Question
When I clean the ear wax from my ears using a q-tip, I tend to feel an urge to cough. Is this a common reflex? Am I pressing on a ‘coughing nerve’ with the q-tip?
Answer
There is a cough-ear reflex, but only 2.3% of the population experience it.
There's something called Arnold's nerve, part of the vagus nerve, which supplies the head and neck.
It also supplies the back and lower floor of the external auditory canal, which is the tube towards your inner ear.
如果刺激,这尼珥ve can provoke a coughing reflex.
Although 2.3% of people experience this in one ear, only 0.6% get it in both!
Comments
I get it in both ears but only sometimes.
Sometimes when I clean my ears I hit a certain point and cough up mucus like crazy. Other times I'll move the q-tip all around and nothing. I think it has something to do with my sinuses because if I have a stuffed up nose or a scratchy throat I can usually clear it right up by poking a q-tip around in my ears so it's a relief for me.
Itchy Throat When I Clean My Ears
Hi there!
I thought everyone experienced this! I am 55 and I've always had the sensation of my throat getting a nice scratch, (itchy throat). It feels quite good actually. I also cough every time I clean my ears. I don't have any health issues that I know of? Pretty healthy and happy.
Right ear
I just got this about ten minutes ago I'm not sure if it will happen again I was cleaning my right ear and then I just suddenly started coughing loads I Grabbed some water and felt like I was going to cough the water up. Maybe I have this now? I'm quite young I'm not a adult or anything do you just develop it? It's happend to me a few times before but I never really bough much of it just maybe one cough,but today I started coughing loads even like phlegm.
Ear cleaning
I too have this reflex. Although I cough and gag violently when I do much as get water in my ear.
Wow
I always tried pressure pointing to try and get rid of the gag reflex I even tried humming while cleaning my ears out
Right ear
Wait.. am I the only one who has the right ear doing this? In my left ear I can stick that q-tip far without even a hint of coughing, but in my right ear I start to cough like a maniac if I pass the tip of my "ear-hole". No crying tho, just the cough.
I have it going on too
This has been going on since I was a kid, and my cousin Daniel had it too. I think it's passed down from generation to generation sort of thing, like you don't just get it out of the blue. Because even my grandmother had this. I thought it was weird or I was doing something wrong until I found out it was normal.
I got it in both ears.
I have this in both ears every time, sometimes it makes me sick..
I also have chiari so maybe its link..
Ear cleaning
I get nearly sick and always gag and cough up things when I try to clean my ear. If you can, try to put hot water droplets in your ear with an eye dropper. It will go down and soften things up and then all you have to do it turn your head to get the water out.
相同
相同but it’s opposite for me
Left ear....
From these comments it looks like its more common in the left ear? My eyes stream & I gav with the left, nothing on the right
cough when cleaning ears
I am 68 and have this in both ears for as long as I can remember
I guess it isn't that rare
I get it with both ears while cleaning them. I cough!
Vagus Nerve
This is interesting, because the ear/coughing thing just started recently for me. It was really bad just now.
I get tears in my eyes and can't stop coughing.
And just a couple of months ago I found that I have another Vagus nerve problem. That involves my stomach and nearly passing out while rising in the middle of the night due to stomach pain.
That problem I've had longer.
Thank you for starting this post!
I've had this for as long as
I've had this for as long as I can remember. I've also had a lot of stomach problems my entire life, nearly everyone in my family does.
Left ear itch.
For some time time I suspected something was terribly wrong with me. Whenever I try cleaning my left ear I feel like am scratching my throat and only find relief after a coughing spell. Oh the other thing I found helps in stopping the cough sooner is licking on some salt. Am relieved to learn am not alone with this concern.
We're special
My left ear, when cleaned with a Q-tip, triggers a violent gag reflex that has caused me to vomit before. I will try the "saying AHHHHHH" trick next time. Thankfully my left ear doesn't seem to get as dirty as the right. Glad to know it wasn't just me. My parents are both doctors and when I asked them about it they told me that it sometimes happens and there's nothing to do about it. I'm surprise it took me this long to google it.
Ear cleaning and gagging
I have had it since I was a kid in my left ear.I will be 50 this year and this is the first time I have ever googled it. Glad I am not alone as well..I gag really bad and cough really bad . eyes water. So I get it all. ..
ME one million and 300 thousand
ha ha ha ha ha too funny.
Gagging and coughing
Everytime I clean both ears I do gag and really bad cough. I thought everyone done it.
Your not alone
I'm the same way
相同here
Both ears for me. The strange thing is it only started about 3 years ago around age 35!
I noticed that my husband
I noticed that my husband always coughs when cleaning his left ear. I kind of got a kick out of it. 4 years after we got married I had a son and when he was about 7 months old I used a qtip just to get the water out of his ears and how ironic he coughed as soon as I did the left ear. He is now 2 and still coughs when he gets his left ear cleaned out. I wonder if this is also a genetic thing.
Coughing
My Grandmother was the only other person I've know my whole life who does this as well. I have it in both!
0.6% people
I’ve always had this reflex and once asked my pediatrician and she said she had no idea why. It wasn’t a problem so I left it alone and just coughed it out. Just finished cleaning my ears and decided to finally google it... can’t believe it’s so rare !
0.6
I'm part of the club too
ear people
I also thought everybody coughed when cleaning their errors… Guess not. We are special people with special powers
Cleaning both ears attribute to my nearly uncontrollable cough.
A non-smoker coughing like most smokers I know. Saved by the old Doctor's comment, "Open up and say aaaaaaagggghhhhhh!
Tip
Im part of the 0.6% but if you say ahhhh while cleaning out your ears you’ll feel some relief. Im happy to know im not alone in this and that this is actual a real life thing that people deal with, even if its just a small percentage. My doctors were never helpful with this and said it was normal. When i was younger, a doctor thought I was acting rebellious and started yelling at me to stop coughing. Needless to say i never went back and tried my best to hold in my cough ad long as i could when it came to the ear check. But now that i have come across this tip i will be saying ahhh to every doctors appt and will not care if they give me a weird look.
You dont say
Here I was thinking it was all psychological or otherwise in my head. Come to find out I’m part of a 0.6% of something! Still wish I could clean my ears normally though...
Me too
I have the same reflex, both ears, and sometimes the cough causes physical pain all over my body. It's really horrible.
I'm 0.06% also
My Dr, once told me that I had small tubes in my ears and that coughing was normal, I guess it isn't "normal" after all. I also cough up a ton of phlem . my eyes water and it takes a little time to come back to normal, I wash my outer ear every day in the shower and save the inner for once every two weeks. I can't stand the torture.
相同
I'm exactly the same way. So glad I'm not the only one. My coughing while cleaning my ears not only drives me crazy, but also my husband, He can't stand to listen to all the gagging and coughing.
Vera, all of that happens to
Vera, all of that happens to me as well! I thought something was really wrong with me. So glad I found all of this to know that I'm not alone.
Cleaning my inner ear.
I have been gagging & coughing every time I clean my inner ear. I thought I reallly had something wrong with me. Glad I finally googled it.
I’m one of the 2.3% also
I just had my ears cleaned by ETAA and start coughing uncontrollably when the doctor was cleaning my ear. She had to change to the suction method. I was like what happened and she explained?
I always had ticke sensation and I guess a little cough sensation when cleaning with QTips but never thought anything of it.
I can’t believe this is my unique superpower lol
I thought everyone had this issue
My right ear is normal (physically), but I cough just slightly with that one. My left ear has a smaller tube (freaked my doctor out when she saw it, she was like, "What the hell is that?!" and then I told her, "Oh yeah, my left ear's tube is smaller than normal."), but I just about cough my lungs out when I try to clean my left ear out. It's insane. Causes me to cough up phlegm and everything. Ridiculous. Crazy to think I'm the special less than 1% of all people who deal with this. Oh, I can also wiggle both my ears too.
I thought everyone has this?!
I thought everyone has this?!?!??!!
Me too!!
Me too!!
me three
me three
Me four
When I clean my left ear, my eye's get all teared up and it looks like I've just watched a sad movie and cried for an hr. But I cough so bad it hurts so bad! I was suprised when it didn't bother my step daughter or her father... Bc LOL i thought it happened to everyone too!
*when I clean my right ear I can't breathe! I mean seriously cannot breathe, it's been going on for a few months now, and is super scary! I have alot of health problems, Severe Asthma! Wondering if that might be something to do with it?
Arnold’s nerve in ear
I have it in left ear. My Neurotologist said avoid the problem and don’t clean your ears. He said your ears a designed to clean themselves. I wash in shower and towel dry. Problem solved.
New here!! Lol
Hi! First time caller, long time listener lol...whenever I stick a q tip in my ear I bleed out of my right eye...does anyone else experience this? I asked my doctor (he’s also my dad lol) and he says I’m the only one. His special little prairie princess (were from Omaha lol) I’ll take my answer off the air LOL!!!
Losing a lung
Every time I stick a Q-tip in my right ear I feel like I'm going to puke for days I clough... I gag ...and I do it very sensitive... crazy right
I always thought I had an ear infection
Until I googled it, I have it in my left ear and I never understood it, until now.. I was reading this and I was like.. Well ain't I lucky, I get a cough ear. :P
你好,来自印度的
Happenz to me too. Very mild cough, when I clean my right ear with a ear bud, I don't mind it.
Nice to know I'm not alone.
Had to google this to see if it was a real thing because no one I've told could relate. People who've see me clean out my ears thought that I'm very sick or that I might give them something, so it's nice to have proof that it's how my body works.
Reply
I have the same thing in both ears coughing and when I’ve told people about (loads) they look at me if I’m on another planet
Cough
Your not alone it happens to me every time and is severe in both ears after inserting q tip i cant stop coughing. My mother also have it. The only person i could relate.
Thought it was just me..
This happens to me in both ears when I use ear plugs (to shut out snoring) it's hard to use them nightly knowing it will happen if I'm not careful.
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