Image: Photo by Rhett Noonan/Unsplash

Common Way to Remove Water from Ears Could Cause Brain Damage

Smacking your head is not smart, new study finds

When I was a kid, our family spent most summer weekends at the lake. Among the enduring memories is an image of my father standing on one leg, at least once every trip, pounding the side of his head to get water out of his ear. Modern science indicates this is not a technique he should’ve been teaching us kids.

New experiments with 3D-printed ear canals suggest the sudden acceleration of trying to shake water out could cause brain damage, with young children particularly at risk.

Various tube sizes and different accelerations were tried to determine what combination was necessary to remove water from a confined area. Image: Anuj Baskota, Seungho Kim and Sunghwan Jung

It takes a force of about 10 times gravity to get water out of the small ear canals of infants and small children, the scientists found. Other research, they say, finds an 8g to 10g impact when heading soccer balls can lead to lower academic performance in middle- and high-school students. (The threshold for concussions is higher.)

The sizes of ear canals vary by individual, so the researchers can’t say for sure what ages are most at risk from the ill-advised water-removal technique.