BENEATH THE SURFACE | By Erin Magee
Ear issues? You can equalize without all the drugs
E-Mail this story
Print this story
tool name
close
tool goes here
Posted - Friday, October 02, 2009 11:42 AM EDT
Sudafed, Advil, Afrin. That was my pre-dive cocktail for years of teaching scuba. Well, that was the mild cocktail anyway. On bad days it was more like, Sudafed, Advil, Afrin...Afrin...Afrin... and if it worked, the key word there being “if,” I was still always working with ear trauma. Students would ask me questions while setting up their gear and I’d respond with, “WHAT?? I CAN’T HEAR YOU! TRY THE OTHER EAR!”
I felt like I was going prematurely deaf. My television was always on max volume and my cell phone receiver was as high as it could go. I was living the audio life of an 80-year-old woman. I just thought that was the price you pay for getting to dive for a living day in and day out.
Then came the intervention. Well, it wasn’t so much an intervention as it was my first freediving course. My instructors, Kirk Krack and Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, told me that you shouldn’t freedive on Sudafed because it raises your heart rate, which hinders your breath-holding ability. Well I just about threw my hands up in the air right then. There was no way I’d get my ears to clear, especially without Sudafed. Not with my “bad ears,” right?
I soon learned that my poor abused ears had gotten a bad rap. I’d had squeezes every which way you can get an ear squeeze and I’d always blamed it on my ear physiology. I’ve since learned that I was doing absolutely everything wrong to prep my ears for equalizing. Using what I learned in that course, I have now completely gotten off Sudafed and have never had so few problems clearing my ears. Here’s a quick rundown of the rules I’ve since learned.
First off, dairy is not your friend. It’s heavily debated as to whether dairy actually produces more mucus than normal in your body, but as a former dairy addict I’ve found that it absolutely did for me. Before I cut back my dairy intake I thought I had terrible allergies. I sniffed all day long and went nowhere without tissues. I went dairy-free for one month and found that, lo and behold, I could actually breathe...and equalize! I admit that I miss ice cream to no end, but my ears are still thanking me for taking the hit on that one.
Next, trade in your Sudafed for Mucinex. The blue labeled bottle of Mucinex contains Guaifenesin , a drug that loosens congestion. It doesn’t have the immediate effects that Sudafed does, but taking it for several days prior to diving, as well as during your diving days, will clear your sinuses more thoroughly than I’ve ever experienced with Sudafed, without the side effects.
After all that, drop the Afrin entirely. Afrin seems like a wonder drug the first time you use it. One squirt and your whole head goes from a congested mess to clear and free breathing. Then a couple hours later the congestion is back with a vengeance. The next time you use it, it works for less time and causes an even stronger rebound effect. After weeks of usage you find that after one squirt you have about 30 minutes of clarity before you’re so clogged up feel like you’ve got the worst cold you’ve ever had. I don’t know about you, but the only other drugs I’ve ever heard of with addictive properties like that are illegal.
Finally, keep yourself hydrated. In addition to the many health benefits associated with proper hydration, it also helps with equalization. Think of it like keeping your engine well oiled. Whenever I forget to drink my big bottle of water in the morning my ears feel sticky or gummy. When I try to equalize I get that all-too-familiar squish sound from my ears. Hydration also helps the Mucinex do its job of clearing out your system and it helps your muscles run at full steam. I find that if I just carry around a big water bottle all day I constantly drink from it out of habit, making the effort of getting enough water every day not so difficult.
So I hope these few tips help you and your ears enjoy diving even more. I’m happy to report that I can now hear clearly out of both ears and that my television is back down to a normal volume. I’m no longer a Sudafed and Afrin junky and my students don’t have to shout at me to ask questions. And if this all works for me when I’m teaching freediving and doing about 50 rapid descents and ascents in a session, think about how much easier it would make scuba diving when you only have to make a few descents and ascents per day. I just wish someone had explained this all to me earlier!
