With the development of high-speed rail, the aviation field has been facing more and more challenges. However, based on China’s vast territory, astonishing population base and the people’s continuously enriched wallets, planes will still be one of the common ways of traveling for ordinary people in the foreseeable decades.
There are always some friends around, Because of the need to become a trapeze artist, Every time I struggle with flying, either the air traffic control delays the flight or I go abroad to take economy class for more than ten hours, which is extremely painful. However, more and more people complain to me that when flying up or down, they always feel uncomfortable in their ears, feel earplugs, and have hearing loss. What’s more, they will suffer from unbearable pain.
This problem is not big or small. It seems unnecessary to seek medical treatment. No matter what, it will be tortured every time. So, is there a good way to solve this problem in what?
Fig. 1 structural diagram of human ear. When we dig our ears at ordinary times, Something like a film that can be touched, Is the tympanic membrane (eardrum), Outside the tympanic membrane, The external auditory canal, That’s where earwax is piled up. The structure inside is more complicated. We don’t need to know so much, As long as we know that there is also a passage inside, It’s called the eustachian tube. As the name implies, It is a conduit connecting nasopharynx and tympanic membrane. The air we inhale will enter from here. So we will find that There is air inside and outside the tympanic membrane. Under normal circumstances, The air pressure on both sides should be equal. In normal times, The eustachian tube is closed, When swallowing, chewing, yawning and other actions will open, Adjust the internal and external air pressure balance. Junior high school physics once said, The higher the altitude, the lower the air pressure. As a result, the air pressure will change sharply during the rapid rise and fall of the plane. Our external auditory canal is communicated with the external air pressure, but the air pressure in the inner auditory canal cannot change rapidly with it, thus causing the symptoms of internal and external air pressure difference, compression of the tympanic membrane, earplug and pain.
Second, the solution
Junior high school physics also told us that the tympanic membrane will be compressed and deformed if the internal and external pressures vary.
How? It is very simple, make the internal and external pressure difference equal!
Then, we just need to swallow, chew, yawn and other actions.
In this way, the eustachian tube can be opened and external air can enter, thus adjusting the internal and external air pressure.
This is also why some planes give candy to passengers. At the same time, the plane itself has also designed the corresponding cabin air pressure control system, which can ensure that the air pressure in the cabin can be increased and the occurrence of such symptoms can be reduced at a height of 8,000-10,000 meters. For babies, it is good to let him drink milk or hold a pacifier in his mouth to urge him to swallow.
If these actions are useless, try eustachian tube inflation (Valsalva Maneuver)
Students who have seen Detective Conan may remember that in the theater version of “Magician of Silver Wing”, Bumei did this when his ears were uncomfortable on the plane. Because he was too ugly, Conan was not allowed to watch it. Later, this also became one of the key clues to solve crimes.
In short, the main point of this action is to take a breath first, then hold your nose, bulge your cheeks, close your mouth tightly, and exhale outward through your pinched nostrils, which can achieve the effect of breaking the eustachian tube and feel the earplug symptoms improve instantly.
However, it is also important to pay attention not to exert too much force or for too long, otherwise the worst result will be to affect brain blood flow and produce dizziness.
In addition, there will be many situations that we don’t want to see. For example, when girls do such actions, they will affect the image of beauty. For example, let’s invite Yuan Tai to demonstrate the tragic consequences.
Finally, I would like to remind friends with severe colds, sinusitis and otitis media that because the eustachian tube has pathological edema and adhesion, even if the above actions are sometimes difficult to break away, please follow the doctor’s advice, avoid planes when necessary and take high-speed trains instead!
Author: Mo Ran