4 ms·
I wonder if the difference in ear wax consistency is the reason that ear wax pickers are commonly used in Asian cultures but not otherwise?
by shard 5y ago
I wonder if the difference in ear wax consistency is the reason that ear wax pickers are commonly used in Asian cultures but not otherwise?
- gerikson 5y agoThis is my understanding, but I don't remember where I've read it.
- lazypenguin 5y agoYes, an ENT told my wife that those of Asian decent more commonly have “sticky” ear wax.
- jacobolus 5y agoIt is the opposite. People of Northeast Asian descent more often have “dry” earwax, associated with a recessive allele of the ABCC11 gene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCC11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABCC11
- everybodyknows 5y agoYes, as mentioned in the post: > Dry wax, which is grey and flaky, is commoner in Asians. Wet wax predominates in Africans and Caucasians, and is brown and sticky.
- aaron695 5y agoUsing modern prevalence of the dry-wax gene as the basis for probability simulations, the authors estimated that the dry form of the gene diverged from the default wet version 2,006 generations back, or about 50,000 years ago (which lines up well timingwise with the out-of-Africa theory); (2) the speed with which the new gene spread through Asia suggests it conferred some evolutionary advantage; and (3) among modern Asian, Native American, and European populations alike, the dry-wax gene is more common the further north you go — supporting the earlier idea that maybe it helped humans thrive in the cold. https://www.straightdope.com/21344485/why-is-asian-earwax-different-from-black-and-white-people-s-earwax https://www.straightdope.com/21344485/why-is-asian-earwax-di...