Posted by John (Cumberland, Md) on 02/08/2011
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
Garlic has given me tinnitus for five weeks now. Really worried. Do not, Do not put garlic in your ear
Posted by Eb22 (Hilo, Hawaii) on 02/28/2009
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
Warning! Do NOT PUT GARLIC INTO YOUR EAR! I placed a peeled garlic clove in my ear for 2 hours to relieve a 5 week long ear infection which had made me me desperate. 1 hour later my face went numb on that side. 7 hours later I woke up with vertigo and ringing in my ear. It is now 3 weeks later and I still feel vertigo and the ringing makes it difficult to sleep. I hope this goes away!
Posted by Sarah (Youngstown, OH) on 09/11/2008
★☆☆☆☆
Fresh Garlic cure for Ear Infection: I put a few drops of fresh garlic juice in my infected ear, hoping the burning would stop the itching. I felt nothing and it did nothing. Disappointed.
Posted by Ouchy McNumbface (Suffolk, England) on 06/02/2008
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
DO NOT .. i repeat DO NOT, EVER put raw, undiluted garlic juice into your ear. I've had an ear infection for most of today, experiencing the normal agony [i've had maybe thirty of these damn infections over the years] and decided that i'd give the garlic juice a try. So i finely chopped seven cloves of garlic, stuck them into a large, plastic syringe [no needle!], put the end of the syringe into my ear and pushed the plunger. I hesitate to call it a plunger, I feel somewhat more inclined to call it a "detonator"; for at that moment the pain in my ear can only be described as... indescribable. I've had broken bones which hurt less than this. I've passed kidney stones which were positively comfortable compared with the insane, unimagineable combination of white-hot blowtorch to the entire right hand side of my face, and dynamite-coated road-drill intent on making a rather large impression/hole on my ear drum. I ran around the room desperately seeking some kind of cure for my newly acquired, self-inflicted facedeath, and in an insane panic managed to: 1: take four pain killers. 2: squirt cold water into my earhole and 3: place a nicotine patch over my ear. I'm not entirely sure what inspired the third choice, but in my insane stupor i think my brain somehow associated nicotine patches with stress/pain relief, so in a cloudy haze of bewildering desperation and nonsensical panic, i slapped 21mg of nicotinell over my earhole.
In a nutshell, it hurts. Don't do it. If you do do it, film it, put it on youtube.
Posted by Marie (Arlington, WA) on 05/21/2007
★☆☆☆☆
I tried the crushed garlic juice in the ear. I "DO NOT" recommend this. I was in "SEVERE" "PAIN" for about five minutes!!!! It did not cure the ear infection. I only tried it in one ear because I could not purposly take that much pain again!!!!
Posted by Jinc's (Greenville, SC) on 04/01/2007
★☆☆☆☆
Thank you Melissa from Machesney Park, IL . . . I tried the garlic cure after getting an ear infection. I was glad to have read your warning about your boyfriend's ear burning badly. Your description of "like fire," was accurate. I did a little research and below is what Wikipedia had to say about allicin . . .
"Allicin is a powerful antibiotic and anti-fungal compound obtained from garlic.
Allicin is not present in garlic in its natural state. When garlic is chopped or otherwise damaged, [squeezed] the enzyme alliinase acts on the chemical alliin converting it into allicin. Alliin is an amino acid that does not build proteins.
Allicin is not a very stable compound. It degrades slowly upon standing and is rapidly destroyed by cooking. Allicin can be used for some medicinal purposes - it helps fighting arteriosclerosis, it has the ability to dissolve fats and it can also be used as an antioxidant to some extent.
Allicin is also the chemical constituent primarily responsible for the hot, burning flavor of fresh garlic."
Please note that alicin is described as the agent that causes the hot burning sensation when you eat raw garlic. Probably does the same thing when you put raw fresh garlic in your ear.
I put raw garlic in a thin meshed gauze and after squeezing the juice into my ear. I then pushed the gauze (with garlic still in it) into my ear. I let it stay until I couldn't take the burning anymore.
Although the burning is great, I will try to endure to see if my ear gets better now that I have some idea of why it happens. I only tried it today (1 April 07). Will let everyone know the outcome in about a week. Wanted to let you know about the burning now!
Note: Wikipedia is an open source, free, web encyclopedia. I happen to trust it greatly, although some suspect it because ANYONE can add a definition.
Posted by Melissa (Machesney Park, IL) on 12/05/2006
★☆☆☆☆
I used fresh garlic dropped in ear as another person had said that she did for her son. to get rid of the pain. I tried this on my boyfriend to try and get rid of his earache and infection. It immediately made his ear burn like it was on fire. Why, I am not sure. All I know is it caused him more pain then before. I DO NOT recommend this to anyone!!!!!! I felt so bad for him.
