DO you enjoy the odd snack – or meal – in the comfort of your sheets?
A doctor has revealed the gross reason he no longer eats in bed – and it might make you stow away those crisps you’ve currently got stashed in bedside drawer.
Dr Sam – of skingapore fame – shared the gross reason he no longer eats in bedskingapore
The GP said cockroaches can take up residence in your ear if you leave food lying around your bedskingapore
Dr Sam from Singapore – known as skingapore on TikTok – delights in sharing gross medical stories to his thousands of followers, in a series he calls ‘new fear unlocked’.
“Do you like eating on your bed?” Dr Sam asked in a recent video he aptly captioned ‘Ear Hotel’. “Well, I’ve got news for you.”
He recounted the story of 24-year-old Mr LV from Guangdong, China, who had a habit of leaving unfinished food packets littered around his bed.
“One night he woke up with a sharp pain in his ear,” Dr Sam detailed.
His family took a look into his ear and were horrified by what they saw.
They then took Mr LV to see a doctor, who found a German cockroach living in the 24-year-old’s ear – yep, you read that right.
“It was causing a lot of discomfort because it was crawling and scratching inside,” the GP said.
But this cockroach wasn’t the sole occupant of Mr LV’s eat canal – the doctor also found an entire family of 10 baby cockroaches, according to Dr Sam.
“Before you panic, this is rare,” the GP said, adding: “But it can happen to anyone.”
It isn’t just cockroaches that could crawl into your ear uninvited, he said.
But Dr Sam shared that cockroaches are attracted to the smell of your earwax.
“Plus, the ear canal is a dark and moist environment and for Mr LV, it was near food so the cockroaches used it as a base to do midnight runs for food,” he went on.
I bet you won’t be having your brekkie in bed any time soon after reading this.
Dr Sam had a few pointers for what you should do if an insect finds its way into your ear:
1. Don’t panic
There’s no need to panic if a creepy crawly ends up in your ear, the ear canal is a dead end and it’s not directly connected to the brain, the GP said.
2. Don’t try and dig it out
Do not try and use an instrument to remove the insect yourself, Dr Sam stressed, “as you may end up doing more harm to yourself than the insect.”
3. Drown the insect
The way to get rid of the insect is to drown it rather than dig it out, the GP said.
He showed a video of man having hydrogen peroxide poured into his ear to drive out a spider living in it.
But he said you can just use olive oil to drown the insect or make it run out of your ear. Dr Sam recommended you speak to a healthcare provider first before doing this.
“Make sure that nothing gets left behind,” he added, urging viewers to follow up with a doctor to get the all clear for their ear.
Dr Samuel shared that all the insects were removed from Mr LV’s ear and he was able to make a full recovery.