I have a wet earwax but it kept me wondering why my mother and brother have a dry earwax? What causes their earwax to become white and flaky? Do their ears have no time to melt that dry earwax so they let it release like that?
This is what Google answered. Earwax or cerumen as the scientists want it to call is a complex mixture of oil, dead skin cells, dirt, dust, and microbes trapped into that wax. It helps moisturize ear canal to prevent dryness and itchiness, waterproofed the canal and acts as a trap to any brave curious insects that entered into our earhole. But there are two types of earwax, the dry flaky white ones, and the wet smelly yellow wax. These types can determine the origin of our ancestry.
People who have dry earwax inherited the mutated gene from ancient Asian whereas people with the wet cerumen originated from African and European ancestry. The mutated gene that makes the earwax dry found by the researchers is responsible for altering the shape of the channel, which controls the flow of molecules that directly affect the earwax type. Many East Asians have this gene preventing cerumen from entering the mix where it can be liquefied.
However, the usefulness of the dry earwax is not well comprehended. They believed that it lessened the odor and sweat and a possible adaptation of the people who live in areas where its climate is cold.
No wonder my mother has a dry earwax because she lived in a mountainous province where the climate is so damn cold and where water at morning can turn into ice.
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Science Journal
De TodoThis journal consists of scientific concepts I learned from searching answers in google, youtube, and other media as I attempted to debunk some myths or seek answers to the questions formed in my wondering mind and other novel scientific discoveries...
