin piece of skin stretched across the ear canal). Made of cartilage, your pinnae are cleverly designed to catch sound waves and channel them down your ear canal, where they bang into your eardrum, making it vibrate. The cavity behind your eardrum is called the middle ear. Here, three small bones pick up the vibrations of the eardrum and pass them on to the oval window, which forms a gateway to the inner ear. The ear drum and the three small bones act as an amplifier to increase the strength of the vibrations. Once inside the labyrinth of the inner ear, the vibrations create waves in the fluid within a spiral-shaped organ called the cochlea, and those waves stimulate tiny hairs in the organ of Corti to produce nerve impulses. These signals are then sent along the auditory nerve to the brain for interpretation as sounds. Whew! Sounds complicated, but in fact all this takes place in a fraction of a second, so your brain can identify sounds almost instantly. Even more impressively, it automatically figures out which direction the sounds are coming from by comparing the messages it receives from your two ears: the ear that's closer to the sound will pick it up just a tiny bit sooner and perceive it as slightly louder. Keeping your balance Hearing isn't all your ears are good for – they also detect motion and help you keep your balance. Inside your inner ear are three loop-like tubes called the semi-circular canals, which together act like a spirit level, telling your brain which way your head is tilting. As your head moves from side to side, the fluid inside the canals swishes against a network of tiny hairs, which send messages to your brain telling you which way is up. When this process goes wrong or gets confused (for example when you spin around and the fluid continues to swirl after you stop), you can end up feeling dizzy. How to clean your ears This one's easy - don't! Like most parts of the human body, the ears are brilliantly designed to need little or no maintenance. They're basically self-cleaning, and you can do far more damage than good by prodding around in them. Your mum was right when she told you never to put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. Never clean inside your ears, or your children's ears, with cotton buds, hairclips or anything else. At best, you'll force the wax deeper into the ear canal; at worst you could damage or puncture the eardrums or scratch the skin and cause an infection. Far from being icky, earwax is a natural part of the ear's self-cleaning mechanism. Secreted by the glands in your ear canal, this antibacterial and antifungal substance picks up dead skin and dust on its journey to the outside world, and will work its way out of the ears without any assistance. If you suspect you've got a bit of waxy build-up, particularly if you often wear a hearing aid or earplugs, ask your ProCare GP or practice nurse to check. You may be prescribed eardrops to soften the wax, or your doctor may syringe or suction it out FOUR FASCINATING EAR FACTS
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 Many Thanks to vip_blast for creating this Signature 
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