11 Comments

Useful Useless Fact: Reduce or Eliminate colds

Todays Tip: A sure fire way to prevent a cold is to fill one ear canal at a time with hydrogen peroxide (3%) using an eye dropper. Within one to two minutes you will notice bubbling in the ear. This indicates that the peroxide has found something that should not be there. Let the peroxide stay in the ear until it stops bubbling. If the bubbling has not stopped after five minutes, drain out the peroxide and refill the ear with fresh peroxide. When the bubbling has stopped, drain out the ear.

It is a surefire way to prevent or reduce the time you have a cold as long as you do this procedure the second you think you are coming down with something.

As always, you can see all the previous tips and read the disclaimers here.


  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    The firs time you told me to do this to fight colds I was hesitant to believe.. It must be working though. Each time I think I’m about to get a cold I use a Q-tip to get some in there. Not to sure about the eye dropper approach.

  • drk3p

    its total bs, peroxide fusses and kills anything organic, its reacting to the ear wax in your ear. The cold virus doesnt go into your ear.

  • robbie2e

    Yeah… This is soooo BS. Hydrogen Peroxide kills external bacteria, not the virus that cause colds. This could actually do more harm than good. Lets say that Hydrogen Peroxide finds the ear drum particularly tasty… hmmm.

  • http://unsympathetic.net lisa

    This just seems disturbing. And there’s no way I’d drop anything in my ears, not even water. My ears are so messed up, it’d never come back out. I might have to try the q-tip approach with my next cold.

  • akalaas

    maybe it doesnt work but it makes you feel bubbling

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    Regardless of whether this tip actually works… (for you skeptics).

    Lisa: I highly doubt there is anything to worry about if you were to pour or wipe – with a soaked Q-Tip – a liquid of some sort within your ear canal. What happens when we go swimming?

  • http://www.nolo.5thirtyone.com Dylan

    Wow! It actually worked! I suffer what I call “summer colds” which start with a dose of uncureable stomah pains. I put a few dros in my ear, waited for the bubbiling to subside, and then, about a day later, i was fine. Of course, I could have not been coming down with something, but, at least I got the Ear Wax out of my ears.

    *Listens to new gigabeat s*

  • ken

    It actually is the wax it is reacting with. Which is not a bad thing. Piroxide is the major ingredient in most earwax softeners/ removers, and most General Practice docs will tell you to skip the cost of the more expensive over the counter products and use piroxide. It does help to use a bulb syringe and flush the ear (gently) with warm water after as the treatment only softens and loosens earwax, it doesn’t disolve it.

    No, it wont prevent colds. You don’t have an entry point for virsuses in your ear, unless you’ve been digging in your ear with something you shouldn’t and punctured your eardrum, in which case you have a much worse problem than a cold.

    Wiping with a Q tip will tend to pack earwax, rather than removing it. While piroxide treatment is useful to help undo the compaction, you have to put enough in the ear for it to work. Wiping wont help.

    No it wont “eat” or damage you eardrum. And if it stings, it indicates that you have an scratch or abrasion in you ear canal so the piroxide is coming in contact with open nerves, but not damaging them.

    For those who are reporting success, google “palcebo effect”.

  • http://www.uneasysilence.com Dan

    This as actually recommended to me by my ear/nose/throat doctor and has been doing the trick ever since.

  • http://www.nolo.5thirtyone.com Dylan

    Well, This “palcebo” works pretty damn good, so, I’m going to keep doing it.

  • jerry

    this is actually a great way to unclog earwax buildup :-)

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