Ear Care: Do-It-Yourself Wax Removal

 

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Some people's ears produce wax like busy little bees. This can be a problem even though earwax appears to serve an important purpose.

It protects and cleans the ear. It traps dirt and other matter, and it keeps insects out. Doctors think earwax might also help protect against infections. And the waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry.

So earwax is good. It even has a medical name: cerumen. And there are two kinds. Most people of European or African ancestry have the "wet" kind: thick and sticky. East Asians commonly have "dry" earwax.

But you can have too much of a good thing.

The glands in the ear canal that produce the wax make too much in some people. Earwax is normally expelled; it falls out of the ear or gets washed away. But extra wax can harden and form a blockage that interferes with soundwaves and reduces hearing.

People can also cause a blockage when they try to clean out their ears, but only push the wax deeper inside. Earwax removal is sometimes necessary. But you have to use a safe method or you could do a lot of damage.

Experts at the National Institutes of Health, NIH, suggest some ways to treat excessive earwax yourself. The wax can be softened with mineral oil, glycerin or ear drops. Hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide may also help.

Another way to remove wax is known as irrigation. With the head upright, take hold of the outer part of the ear. Gently pull upward to straighten the ear canal. Use a syringe device to gently direct water against the wall of the ear canal. Then turn the head to the side to let the water out.

The experts at NIH say you may have to repeat this process a few times. Use water that is body temperature. If the water is cooler or warmer, it could make you feel dizzy. Never try irrigation if the eardrum is broken. It could lead to infection and other problems.

After the earwax is gone, gently dry the ear. But if irrigation fails, the best thing to do is to go to a health care provider for professional assistance.

You should never put a cotton swab or other object into the ear canal. But you can use a swab or cloth to clean the outer part of the ear. Experts agree with the old saying that you should never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Christopher Cruise.

Nghĩa trong bài:
Wax:  Chất có dạng sáp.

Earwax: Ráy tai (thuật ngữ thường gọi trong dân gian)

Cerumen: Ráy tai (thuật ngữ y học)

Expel: Tống ra.

Form a blockage: Cản trở.

Cause a blockage: Gây cản trở.
Straighten the ear canal: Duỗi cho lỗ tai thẳng.

Peroxide: Nước dung dịch già
Syringe device: Dụng cụ xylanh.

Glycerin: Thuốc dùng điều trị mắt, tai mũi họng

Hydrogen peroxide: Nước ôxy già.
Carbamide peroxide: Dung dịch carbamide (thường dùng tẩy răng trắng)

Irrigation: Rửa vết thương.
Cotton swab: Miếng gạc cotton (hoặc bông ngoáy tai)  

A Quick Lesson in Ways Businesses Are Organized

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs.

The simplest form of business is called an individual or sole proprietorship. The proprietor owns all of the property of the business and is responsible for everything.

For legal purposes, with this kind of business, the owner and the company are the same. This means the proprietor gets to keep all of the profits of the business, but must also pay any debts.

Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls.

One kind of partnership is called a limited liability partnership. These have full partners and limited partners.

Limited partners may not share as much in the profits, but they also have less responsibility for the business.

Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share their risks and profits. A husband and wife can form a business partnership together.

Partnerships exist only for as long as the owners remain alive. The same is true of individual proprietorships.

But corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. A corporation is the most complex kind of business organization.

Corporations can sell stock as a way to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership in a company. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business.

A company might use some of its earnings to pay dividends as a reward to shareholders. Or the company might reinvest the money back into the business.

If shares lose value, investors can lose all of the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation.

A corporation is recognized as an entity -- its own legal being, separate from its owners.

A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation.

Corporations can have a few major shareholders. Or ownership can be spread among the general public.

But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. Some nonprofit groups are also organized as corporations.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about business and economics on our website, voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube  at VOA Learning English. I'm Jim Tedder.

Biology May Keep New Fathers Close to Home

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A few months ago, government researchers released the latest American Time Use Survey. It included the average time per day that Americans spent providing child care between two thousand six and two thousand ten.

Among adults living with children under age six, women spent one hour and six minutes a day providing physical care. This is care like bathing or feeding a child. Men spent twenty-six minutes.

Yet a new study suggests that men are biologically designed to care for their children. It confirmed that testosterone levels drop after men become fathers.

Eileen Goede and Tibor Tary hold their newborn baby Timeo, born at a Berlin hospital at 11:11 am on 1/1/11

Testosterone is the main sex hormone responsible for the changes when a boy develops into a man. Women also produce testosterone but in much lower amounts.

Earlier studies showed that fathers have lower levels of testosterone than childless men. Christopher Kuzawa at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, says there are at least two possible explanations.

CHRISTOPHER KUZAWA: “Is it that fatherhood reduces your testosterone? Or do men with low testosterone to begin with, are they more likely to become fathers? And so what we did is, we followed men through time and measured their hormones before and after they became fathers.”

Professor Kuzawa is a biological anthropologist. He and other researchers used information from a long-term study of men in the Philippines. That study measured their testosterone levels in two thousand five and two thousand nine.

Some of the men were childless; others became fathers during that time.

CHRISTOPHER KUZAWA: “And those are the men where we see the largest decline in testosterone.”

The study found that testosterone levels dropped by about half immediately after the birth of a child, then rose some. Men who were active in child care produced less than those who were not active.

Testosterone levels may drop in fathers to get them to pay more attention to parenting than to reproducing. But Professor Kuzawa says there are other good reasons as well.

CHRISTOPHER KUZAWA: “Having high levels of testosterone can increase your risk for diseases like prostate cancer [and] testicular cancer.  Also, testosterone can suppress the immune system so that you’re less capable of fending off pathogens.”

The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Studies have shown a similar drop in other mammals and in birds after mating periods to allow for care giving. Animal studies have shown that the greater the involvement of males, the lower their testosterone levels.

We asked Thomas McDade, another author of the study, if testosterone levels also drop in men who adopt children. He says that is an interesting question and the “next obvious thing to study.”

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Jim Tedder.

Teeth Idioms