Cerumen? What's that all about?

FACTS ABOUT EAR WAX (from our friends at Bionix Medical Technologies)

• Medically named cerumen.
• Primary components of cerumen are shed layers of skin, kerative (a family of fibrous structural proteins), saturated and unsaturated long-chain fatty acids, alcohols, squalene, cholesterol.
• Fear, stress and anxiety result in increased production.
• There are two distinct genetically determined types of cerumen; wet, which is dominant, and dry, which is recessive.
• Caucasians and Africans are more likely to have the wet type - honey brown to dark brown and moist.  East Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type of cerumen - grey and flaky.
• Cerumen type has been used by anthropologists to track human migratory patterns!